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The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization,

by Peter M. Senge, Doubleday, 1990, New York

Dr. Senge's workshops and research at MIT break new ground for business leadership. His book warrants deep thought and close study. Please do not miss the fact that his theories have been applied to dozens or hundreds of real-world companies, and with excellent results.

Machine Age business was like Newtonian Physics, but the Information Age demands quantum like, holistic viewpoints. The participants really do shape reality, for better or worse. Senge's book starts like this . . .

John D. Trudel CMC

PART I - - - How Our Actions Create Our Reality and How We Can Change It

"GIVE ME A LEVER LONG ENOUGH ... AND

SINGLE-HANDED I CAN MOVE THE WORLD''

From a very early age, we are taught to break apart problems, to fragment the world. This apparently makes complex tasks and subjects more manageable, but we pay a hidden, enormous price. We can no longer see the consequences of our actions; we lose our intrinsic sense of connection to a larger whole. When we then try to "see the big picture," we try to reassemble the fragments in our minds, to list and organize all the pieces. But, as physicist David Bohm says, the task is futile - similar to trying to reassemble the fragments of a broken mirror to see a true reflection. Thus, after a while we give up trying to see the whole altogether.

The tools and ideas presented in this book are for destroying the illusion that the world is created of separate, unrelated forces. When we give up this illusion - we can then build "learning organizations," organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together . . .

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