Scan barcode
A review by cmcarr
The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge
3.0
This book has been on my bookshelf for years to read as professional development, but I haven't gotten around to it until now. As I say with nearly every non-fiction business book, this book managed to say in 400 pages what should have taken about 100.
There are some really helpful concepts here--particularly the part on systems thinking and the various system archetypes. I think the appendix on those will be really useful going forward. There is also a lot of good information about mental models and communication on teams. Most of the concepts are familiar from my work and teaching, and I think I would have struggled to understand them in the book had I not already had experience with them. Part of that may just be the difference between reading about something and applying it in practice. However, I think it could have been communicated more clearly.
The clarity of presentation is my major criticism of the book. I was 200 pages in and I found myself flipping back to figure out what actually was the 5th discipline, as well as what the other 4 were. I think there could have been more structure to the writing to help guide the reader through the principles.
Nevertheless, these principles of organizational learning seem to apply as much today as when this book was written. There is a lot of really useful information about team communication and performance. Some of the stories, anecdotes and interviews were really useful to see how organizations have been applying the concepts in practice. In my work, I still often get pushback from organizations on dedicating time and resources to these soft skills when there is so much substantive work to be done. This book reinforced the upside-down nature of that thinking.
I'm interested to look at the Fieldbook that complements this book.
There are some really helpful concepts here--particularly the part on systems thinking and the various system archetypes. I think the appendix on those will be really useful going forward. There is also a lot of good information about mental models and communication on teams. Most of the concepts are familiar from my work and teaching, and I think I would have struggled to understand them in the book had I not already had experience with them. Part of that may just be the difference between reading about something and applying it in practice. However, I think it could have been communicated more clearly.
The clarity of presentation is my major criticism of the book. I was 200 pages in and I found myself flipping back to figure out what actually was the 5th discipline, as well as what the other 4 were. I think there could have been more structure to the writing to help guide the reader through the principles.
Nevertheless, these principles of organizational learning seem to apply as much today as when this book was written. There is a lot of really useful information about team communication and performance. Some of the stories, anecdotes and interviews were really useful to see how organizations have been applying the concepts in practice. In my work, I still often get pushback from organizations on dedicating time and resources to these soft skills when there is so much substantive work to be done. This book reinforced the upside-down nature of that thinking.
I'm interested to look at the Fieldbook that complements this book.