The Fifth Discipline

The Fifth Discipline (1990) is a comprehensive guide to creating learning organizations – workplaces that nurture innovation and personal growth. The author argues that, in our rapidly changing world, companies can only succeed if they change the way in which they deal with problems. In his view, a reactive approach, based on constantly putting out fires, no longer works. Instead, businesses need to adopt what he calls a systems thinking method. This method is proactive, and its purpose is to identify underlying patterns and generate innovative solutions. But this approach only works if you have motivated staff who share the company’s vision.

Peter Senge is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the founder of the Society for Educational Learning. His first book, The Fifth Discipline, sold over two million copies. The Harvard Business Review named it one of the most important management books of the last 75 years. Senge’s subsequent publications include Presence and The Necessary Revolution.