Peter Senge- the fifth discipline

Peter Senge- The fifth discipline


   I found reading this article taken from 'infer.org' ,about Peter Senge, very thought provoking in terms of my professional practice. I have picked out points within the article that really drew my attention and sparked questions about my work.

  1. Senge focused on 'decentralizing the role of leadership in organizations so as to enhance to capacity of all people to work productively toward common goals'. Does this work? I thought back to times where leadership has been completely necessary and times where working together has been more productive. When on my first job as a dancer on a cruise ship, I feel it always worked better for me, to have a dance captain. When cleaning a big production show, many people will have their own opinion and input as to what they think the set choreography is, often resulting in quibbles and arguments. Having one leader (dance captain) means only one input counts, so the show can be cleaned quicker and more effectively.
   Yet when working within my vocal harmony trio,  we all have equal input, each bringing something new and different to the table. I feel this equal level is vital to the chemistry of the group; knowing we have all worked just as hard together to create the best material possible.

2. This directly leads me onto learning organizations. According to Senge, 'people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire' and where 'people are continually learning to see the whole together' (Senge 1990:3). I feel our trio have a mini learning organization, as we continually push ourselves and each other sharing and create ideas and learning as we go to see the desired results- A successful collection of shows and cabarets, appealing to high end corporate clients and guest entertainment on board cruise ships.
   It links in with his theory of 'Mental Models' and 'Building shared vision'.Senge points out in order to move forward, we must bring our thoughts to the surface; 'where people expose their own thinking effectively and make that thinking open to the influence of others' (Senge 1990:9). This simply reiterates the idea of bringing forward thoughts and ideas, so that you may thrive as a team, with each idea influencing the next.  As explained, we have a 'genuine vision' so we 'excel and learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to ' and have 'shared pictures of the future' (Senge 1990:9).

3. 'Reacting to the present to creating the future' (Senge 1990:69). This has been covered in my previous blogs; how reacting in-action and reflection, can have positive effects that change the future. However he goes on to explain 'we learn best from our experience, but we never directly experience the consequences of our most important decisions. (Senge 1990:23). He feels the cause and effect will always be relatively near so we only concentrate on solutions that are 'close by' rather than focusing on long term. It made me question my own actions- Do I simply  focus on short term consequences or have a more long term focus?  I do not actually agree with Senge on this, as I feel I think through my actions and experiences with a long term stable future in mind.  I am not a natural academic, so taking this BAPP course was a huge step for me. Short term effects have been quite stressful, managing my own care home entertainment, vocal harmony group, UK tour and teaching work (not to mention the financial aspect). Yet I do not focus on the direct consequences of stress, lack of money etc but think about the long term effect will be of having a BA and what a positive effect it will have on my future.

4. Personal Mastery- Serge talks about how we a in a continual leaning mode. I feel this is a great way of explains WBL and how we must 'see the journey as the reward', always trying to better our practice and never 'arrive' and simply settle.


   I feel Serge's opinions tie in well with Task 4B, where I will create a Special interest  Group. His thoughts on a 'new view of leadership' and 'aligning and developing the capacities of a team to create the results the me veers truly desire' (Senge 1990:236), will draw like minded people closer. Using a forum such as Facebook, wiki, or a blog gives the opportunity to share ideas and take away opinions about our practice. This expands peoples knowledge, in turn bettering them in the long term.


Quotes and info taken from http://infed.org/mobi/peter-senge-and-the-learning-organization/