Applying Systems Thinking and
Common Archetypes to Organizational Issues
Module 2: Organizational Learning and Systems Thinking Framework
The Disciplines of Organizational Learning
In The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Peter Senge defines a learning organization as: "An organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future."
What Are the Disciplines of Organizational Learning?
Senge describes five disciplines that allow an organization to achieve the results they desire.
- Personal Mastery: Clarifying what is most important to us, and mastering the ability to achieve it.
- Shared Visioning: Building a sense of commitment in a group, based on what people want to create.
- Mental Modeling: Reflecting on our internal pictures of the world to see how they shape our actions.
- Team Learning: The capacity for collective intelligence.
- Systems Thinking: Putting
pieces together and seeing the wholes.
These disciplines are reinforced by an interaction between the primary motivation driving the organization, and how people think and act.
Aspiration and collaboration make it possible for organizations to develop and maintain a strategic and systemic orientation to change and complexity. This practice stands in contrast to approaches where short-term results are always the highest priority, information is shared on a need-to-know basis, and where work is defined in narrow, functional terms. Aspiration supports a strong future orientation; collaboration fosters a comprehensive understanding of past, present, and future reality, and insight about how to realize the vision. From a systemic orientation, all members are encouraged to build a deep understanding of the work of the organization; conversation is dominated around inquiry into how to improve system performance and achieve desired results rather than an inquisition about how to assign blame for problems.
Aspiration, collaboration, and a systemic orientation reinforce each other. To appreciate this more fully, imagine the relationship between how people think and act, and their motivation when learning is not very prominent. A motivation of "fire-fighting" or reacting to crises easily leads to a short-term, symptom-oriented approach that reinforces "That's not my job" and "I'm not to blame."
