“THE FIFTH DISCPLINE”

(The Art & Practice of the learning Organization)

BY : PETER SENGE

BOOK REVIEW
BY
RYDHAM DELIWALA
NISHU BANSAL
VIRAL SHAH
 OVERVIEW

 LEARNING ORGANIZATION AND FIFTH

DISCPLINE

 THE CORE DISCPLINES : BUILDING THE

LEARNING ORGANIZATION

 PROTOTYPES : SYSTEM TOOLS OF LEARNING

ORGANIZATION.
 What is a Learning Organization?
 It is a organization where people continually
expand their capacity to create the results they
truly desire, where new and expensive patterns
of thinking are nurtured, where collective
aspiration is set free, and where people are
continually learning how to learn together.
 As FORTUNE magazine recently said “Forget
your tired old ideas about leadership.The most
successful corporation of the 1990 will be
something called a Learning Organization”.
 Disciplines of The Learning
Organization

 When an idea moves from an invention to an

innovation diverse “component technologies” come
together.
 There are five new “component technologies”
gradually converging to innovate Learning
Organization”.
 For an innovation in human behavior, the
components need to be seen as disciplines.
 Continued….
 Discipline means a body of theory and technique
that must be studied and mastered to be put into
practice.
 The five disciplines are:
1. Personal Mastery.
2. Mental Models.
3. Building Shared Vision.
4. Team Learning.
5. System thinking.
 Personal Mastery
 It is an essential cornerstone of the learning
organization-the learning organization’s
spiritual foundation.
 It is the discipline of continually clarifying
and deepening our personal vision, of
focusing our energies, of developing patience
and of seeing reality objectively.
 “ IT IS NOT SOMETHING YOU
POSSESS,IT IS A PROCESS “.
 Mental Models
 The discipline of working with mental models
starts with turning the mirror inward; learning to
unearth our internal pictures of the world, to
bring them to the surface and hold them
rigorously to scrutiny.

Building shared vision

 Shared vision means the pictures that people
throughout an organization carry.
 They create sense of commonality that permeates
the organization and gives coherence to diverse
activities.
 Team Learning

 It is a vital because teams, not individual are

the fundamental learning unit in modern
organization.

 “TEAM” means a group of people who

functioned together in an extra-ordinary way,
who trusted one another, who complemented
each other’s strengths and compensated for
each other’s limitations.
 System Thinking
 System Thinking is the fifth discipline because it
is the conceputal cornerstone that underlies all of
the five learning disciplines.

 IT IS A DISCIPLINE FOR SEEING WHOLES.

 It is a discipline for seeing the “structures” that

underlie complex situations, and for discerning high
from low leverage change .That is by seeing wholes
we learn how to foster health.
 Continued…

 There is no more poignant example of the need for

system thinking than the U.S-U.S.S.R. arms race.
 The two nations’ individual no systemic viewpoints
interact to create a system,” a set of Variables
that influence one another.
 But their actions end up creating the opposite
outcome, increased threat, in the long term.
 Example:
USSR
ARMS
NEED TO THREAT TO
BUILD AMERCIANS
USSR ARMS

THREAT TO NEED TO BUILD US

SOVIETS ARMS
US
ARMS
 Learning Disabilities
1. “I AM MY POSITION ”
2. “THE ENEMY IS OUT THERE”
3. “THE ILLUSION OF TAKING CHARGE”
4 “THE FIXATION OF EVENTS”
5. “THE PARABLE OF THE BOILED FROG”.
6. “THE DELUSION OF LEARNING FROM
EXPERIENCE”.
7. “THE MYTH OF THE MANAGEMENT TEAM”
 Learning disabilities in action
 Because they “Become their position”, people do
not see how their actions affect the other
people.
 Consequently, when problems arise, they quickly
blame each other.
 When they get “proactive” and place more
orders, they make matters worse.
 Because their overloading builds up gradually,
they don’t realize the direness of their
situation until it’s too late.
 Learning through doing.
 The Laws Of The Fifth Discipline
1. Today’s problems come from yesterday’s
solutions.
2. The harder you push ,the harder the system
pushes back.
3. Behavior grows better before it grows worse.
4. The cure can be worse than the disease.
5. Faster is Slower.
6. Cause and Effect are not closely related in time
and space.
7. The easy way out usually leads back in.
 Continued…

