The Way to Success in “Fifth Discipline” by Peter Senge

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Table of Contents

New approach to the issue of how to succeed
Analysis of Chapter 1,2,3
Conclusion
Reference

New approach to the issue of how to succeed

If you want to understand Fifth Disipline by Peter Senge, you should clear your mind from everything you were taught because it is a fresh view on the things and new approach to understanding how to succeed in this world. The author presents a guide that helps to understand the modern world better and adapt to its changes.

The contemporary society demands people to be up-to-date. That’s why, if someone does not want to become an outcast, that person should follow Senge’s pieces of advice. He enriched the book with his unique experience and examples that support and prove his opinion.

Analysis of Chapter 1,2,3

Summary and understanding of Chapter 1

Uniting the powers to achieve success

The author offers you to look at the world differently from what you are used to. Thus, you should understand that if you want to deal with difficulties and succeed in solving some problems, you should see the whole picture in general of what happens. The writer teaches people not to concentrate on some minor detail, but grasp the whole meaning. Everything in this world is interconnected and depends on each other.

Thus, “we can then build “learning organizations”” (Senge, 2006, p. 3). These “learning organizations” seem to be the main reason to attain the most important goal in your life, to become prosperous. That’s why the extract centers on introduction and explanation of this issue. The author emphasizes that only if we unite our powers and expand our knowledge, we will be able to achieve something in this new epoch.

Learning organizations’ disciplines

The author describes five main components to create these new “learning organizations”. They are system thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision and team learning. These points demand you to change your world views. Thus, you should learn to trace and predict the consequences of your actions using system thinking.

The next issue, personal mastery, requires from us to define what really matters to us in order not to loose our ambitions and plunge into routine (Senge, 2006, p. 8). Mental models and building shared vision dwell on the question that though we have different vision of the world and stereotypes, it can be our benefit if we combine our world views (mental models) to create the whole picture with various aspects.

That’s why the author emphasizes the importance of the last discipline, team learning. We can be strong as individuals, but as a team, we are invincible.

The fifth discipline of learning organizations

Team work is defined to be of vital importance. That’s why the thing that can make all the five components work together should become the fifth discipline. It is system thinking. It seems to be meant to make a revolution in our minds to let us promote the next level, creation of “learning organizations”.

Changing of the way of thinking

This approach means to refuse from traditional passive learning in favor of active one. “Real learning gets to the heart of what it means to be human” (Senge, 2006, p. 13). Therefore, all the future generations should be raised according to this method. People should learn to create their future on their own.

Ideas’ realization

We get acquainted with the writer’s personal experience and attempts to put his ideas into life. Thus, the author defined out that his ideas will be more useful for the leaders, managers, teachers, parents and just all citizens.

Main ideas reflected in chapter 2 and my opinion towards them

Learning disabilities in organization

The problems that appear in companies are connected with the thing that they are not well-organized. The first reason is that their workers do not understand the purpose of firm’s work, that’s why he/she performs his/her duties with limited responsibilities (Senge, 2006, p. 18) without seeing the main aim. The next one is the desire to blame someone outside the company of its failure.

Thus, we should realize that enemy “out there” and “in there” is the part of one system (Senge, 2006, p. 18). The author teaches us to stay cold-blooded dealing with some problem. We should also not focus on details because they distract us from the whole picture. The best thing you can do is not only to predict the future events, but to learn to create something new.

The next point is that we should take into account minor details. People should be more patient to trace all the changes. “The problem is our mind is locked in our frequency” (Senge, 2006, p. 23). It appears that not the tempo of the world is too fast, but we hurry up too much. The next problem is rooted in our reluctance to learn by our mistakes. Thus, we should turn our failures to our benefits.

Collaborative work does not mean that you will always win. Even team should never stop learning. According to these points, you can find out the problems in your company and improve your work following these pieces of advice.

Disabilities and disciplines

The author gives example from the histories proving that it is full of evidences of companies’ disabilities and their failures as a result. In fact, we are used the fact that every organization should decline sooner or later. However, it does not need to be a norm. Mastering the five disciplines can be the way out of this situation.

Setting free from the prison of our thinking in Chapter 3

Stories about the Retailer, Wholesaler and Brewery

If we want to see the disabilities of the companies in action, the author offers us to know the stories of three different characters, Retailer, Wholesaler and Marketing director of a brewery (Senge, 2006, p. 28).

The main reason why all the participants of the story faced the failure is that they got their knowledge and ideas of what was happening on the market from the unreliable sources. They preferred to build their own opinion without reasonable facts that would explain everything to them. Thus, the orders of the Lover’s Beer were not complied. The misunderstanding that roots in reluctance to communicate caused all their problems.

Lessons, analysis and conclusion of the Beer Game

According to Peter Senge, we should learn from those stories. First, not individuals, but systems should be blamed of failures. Second, structure means how people make decisions. Third, do not ignore the other people in the system (2006, p. 40). Thus, if we analyze the Beer Game, we will understand that the main principle of system is to look beyond individuals and different events (Senge, 2006, p. 42).

System impose you some definite pattern of behavior. However, if this division of powers and roles is not correct, the system will fail. People will understand that it is to be blamed of their problems. The author gives the way out of this situation that means to “redefine their (the players of the game) scope of influence” (Senge, 2006, p. 49).

Conclusion

The author described the situations and facts that prevent us from succeeding in this life. We should follow his pieces of advice to improve ourselves and understand that we cannot blame no one, neither the other people, nor system, but ourselves in our failures. If we want to change the situation, we should begin with ourselves improving our way of thinking and mastering the five disciplines.

Reference

Senge, P 2006, The fifth discipline: the art & practice of the learning organization. New York: Crown Business

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