The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook

Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization

Peter M. Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith

Publisher: Doubleday, 1994 , 593 pages

ISBN: 0-385-47256-0

Synopsis:

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Peter Senge's national bestseller, The Fifth Discipline, revolutionized the practice of management by introducing the theory of learning organizations. Now Dr. Senge moves from the philosophical to the practical by answering the first question all lovers of the learning organization ask: What do they do on Monday morning?

The Fieldbook is an intensely pragmatic guide. It shows how to create an organization of learners where memories are brought to life, where collaboration is the lifeblood of every endeavor, and where the tough questions are fearlessly asked. The stories in this book show that companies, businesses, schools, agencies, and even communities can undo their "learning disabilities" and achieve superior performance. If ever a work gave meaning to the phrase hands-on, this is it. Senge and his four co-authors cover it all including:

• Reinventing relationships
• Being loyal to the truth
• Strategies for developing personal mastery
• Building a shared vision
• Systems thinking in an organization
• Designing a dialogue session
• Strategies for team learning
• Organizations as communities
• Designing an organization's governing ideas

This is a book that will have you creating a learning organization from the very first chapter!

As its name promises, The Fieldbook is designed to be referred to in meetings, planning sessions, during reflections, or anytime a conflict or challenge arises. Open it up anywhere and icons and cross references will lead you from defining the problem to thinking about how to solve it. Mark up the pages. Write in the margins. Draw. Scribble. Daydream. As your field notes accumulate, you will create your own guide to mastering the disciplines of organizational learning.

Table of Contents:

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• Getting Started
1. "I See You"
2. An Exchange of Lore and Learning
3. How to Read This Book
4. Why Bother?
5. Why Bother? (A CEO's Perspective)
6. Moving Forward
7. Core Concepts About Learning in Organizations
8. The Wheel of Learning
9. Leadership Fields
10. Reinventing Relationships
11. Finding a Partner
12. Opening Moves
• Systems Thinking
13. Strategies for Systems Thinking
14. What You Can Expect... As You Practice Systems Thinking
15. Brownie's Lamb: Learning to See the World Systemically
16. Starting with Storytelling
17. The Language of Systems Thinking: "Links" and "Loops"
18. The Archetype Family Tree
19. Systems Sleuth
20. Enriching the Archetype
21. Seven Steps for Breaking Through Organizational Gridlock
22. Moving into Computer Modeling
23. Systems Thinking with Process Mapping: A Natural Combination
24. Where to Go from Here
• Personal Masterly
25. Strategies for Developing Personal Mastery
26. What You Can Expect... from the Practice of Personal Mastery
27. Loyalty to the Truth
28. The Power of Choice
29. Innovations in Infrastructure for Encouraging Personal Mastery
30. Instilling Personal Mastery at Beckman Instruments
31. Intrapersonal Mastery
32. Where to Go from Here
• Mental Models
33. Strategies for Working with Mental Models
34. What You Can Expect... in Working with Mental Models
35. The Ladder of Inference
36. Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy
37. Conversational Recipes
38. Opening Lines
39. Bootstrapping Yourself into Reflection and Inquiry Skills
40. Creating Scenarios
41. Shell's Internal Consultancy
42. Double-loop Accounting
43. Where to Go from Here
• Shared Vision
44. Strategies for Building Shared Vision
45. What You Can Expect... As You Build Shared Vision
46. Designing an Organization's Governing Ideas
47. Building Shared Vision: How to Begin
48. Letter to the CEO
49. Letter to the CEO's Partner
50. Strategic Priorities
51. Where to Go from Here
• Team Learning
52. Strategies for Team Learning
53. What You Can Expect... from Team Learning
54. Dialogue
55. The Cauldron
56. Designing a Dialogue Session
57. Skillful Discussion
58. Skillful Discussion at Intel
59. Popular Postmortems
60. Silence
61. Reframing Team Relationships
62. Building an Organization that Recognizes Everyone's Uniqueness
63. Tools for Discovering Learning Styles
64. Bringing Diverse People to Common Purpose
65. Designing a Company-wide Strategy for Team Learning
66. Executive Team Leadership
67. Where to Go from Here
• Arenas of Practice
68. "Our Quality Program Isn't Working"
69. Springing Ourselves from the Measurement Trap
70. Corporate Environmentalism
71. Training As Learning
72. Workplace Design
73. The Tricky Dynamics of Learning in a Family-owned Business
74. Creating a Learning Newspaper
75. Health Care
76. Education
77. Can Large Government Learn?
78. A Letter to an Aspiring Policymaker
79. The Local Community as a Learning Organization
• Frontiers
80. Organizations as Communities
81. Merging the Best of Two Worlds
82. Bean Suppers
83. Free Agency, Employment Stability, and Community Boundaries
84. Operating Principles for Building Community
85. Microworlds and Learning Laboratories
86. Where the Organization Develops a Theory About Itself
87. Using Microworlds to Promote Inquiry
88. A Buyer's Guide to OR-the-Shelf Microworlds
89. Creating Your Own Management Flight Simulator
90. The Du Pont Manufacturing Game
91. Creating a Learning Lab – and Making It Work
92. Coda
93. Acknowledgments
94. How to Stay in Touch with The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook Project
95. Contributors to The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook