The Fifth Discipline
Daniel Fugitt
Chapter 3
In this book, Senge tries to describe how companies can rid themselves of “disabilities” that threaten productivity and success. This can be done by adapting strategies of learning organizations. Senge writes in this chapter about whether or not people are prisoners of the system or of their own thinking. There are many things that contribute to what strategies can be employed in learning organizations. ■ Structure Influences Behavior – Different people in the same structure/system tend to produce similar results ■ Structure in Human Systems is Subtle – Structures include how people make decisions, the “operating policies” whereby we translate perceptions, goals, rules, and norms into actions. ■ Leverage Often Comes from New Ways of Thinking – In human systems, people often have leverage that they do not use because they only focus on their own actions and not how those actions affect others.
Chapter 4 Senge lays down many things that he states are the “laws of the fifth discipline”. Some of these are: Today's problems come from yesterday's “solutions”. That is, sometimes new problems are created by the supposed solutions to other problems. Solutions that shift problems from one part of a system to another often go undetected because those whose solved the first problem are different from those who inherit the new problem. The cure can be worse than the disease. For example, alcoholism may start as social drinking as a solution to work related stress. Overtime, this cure to the disease becomes even worse and causes even more stress. Chapter 5 Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a frame work for seeing how things are interrelated and how they operate together. Systems thinking is the “fifth discipline” because it is the cornerstone that underlies all of the five learning disciplines. The practice of system thinking starts with understanding a simple concept called “feedback”, that shows how actions can reinforce or balance each other out. There are two types of feedback: Reinforcing feedback(that deals with growth) and balancing feedback (that deals with goal oriented behavior). All ideas in systems thinking are built from these elements.