8. Small changes can produce big results- but

the areas of highest leverage are often
the least obvious.
9. You can have your cake and it eat it too-
but not at once.
10. Dividing an elephant in half does not
produce two small elephants.
11. There is no blame.
 CIRCLES OF CAUSALITY
 Reality is made up of circles but we see straight
lines.Herein lie the beginnings of our limitations as
system thinkers.
 Consider a very simple system, -filling a glass of
water.
 We might say this is not a system but let’s think
again.
 When we fill glass of water we operate in a “water-
regulation system” involving 5 variables.
 Example
Desired level Faucet position

Perceived
Water flow
gap

Current water
level
 Continued…..
 All the five variables are organized in a circle or
loop of cause-effect relationship which is called a
“FEEDBACK PROCESS”
 In the system thinking feedback means any
reciprocal flow of influence .
 Nothing is ever influenced in just one direction.
 In this, structure causes the behavior.
 This distinction is important because seeing only
individuals actions and missing the structure
underlying the actions lies at the root of our
powerlessness in complex situations.
 THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF
SYSTEMS THINKING
 Reinforcing feedback,balancing feedback, and
delays are all fairly simple.They come into their own
as building blocks for the “system archetypes”.
 Reinforcing feedback processes are the engines of
growth.
 Balancing feedback operates whenever there is a
goal-behavior.
 And lastly, many feedbacks processes contain
“delays” interruptions in the flow of influence
which make the consequences of actions occur
gradually.
Reinforcing feedback process
SALES

POSITIVE SATISFIED
WORD OF CUSTOMERS
MOUTH
 Continued……
 In a balancing system, there is a self-correction
that attempts to maintain some goal or target.

Body
Temp.
Adjust
temperature
Desired
Temp gap body temp.
 Delay process

CURRENT
DELAY WATER TEMP.

SHOWERI-
NG TAP
SETTING

DESIRED
TEMP.GAP WATER TEMP.
 SYSTEM ARCHETYPES
 One of the most important, and potentially
most empowering, insights of system thinking
is that certain patterns of structure recur
again and again what is called “system
archetypes”.
 This embody the key to learning to see
structures in our personal and organizational
lives.
ARCHETYPE 1: LIMITS TO GROWTH
 It is a management principle, “Don’t push
growth;remove the factors limiting
growth”.
 Continued…..

 In each case of limits to growth, there is

reinforcing process of growth that operates
on its own for a period of time.Then it runs
up against a balancing process, which
operates to limit the growth.
 Example of a high-tech organization is shown
in the next slide.
 Size of engg.
staff

R&D budget Mgmt. complexity

Delay
Revenues

New Mgmt. Burden to

products Sr.Eng.
Product
development
time
Sr. Eng’s ability
 THE PRINCIPLE OF LEVERAGE

 The bottom line of system thinking is

leverage--seeing where actions and changes in
structures can lead to significant, enduring
improvements.
 Often, leverage, follows the principle of
economy of means: where the best results
come not from large-scale efforts but from
small well focused actions.
 Example of “WONDERTECH COMPANY”
 Example

No. of Sales
orders difficulty
Size of
sales
Size of
force Delay
backlog

Revenues Delivery
time
 THE CORE DISCPLINES
(Building the learning organization)
 The core disciplines

 Personal mastery

 Mental model

 Shared vision

 Team learning
 PERSONAL MASTERY
“TO KNOW HOW OTHER PEOPLE BEHAVE
TAKES INTELLIGENCE,
BUT TO KNOW MYSELF
TAKES COURAGE.
TO MANAGE OTHER PEOPLE’S LIVES
TAKES STRENGTH,
BUT TO MANAGE MY OWN LIFE
TAKES TRUE POWER.”
And so “Personal Mastery” is a phrase use for the
discipline of personal growth and learning.
 People with high level of personal
mastery
 Are continually expanding their ability to create
the results in life
 Are deeply curious to see reality
 Are acutely aware of their growth areas
 Are deeply self-confident
 Are more committed
 Have special sense of purpose behind their visions
 Have learned how to work with forces of change
 Continue…
 Have broader and deeper sense of responsibility in
their work
 Have ability to accomplish extraordinarily complex
tasks with grace and ease
 Feel connected to others and to life itself
 Feel as if they are part of a larger creative
process, which they can influence but cannot
control
 See “current reality” as an ally, not an enemy
 Share several basic characteristics
 Continue…
 Sacrifice none of their uniqueness
 Live in continual learning mode
 Take more initiative
 Learn faster
 Do not set out to integrate reason and intuition
they focus on the desired result itself, not the
“Process”
 Vision and purpose
 Vision is specific  Purpose is abstract
destination

 Vision is a picture of a  Purpose is advancing

desired future man’s capability to
explore the heavens

 Vision is concrete  Purpose is excellence

 Vision is a man on the  Purpose is being the

moon by the end of the best in whatever I do
1960s
 Creative tension
The vision (what we want) and clear picture of
current reality (where we are relative to what we
want) generates “CREATIVE TENSION”.

“CREATIVE TENSION” is a force to bring vision

and current reality together, which is caused by
the natural tendency of tension to seek resolution.

The essence of personal mastery is learning how to

generate and sustain creative tension in our lives.
 Holding creative tension
 People often have great difficulty talking
about their visions, even when the visions
are clear.
WHY?
Because we are acutely aware of the gaps between
our vision and reality. Suppose,
“I WOULD LIKE TO START MY OWN COMPANY”
But “I DON’T HAVE THE CAPITAL”
 This gaps can make a vision seem unrealistic
and so they can discourage us.
 Continue…
The term “tension” suggests anxiety or stress.
But creative tension doesn’t feel any particular
way. Creative tension is the force that comes into
play at the moment when we acknowledge a vision.
Creative tension leads to feelings or emotions
associated with anxiety, such as sadness,
discouragement, hopelessness, or worry. Due to
this people easily confuse these emotions with
creative tension. These emotions are called
emotional tension
 Tension release
 Creative tension: there are only two possible
ways for the tension to resolve itself; pull reality
toward the vision or pull the vision toward reality

 Emotional tension: emotional tension can always

be relieved by adjusting the one pole of the
creative tension that is completely under our
control at all times which is the vision.
 Creative tension
Pressure to
lower vision

Emotional  When we hold a

vision tension vision that differs
from current reality
Gap
a gap (the creative
(creative
tension) exists.
tension)

Current Actions to
reality achieve vision
 Mental models
 Mental model is a picture of a particular individual
in our mind. For example,
 The Detroit automakers (General Motors) didn’t
say, “we have a mental model that all people care
about is styling.”
 They said, ” All people care about is styling.”
 As they remained unaware of their mental models,
so the models remained unexamined, so the models
remain unchanged. So as the world changed, a gap
widened between Detroit’s mental model and
reality, which leads to counterproductive actions.
 Continue…
 There was three day management seminar called
“Merit, Openness and Localness” for Hanover
managers
 The manager of seminar says that, ”In traditional
organizations,
 merit means >> doing what the boss wants,
 Openness means >> telling the boss what he wants
to hear,
 Localness means >> doing the dirty stuff that
the boss doesn’t want to do”
 Shared vision
 A shared vision is not an idea. It is not even an
important idea. It may be inspired by an idea.
 A shared vision is a vision that many people are
truly committed to because it reflects their own
personal vision.
 Building shared vision must be seen as central
element of the daily work of leaders. It is ongoing
and never ending.
 In a corporation a shared vision changes people’s
relationship with the company. It is no longer their
company it becomes our company.
 Continue…
 No one can give “his vision” to another nor even
force him to develop a vision.

 When a group of people come to share a vision for

an organization, each person sees his own picture
of the organization at its best. Each shares
responsibility for the whole, not just for his piece.

 Vision points the picture of what we want to

create. System thinking reveals how we have
created and what we currently have.
 Possible attitudes toward vision
 Genuine compliance

 Formal compliance

 Grudging compliance

 Non compliance

 Committed people

 Enrolled people
 Governing ideas

 Governing ideas answer three critical questions:

“what” “why” and “how”

 “what” >> “vision”

 “why” >> “purpose”

 “how” >> “core values”

 Fear and aspiration
 There are two fundamental sources of energy that
can motivate organizations: fear and aspiration.
FEAR ASPIRATION
 The power of fear  The power of aspiration
underlies negative drives positive visions.
visions.  Aspiration endures as a
 Fear can produce continuing source of
extraordinary changes learning and growth.
in short periods
 Team learning
 “ Coming together is BEGINNING
Keeping together is PROGRESS
Working together is SUCCESS”
 In team our performance depended both on
individual excellence and on how well we worked
together.
 Team learning is the process of aligning and
developing the capacity of team to create the
results its members truly desire. It builds on the
discipline of developing shared vision. It also
builds on personal mastery.
 Continue…
 At some level Individual learning is irrelevant
for organizational learning. Individuals learn
all the time and yet there is no organizational
learning. But if teams learn, they become a
microcosm for learning throughout the organization

