The evolution of Senge’s model (Locating Senge’s thinking in his own work)

Senge’s concept of the learning organisation has developed over the past 20 years, as can be seen in his publications since the first edition of “The Fifth Discipline” in 1990. “The Fifth Discipline” introduces the concept of the learning organisation and discusses the five disciplines (systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision and team learning) that organisations should practise in order to be learning ones. In this book, Senge also asks and explores important questions concerning how to achieve or set up the conditions in organisations to pursue the disciplines, such as:

- Openness: How can the internal politics and game playing that dominate traditional organisations be transcended?

- Localness: How do you achieve control without controlling?

- How do managers create the time for learning?

- How can personal mastery and learning flourish at work and at home?

- How can we rediscover the child learner within us?

- What does it take to lead a learning organisation?

Senge then explores and shares ideas on how to develop a learning organisation in the context of the questions he raises.

“The Fifth Discipline” was followed in 1994 by “The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook”, written by Senge with four co-authors. This book is sub-titled “Strategies and Tools for building a Learning Organisation” and provides strategies to assist organisations to practise the disciplines for organisation members to be lifelong learners “on a never-ending developmental path”

(Senge et al, 1994, p7). The book includes concepts related to the disciplines and strategies and tools to practise and achieve the disciplines, with cross-references to other exercises in the book.

For example, to practise systems thinking, exercises that are suggested (amongst others) are

“Exploring your own story” and “The 5 Whys” (Senge et al, 1994, pp103,108). The book also includes exercises to develop the other four disciplines of mental models, building shared vision, team learning and personal mastery. The Fieldbook includes “arenas” (Senge et al, 1994) of practice (different types of organisations that can be learning, such as newspapers, hospitals, family businesses, schools and government) with examples of where learning organisations have been practised in these arenas.

Senge notes in the Fieldbook that “The Fifth Discipline” was written in response to the

“fragmentation and isolation” that occurs in society, workplaces and businesses where “people within organisations often compete more with one another than with external competitors”

(Senge et al, 1994, p565). The Fieldbook provides strategies to help overcome this fragmentation and isolation and contribute to the sustainability of organisations:

The politics, game playing, and internal competition that characterize modern organisations sap people’s energy and commitment and can never be a foundation for a great enterprise or a sustainable society. (Senge et al, 1994, p566)

The Fieldbook was followed by “The Dance of Change” in 1999, written by the same authors and one other, Roth. This book was written as a follow-on to the Fieldbook to address the constraints/limiting factors that inhibit change from being sustained in organisations that are trying to improve their long-term financial success, as organisations generally do not have a good track record of sustaining significant change – change initiatives start and dwindle (Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, Roth & Smith, 1999). Other aspects, or challenges, in organisations need to be addressed to bring about and sustain profound change. Profound change means

organisational change that combines inner shifts in people’s values, aspirations and behaviours with “outer” shifts in processes, strategies, practices, and systems. … In profound change there is learning. The organisation doesn’t just do something new; it builds capacity for ongoing change. This emphasis on inner and outer changes gets to the heart of the issues that large industrial-age institutions are wrestling with today. It is not enough to change strategies, structures, and systems, unless the thinking that produced those strategies, structures, and systems also changes. (Senge et al, 1999, p15)

“The Dance of Change” focuses on aspects and challenges in bringing about and sustaining profound change (Senge et al, 1999). The key aspects addressed are the role of leadership in generating, sustaining and assessing change, and developing strategies and processes to bring about change (support for change such as coaching). The emphasis in this book is on leadership acknowledging these challenges and working to address these challenges for a learning organisation to be practised (Senge et al, 1999).

The next book published by Senge in 2004, with four different co-authors is “Presence”, subtitled “Human Purpose and the Field of the Future”. This book is focused on addressing peoples’ thinking and mental models that cause actions and behaviours. The book looks beyond the organisation to questions of humanity, meaning, purpose and the connectedness of organisations and people. The purpose of exploring or examining mental models is to bring about profound change in thinking and ways of thinking and seeing, that then bring about changes in ways of doing, which is illustrated by a U-shape (p46) (Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski

& Flowers, 2004, p88):

Figure 2.2: U-shape of perceiving reality and actions that follow

This book is written differently to the others by Senge as it is a narrative of a series of dialogues that the authors engaged in and shares their learning and emergence of their thinking together.

In the emergence of their thinking, the authors become aware of a larger whole – the connectedness of people and planet.

