THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE, THE ART AND PRACTICE OF THE
LEARNING ORGANIZATION, 1st Edition (1990)
Peter Senge
 
Chapter Brief
Page
No.
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION        

Some Tips for First-Time Readers        
“I’m just interested in learning more.”
“I’m part of a study group on learning organizations.”
“I’m part of a company trying to become ‘a learning organization,’ whatever that is.”

ix

xxi
PART I:  HOW OUR ACTIONS CREATE OUR REALITY... AND HOW WE CAN CHANGE IT
Chapter 1:  "GIVE ME A LEVER LONG ENOUGH . . . AND SINGLE-HANDED I CAN MOVE THE WORLD"
Systems Thinking
Personal Mastery
Mental Models
Building Shared Vision
Team Learning
Disciplines
The Fifth Discipline
A Shift of Mind
Putting into practice
3
Chapter 2:  DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION HAVE A LEARNING DISABILITY?
I am my position.
The enemy is out there.
The illusion of taking charge.
The fixation on events.
The parable of the boiled frogs.
The delusion of learning from experience.
The myth of the management team.
17
Chapter 3: PRISONERS OF THE SYSTEM OR PRISONERS OF OUR OWN THINKING?
Principles of Systems Thinking:
Redefining your scope of influence
Learning abilities and our ways of thinking:
Events explanations
Patterns of behaviour explanations
Structural explanations
27
PART II: THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE: THE CORNERSTONE OF THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION
Chapter 4: THE LAWS OF THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE (11 LAWS)
Today’s problems come from yesterday’s “solutions”.
The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back.
Behavior grows better before it grows worse.
The easy way out usually leads back in.
The cure can be worse than the disease.
Faster is slower.
Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space.
Small changes can produce big results.
You can have your cake and eat it too – but not at once.
Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small elephants.
There is no blame.
57
Chapter 5: A SHIFT OF MIND – SEEING CIRCLES OF CAUSALITY AND DELAYS – WHEN THINGS HAPPEN
EVENTUALLY [Also click here:
http://www.lopn.net/Questions_for_ST.html]

When does dynamic complexity happen?
Seeing circles of causality
68
Chapter 6: NATURE’S TEMPLATES: IDENTIFYING THE PATTERNS THAT CONTROL EVENTS [ Also click here:
http://www.lopn.net/Questions_for_SA.html]
93
Chapter 7: THE PRINCIPLE OF LEVERAGE
114
Chapter 8: THE ART OF SEEING THE FOREST AND THE TREES
127
PART III:  THE CORE DISCIPLINES: BUILDING THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION
Chapter 9: PERSONAL MASTERY [ click here: http://www.lopn.net/Questions_for_PM.html]
139
Chapter 10: MENTAL MODELS [ click here: http://www.lopn.net/Questions_for_MM.html]
174
Chapter 11: SHARED VISION [ click here: http://www.lopn.net/Questions_for_SV.html]
205
Chapter 12: TEAM LEARNING [ click here: http://www.lopn.net/Questions_for_TL.html]
233
PART IV: PROTOTYPES – RESOLVING THE PRACTICAL PROBLEMS FACED IN TRADITIONAL
ORGANIZATIONS
Chapter 13: OPENNESS
273
Chapter 14: LOCALNESS
287
Chapter 15: A MANAGER'S TIME
302
Chapter 16: ENDING THE WAR BETWEEN WORK AND FAMILY
306
Chapter 17: MICROWORLDS: THE TECHNOLOGY OF THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION
313
Chapter 18: THE LEADER'S NEW WORK
339
PART V: CODA
Chapter 19: A SIXTH DISCIPLINE?
363
Chapter 20: REWRITING THE CODE
364
Chapter 21: THE INDIVISIBLE WHOLE
368
   
Appendix l:  The Learning Disciplines
373
Appendix 2:  Systems Archetypes
378
Notes
391
Acknowledgments
411
Index
414