 “TEAM IS GROUP OF PEOPLE HAVIING

DETERMINED GOAL
CROWD IS UNDICIPLINED MOB
WITHOUT GOAL”
 Conditions for dialogue
 Three basic conditions that are necessary for
dialogue:
1. All participants must suspend their assumptions,
literally to hold them “as if suspended before us”

2. All participants must regard one another as

colleagues

3. There must be a facilitator who holds the context

of dialogue
 Dialogue and discussion
DIALOGUE DISCUSSION
 Different views are  Different views are
presented as a means presented and
toward discovering a
new view defended
 There is the free and  There is a search for
creative exploration of the best view to
complex issues support decisions
 In dialogue complex  In discussion decisions
issues are explored are made
 PROTOTYPES
(System tools of Learning Organization)
 OPENNESS

 LOCALNESS

 MANAGING TIME

 TUNING BETWEEN THE WORK AND

FAMILY
 PROTOTYPE
 Invention to innovation
 One must build and test prototypes (an original
model)
 Essential in discovering and solving the key
problems that stand between an idea and it’s full
and successful implementation.
 The successful implementation will depend on
whether they can resolve the practical problems &
issues faced by prototype learning organization.
 These issues include:
 Internal politics and game playing (“Openness”)
 Control without controlling ( “Localness”)
 Create the time for learning (“A Manager’s Time”)
 Tuning between work and family
(“Ending the war between work and family”)
 When we cannot experience the consequences of
our most important decisions (“Microworlds”)
 Commitment and skills required to lead learning
organizations (“ The leader’s new role”)
“OPENNESS”
 Game Playing and Internal Politics

 “who” is more important than “what”.

 Very few people truly want to live in organizations
corrupted by internal politics and game playing.
 Challenging the grip of internal politics and game
playing starts with building shared vision.
 A genuine sense of common vision and values
 Building Shared Vision
 Want to contribute towards building something
important.
 Building shared vision, leads people to acknowledge
their own larger dreams and to hear each other’s
dream.
 Once a shared vision starts to take root, the game
playing and politics take care of themselves,
dissolved by the mutual commitment behind the
vision
 Continue…
 Organization climate dominated by ‘merit’ rather
than politics where rather doing “What is right”
predominates over “who wants what done”.
 A non-political climate demands “openness”. There
can be two types of openness as follows:
 Participative openness: “the freedom to speak
one’s mind, norm of speaking openly and honestly
about important issues”.
 Reflective openness: “it leads to people looking
inward , the capacity continually to challenge
one’s own thinking and mutually examining other’s
thinking.
 Continue…
 Nothing undermines openness more surely than
certainty.
 Once we feel as if we have “ the answer”, all
motivation to question our thinking disappears.
 When we enter organization, we assume “the boss”
must have the answers.
 “Freedom to people”

“ Discipline without freedom is tyranny,

Freedom without discipline is chaos.”
“LOCALNESS”
 LOCALNESS
WHY ?
 The belief that we cannot influence the
circumstances under which we live, undermines the
incentive to learn.
 Conversely, if we know our fate is in our hands, our
learning matters.
 People learn more rapidly when they have a genuine
sense of responsibility for their actions.
 Meaning of localness:
 Localness means moving decisions down the
organizational hierarchy, designing business units
where , to greatest degree possible, the local
decision makers can take their own decisions.
 Unleashing people’s commitment by giving them the
freedom to act, to try out their own ideas and be
responsible for producing results.
 In traditional organization, “the top thinks and the
local acts”.
 In a learning organization you have to merge
thinking and acting in every individual.
 Continue…

 Localness is the cornerstone in designing learning

organizations. Why ?
 Local actors often have more current information
on customer preferences, competitor's actions and
market trends.
 They are in a better position to manage the
continuous adaptation that change demands.
 Continue…

 “Mental models” can help in coordinating locally

controlled companies.
 In moving from the traditional organization to
locally controlled organization, the single greatest
issue is control.
 Beyond money, beyond fame, what drives most
executives of traditional organization is power, the
desire to be in control.
 Most would rather give up anything than control.
 Continue…
 Today many organizations are cutting management
levels and becoming more locally controlled because
of expediency, driven by pressures to cut costs.
 Our belief that we can change our part of the
world, that we as individuals do matter, and that we
can have an effect on our environment, our growth
and our results does matters.
 This is why localness should be one of our core
values.
 An important quote by a management guru says
“ THINK GLOBAL BUT ACT LOCAL”
 CONTROL WITHOUT CONTROLLING

 Is control necessary in each decision?

