The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization

by Peter M. Senge

Book Overview

Cuando presentamos La Quinta Disciplina en nuestra colecci n, dijimos que era el primer libro de management del siglo XXI, y no nos equivocamos. La obra de Peter Senge revolucion el management con la... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385472560
• ISBN13: 9780385472562
• Release Date: June 1994
• Publisher: Broadway Business
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 2.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.5" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A second dose of Inspiration...

Senge's second serving of the Learning Organization is filled with practical tips and real-life examples from companies and organizations that have embraced the teachings of the Learning Organization successfully.The Book is a collaboration of several writers who do a superb job of unraveling the web that is the learning organization. At times, it may seem to the reader that the book is a labyrinth of disjointed concepts and ideas. However, if you have read `The Fifth Discipline' you will find no problems following the concepts introduced. In fact, you will even understand why the writers have chosen to introduce them in that fashion. If you have not read "The Fifth Discipline', do not despair, it will take a little longer to get `the whole picture'.The Book is divided into 8 main sections:1) Getting Started addresses the basic concepts and ideas of the Learning Organization.2) Systems Thinking (the fifth discipline) - Many people have argued that Senge should have delegated the fifth discipline until the end, however, without Systems Thinking, your vision is disjointed and incomplete.3) Personal Mastery covers the area of individual development and learning. The chapters here are among the most valuable in the area of self-growth and self-improvement.4) Mental Models - These are the pictures that you have in your head which represent reality.5) Shared Vision - You've seen the whole picture, you've developed and you understand how you see the world. Now you need to find a common cause with the rest of the people in your organization, something that you all work for.6) Team Learning - As you work with other people in teams or groups, you need to pass the stuff that you have learnt and the wisdom you've acquired to others. At this stage, the learning is no longer that of the individual, but the group.7) Arenas of Practice - (Self explanatory)8) Frontiers - Where do we go from here.If you are interested in development, learning, growth, leadership, gaining a competitive edge whether at an organizational or personal level, then this book is for you. In fact, I'd venture to say that this is book is for everyone.

ADVANCED ADVICE FOR BUILDING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION

Everyone who reads THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE comes away excited about the benefits of having a learning organization. Yet many get stuck in a rut as they try to implement what they learned in that superb book. THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE FIELD BOOK helps fill in that lack of understanding with dozens of questions, examples and exercises. You'll have a ball with this, even if you only use a little part to focus on where you need help. A great related book for building a learning organization is THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION, which teaches a new thinking process that simplifies and speeds up learning for an organization. It also shows you where you need to get rid of old thinking that is holding you back. You should read and use both.

If You Liked The Fifth Discipline, You'll Love This Book

I had read The Fifth Discipline, and liked the book very much. I knew about the Fieldbook, but found its bulk to be intimidating. Then, Goren Carstedt gave me a copy, and asked me to read it. Although the book invites the reader to skip around, I am a front to back reader. I decided to read it while walking on the treadmill daily. My exercise regimen started to improve because I enjoyed reading this book in 45 minute segments so much. You should probably do the same. Also, if you can skip around, that is better. What I found is that there is a helpful exercise or two for implementing every key idea in The Fifth Discipline. This added much more meaning to that book for me, and also helped me identify and solve some problems that I had been thinking about. I strongly urge you to get this book, read it, and read it again. Be sure to do the exercises that intrigue you, because they will help you to a much better understanding of your business. If you just want help with systems thinking, there is a section of about a 100 pages that you could read in a few hours that would help you very much.

Moves elegantly between concepts and every day reality.

Bridging the gap between text and context, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook offers everyone a deep and refreshing look at what work can be and should be. The authors ground their stories, examples, exercises in five conceptual touchstones--personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking. And these disciplines accurately reveal three core tasks in leadership: looking at self, developing others, and seeing the larger picture in order to chart a meaningful course. Stories enliven the ideas while examples and exercises offer practical models to use in any organization. Generous side margins, different colored ink, and graphic icons are visual treats as well as immediate graphic guides. And the narrative references to related issues make reading the book more intuitive, more interesting. In fact, these physical details model the whole point of the book--that learning is essential for sustainable growth, for organizational and personal development.