The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook : Strategies and Tools for Building a
Learning Organization
by Peter M. Senge (Editor), Art Kleiner (Editor) and Charlotte Roberts
Book Description
Senge's best-selling The Fifth Discipline led Business Week to dub him
the "new guru" of the corporate world; here he offers executives a step-by-step
guide to building "learning organizations" of their own.
Synopsis
From the best-selling author of The Fifth Discipline and his colleagues comes a
step-by-step guide on how to build a learning organization in your own company. This
participative book offers tools, techniques, exercises, ideas and stories to help put
Senge's revolutionary theories into practice.
From the Publisher
Senge's best-selling The Fifth Discipline led Business Week to dub him
the "new guru" of the corporate world; here he offers executives a step-by-step
guide to building "learning organizations" of their own.
Reviews
A
CEO from the Boston area , April 5, 1999
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.
A
reader from Medellín, Colombia, South America , March 29, 1999
some sort of "business pantheism"
From the beginning in the Fifth Discipline Field Book is established the holistic
character of all the Fifth Discipline stuff. It is clear from the application of those
three guiding keys, that the part does not play any role in the business drama, as seen
from the fifth discipline point of reference. The part is less important than the whole,
and this means an absence of the hierarchy concept, and the flatten tendency as a result,
and which result too in some sort of "business pantheism", in which the whole is
the absolute. In practical terms, that whole is represented by the team, so the decision
consequences whether wrong or good, are lost in the team, in the committee. Though it is a
work that cannot be judged by being dualistic, but a work that should be read or even
studied, as those disciplines, that has to do with the part, with the individual, such as
Personal Mastery and Mental Models are quite important and useful, for our personal
growth.
A
business book author from the Boston area , January 28, 1999
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.
A
reader from Tasmania, Australia , August 18, 1998
If you need to learn to communicate, read this book.
So often we make assumptions on why people behave in certain ways, or we don't confront
people because of the "expected outcome". This book goes a long way to
explaining how much we have to gain from collective learning. I recommend this book to
anyone.
A
reader from Wellington, New Zealand , March 31, 1998
A revolution in thinking about what you do and why you do it
At last a practical down-to-earth book that accepts that human behaviour exists in the
business world. This book will change your perceptions and approach to life and business
permanently. Excellent links to related books and authors. Applying the techniques has
shown the results promised and generated an avalanche of interest form colleagues.
Compulsory reading for any business planning on being successful.
A
reader from Berkeley, California , March 23, 1998
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.
A
reader from Cleveland, Ohio, USA , March 23, 1998
Senge melds application and introspection
Senge's fieldbook enables us to adapt theory to everyday life. He writes in a straight
forward, "just do it" tone which makes his theory fun and easy to use. Senge's
reflections in other books are anything but light...however, practitioners sometimes need
plain nuts and bolts. He succeeds in his fieldbook--thus, so do we.
A
reader from Petaluma, CA , March 17, 1998
The dust bunnies will never use this book as their home!
EVERYONE I know who has read this book, and that includes an amazingly diverse group of
folks from all walks of life and levels within their respective organizations, has either
bought a second (or third) copy of this book to give a friend or is toting around a
dog-eared, yellow-highlighted, post-it tabbed copy of their own. They seem to have this
overwhelming need to work a favorite FIFTH DISCIPLINE FIELDBOOK quote into every
meaningful conversation and get a weird look in their eyes when they meet a fellow
"Fieldbook Fiend." This book has spawned an incredibly loyal following. Almost
cult-like. Its enhancement and amplification of Peter Senge's Five Disciplines and his
Guiding Ideas, Innovative Infrastructures, and Methods/Tools/Theories elicits a flow of
words like love, cherish, enjoy, inspirational, and wonderful from the mouths of the
faithful. The 60 some contributors to this book make it a dynamic, living document that
seems to speak to each reader in a different way. With each reading (and everyone reads it
more than once!), one feels a stirring in their soul and a rising conviction that I -
little 'old me - CAN make a difference at home, at school, or at work. Chock full of
useful ideas, tested techniques, helpful case studies, meaningful advice, and wonderful
stories of hope, THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE FIELDBOOK will never just sit on a shelf. I strongly
recommend first time buyers obtain a leather book cover and slip it on right from the
start. Or, buy two copies. Save yourself the effort of having to log back on and go to
AMAZON.COM to buy it later!!!