Imagine what would happen if the immune system
had to ask for approval before releasing the
antibodies to fight the infection.

 Just because no one is “in control” does not mean

that there is no “control”. In fact, all healthy
organisms have process of control.
 Continue…
 Actually the combination of mission, vision and
values creates the common identity that can
connect thousands of people within a large
organization.
 In absence of system thinking, local decision making
can become myopic and short term.
 This happens because local decision makers fail to
see the inter dependencies by which their actions
affect others outside their local sphere.
 NEW ROLE OF CENTRAL DEPARTMENT

 Corporations have many depletable “commons” to

share
 When a company decentralizes local divisions
compete with each other for those limited
resources.
 “Managing, organizing and controlling” are given way
to a new dogma of vision, values and mental models.

“ Don’t control; Be in control”

 FORGIVENESS
 To be effective; localness must encourage risk
taking among local managers.
 But to encourage risk taking is to practice
forgiveness. Real forgiveness includes “forgive” and
“forget”.
 Sometimes, organizations will “forgive” in the sense
of not firing someone if he makes the mistake, but
screw up will always be hanging over the offender’s
head.
 Learning organizations practice forgiveness
because, as it is truly said,
”Making mistake is punishment enough”.
 A MANAGER’S TIME
How do managers create the time for learning?
 Switching from one strategy to another strategy,
without once examining why a strategy seems to be
failing.
 As a top management guru shiv khera has said,
“ You don’t have to try different things, but try
to do the things differently”.
 The management of time and attention is an area
where the top management has a significant
influence.
 Continue…
 In a well designed organization the only issues that
reach a senior manager’s attention should be
complex, dilemma like divergent issues.
 If top managers are handling twenty problems in a
workday, either they spending too much time on
‘convergent’ problems that should be dealt with
more locally in the organization, or they are giving
insufficient time to complex problems.
 “The way each of us and each of our close
colleagues go about managing our own time will
say a good deal about our commitment to
learning”.
“ENDING THE WAR BETWEEN
THE WORK AND FAMILY”
 An study found that 36% of children of executives
undergo treatment for psychiatric or drug abuse
each year as compared to 15% of children of non-
executives of the same company.
 Reason sited were working long hours and personal
characteristics (perfectionism, impatience and
efficiency) as chief culprits.
 The disciplines of learning organization will, end the
taboo that has surrounded the topic of balancing
work & family.
 The learning organization cannot support personal
mastery without supporting personal mastery in all
aspects of life.
 THE INDIVIDUAL’S ROLE

 To identify what is truly important to him

 To make a choice (commitment)
 Be truthful
 Making a conscious choice will entail setting clear
personal goals for time at home.
 Ultimately, the consequences of individual’s choices
regarding work and family will depend, to a degree,
on the overall organization climate.
An Archetype showing limitation of time

Reinforcing loop
(amplifying loop)

Reinforcing loop
(amplifying loop)
 THE ORGANIZATION’S ROLE
 To support people in clarifying and pursuing their
own visions, helping them to discover underlying
causes of problems & empowering them to make
choices
 To intentionally blur the boundaries between what
is personal and what is organizational.
 Support personal mastery as a part of
organization’s philosophy and strategy.
 To help people to acknowledge family issues as well
as business issues and to interject these into
pertinent discussions, especially discussion involving
time commitments
 Counseling and guidance
 “MICROWORLDS”
(THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION)
 Organizational learning occurs in three ways
 Through teaching
 Through changing the rules of the game (such as
through openness & localness)
 Through play

 Microworlds are places for ‘relevant play’.

 It is a platform which enables managers and
management teams to begin “learning through
doing” about their most important systemic issues.
 In particular, microworlds “compress time & space”
so that it becomes possible to experiment and to
learn when the consequences of our decisions are in
the future.
 MICROWORLDS &
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

 Integrating the microworld & the “real” world

 Speeding up and slowing downtime
 Compressing space
 Isolation of variables
 Experimental orientation
 Pauses for reflection
 Continue…
 Microworlds helps us to explore the issues and
dynamics of complex business situations through
trying out new strategy and policies and seeing
what might happen.
 In a learning organization of the future,
microworlds will be as common as business meetings
are in today’s organization .
 And just as business meetings reinforce today’s
focus on coping with present reality, microworlds
will reinforce a focus on creating alternative future
reality.
“THE LEADER’S NEW ROLE”
 Lack of dynamic leadership.
 People have no real comprehension of the
type of commitment it requires to build such
an organization.
 In a learning organization, leaders are
designers, stewards and teacher.
 They are responsible for building
organizations where people continually
expand their capacities, understand
complexity, clarify vision, and improve
shared mental models.
 LEADER AS DESIGNER
 The most neglected leadership role in an
organization is the designer.
 The functions of designer are rarely visible, they
take place behind the scene.
 But who practice it finds deep satisfaction in
empowering others.
 The duties of a designer includes:
 designing an organization’s policies, strategy &
systems
 Integrating vision,purpose,system thinking &
mental models
 LEADER AS STEWARD
 A leader see his organization as a vehicle for
bringing learning and change into the society.
 Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs: food; shelter &
belonging. While new leader doesn't forget the
higher order needs:self respect & selfactualization
 Taylor’s division of labour indicated ‘thinkers &
doers’. While a steward would believe in tapping
the intellectual capacity of people at all levels.
 The duties as steward includes:
To develop tools & process for conceptualizing
the big picture & testing ideas in practice.
 LEADER AS TEACHER
 Leader is the one who leads and sets an example
for others & also teaches other to follow the same.
 They are known as visionary strategist, the leader
with a sense of vision who operates at all the levels
of pattern of change as well as events.
 The duties as a teacher includes:
 They make people understand the system i.e.
the forces that shape change
 It is not about teaching people how to achieve
their vision but it is about fostering learning,
for everyone.
 HOW CAN SUCH LEADERS BE DEVELOPED?
 Such people are not made to orders. They makes
themselves that way.
 Mediocre public speakers, they don't stand out in a
crowd, and they don't mesmerize an attending
audience with their brilliance.
 Clarity and persuasiveness of their ideas, the depth
of their commitment and their openness to
continually learning more.
 Finally, those who excel in all the five disciplines
will be the natural leaders of a learning
organization
 MANAGER Vs LEADER
• Manager administrates • Leader innovates
• Manager maintains • Leader develops
• Manager relies on systems • Leader relies on people
• Manager counts on control • Leader counts on trust
• Manager does the things • Leader does right things
right
 Finally, Manager is static, Leader is dynamic and
adaptable to changes and looking for opportunities
in every crisis.
 Let us be Leader for self-development, for our
group dynamics and team building.
 THE SUBCONSCIOUS
 System thinking teaches about two types of
complexity
 Detail complexity
 Dynamic complexity
 What about detail complexity?
 What about hundreds, perhaps the thousands of
feedback process in any managerial situation all
operating simultaneously?
 Clearly there is an aspect of our mind that deals
quite well with detail complexity-in fact, which is
designed for the task
“ THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND”
 All learning involves an interplay of the conscious
and subconscious that results in training the
subconscious
 We can train the subconscious mind.
 Once a task becomes a second nature to us after
thorough practice the subconscious mind take
charge of it and frees our conscious mind (with its
limited information processing ability) to focus on
the next stage of learning.
 But practice is important for meaningful interplay
of conscious and subconscious.
 SUMMARY
 Disabilities of a learning organization
 Reasons causing this disabilities
 The laws of the fifth discipline
 The core disciplines:
 Personal mastery
 Mental models
 Building shared vision
 Team learning
 System thinking
 All the four disciplines together helps us to
develop the fifth discipline “ System Thinking”.
 And the fifth discipline in addition with system
tools like openness, localness, tuning between work
& family and Microworlds produces a dynamic
leader.
 This leader in a real sense will make an organization
an ideal and successful learning organization.
 CRITICAL EVALUATION
What we have learned?
• “Don’t try to grow, try to remove the limiting
factors in your growth”
• Think everything as a whole.
• Taught us a difference between a traditional
manager and a leader
• How system tools can be effectively implemented.
• Concept of Subconscious mind.
“Learn from the past
Live for today
Look for tomorrow”
 OUR VIEWS
 Life comes to us whole. It is only the analytical
lens we impose that make it seem as if problems
can be isolated & solved.
 The earth is an indivisible whole, just as each of us
is an indivisible whole.
 It is we have created an imbalance in nature by
spread of nuclear arms, depletion of ozone layer,
ecological imbalance, underdevelopment in the third world
 We see its implications on us as an individual thereby
endangering our own existence.
 Thinking with little more foresightedness will not only
benefit us as an individual, but our organization and more
important our earth as a whole.
THANK YOU