Senge’s next book published in 2008, “The Necessary Revolution”, subtitled “How Individuals and Organisations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World”, picks up from this note of the connectedness of people and planet with the focus as indicated in the subtitle. The book is written with four co-authors, one of whom collaborated with Senge on the Fieldbook and “The Dance of Change”. The book includes examples of organisations recognising their interdependence due to globalisation and the impact they all have on sustaining non-regenerative resources and how organisations engage in new thinking that brings about new choices through:

1. Thoughtful people see arising problems earlier than the rest of us.

2. They begin to understand how severe those problems are.

3. The combination of deep concern and sense of possibility for a better future causes them to think differently about the problems and how they are interconnected.

4. Different ways of thinking lead to different ways of acting. By focusing on long-term strategies, groups and organisations begin to take into account the larger systems in which they operate, instead of simply fixing isolated problems. (Senge, Smith, Kruschwitz, Laur & Schley, 2008, p43).

Such organisations demonstrate mastery of three areas, which are needed for creating regenerative organisations, industries and economies - if one is removed, the core learning capabilities collapse (Senge et al, 2008, p44):

Sensing

“Observe, observe, observe”

– become one with the world

Presencing

“Retreat and reflect”

– allow inner knowing to emerge

Realising

“Act swiftly, with a natural flow”

- They see larger systems

- They collaborate across boundaries - They create the futures they truly desire.

Examples of such organisations include Coca-Cola which partnered with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to improve Coca-Cola’s water efficiency and reduce water waste in their production process (Senge et al, 2008). The Global Sustainable Food Lab is a global alliance of over 50 organisations, which includes some of the largest food companies and NGOs working together to bring sustainable agriculture into the mainstream.

The book offers tools, skills, techniques and strategies around the five disciplines, but focuses on sustainability issues, for example a dialogue technique (which develops team learning) addressing sustainability issues (particularly of the environment) for organisations, addressing mental models about sustainability issues and building shared vision and commitment (Senge et al, 2008). These tools have been developed to achieve the 80/20 Challenge, that is to achieve 80% reduction in global carbon emissions in 20 years, which is the focus of the book.

Senge’s books demonstrate a progression in his work. “The Fifth Discipline” is the starting point of his focus on systems thinking (which he sees as the umbrella for the other four disciplines) and the sustainability of organisations and leads to a focus on a larger system, namely our planet and sustainability issues related to the planet in “The Necessary Revolution”.

Each book adds more detail and strategies on how to practise being a learning organisation, with the most recent publication focusing on learning for sustainability of the planet. The progression of his work can be illustrated as follows:

Figure 2.3: The researcher’s interpretation of the progression of Senge’s thinking and areas of focus

Figure 2.3 illustrates the focus of Senge’s books – the red circles and writing show his focus on the organisation as an entity. “Presence” is a transition point where the connectedness between people, organisations and planet is expanded on and this becomes the focus for his most recent book, “The Necessary Revolution”.

The Fifth Discipline The Fifth Discipline

Fieldbook The Dance of Change Presence The Necessary

Revolution

Concept – the what

Strategies – the how

Challenges to overcome

Examining mental models – looking beyond the organisation at wholeness/connectedness

Beyond organisations to the sustainability of the planet

Practices

Principles

Essence Organisation

focus

Focus:

beyond organisation

Focus:

planet

2.4 Conclusion

The concept of a learning organisation varies between writers in the field/s of business and learning and between organisations that claim to be such. Senge’s understanding is distinct as he has a collective focus in developing a learning organisation. This collective focus would seem to naturally suit small organisations, which are generally viewed as communities with a sense of

‘togetherness’. However, small organisations have their own challenges in attempting to be learning organisations. Senge’s model of a learning organisation and the models of his counterparts are based on large organisations, while small organisations face different challenges. The current literature focuses mainly on the characteristics of large organisations with regard to “identifying, learning about and acting upon open-ended change” (Wyer et al, 2000, p257). It is likely that the conditions that small businesses must establish to facilitate learning are significantly different (Wyer et al, 2000).

The South African context also presents challenges to organisations, large and small. However, it is these very challenges that should encourage small South African organisations to be learning – the volatile, changing environment that small organisations operate in seems to require a learning organisation. In addition, legacy issues in South Africa contribute to a lack of trust and equality in the workplace, which need to be recognised and overcome. The learning organisation could be a mechanism to overcome these and other challenges as the disciplines of a learning organisation help to create an environment where members are valued, and as such where they are likely to contribute positively to the organisation, so increasing the bottom line value and sustainability of the organisation. The evolution of Senge’s theory of a learning organisation also points to a vitality of the original concept and its capacity to maintain a central vision while changing and developing with the times, countering critiques concerning the concept being ‘soft’, ‘cuddly’ or ‘idealistic’.

Having reviewed Senge’s (1990) concept of a learning organisation, I pick up my telescope and look beyond the harbour to the open water of the ocean. After perusing a portion of the navigation manuals, I now consider other aspects of a learning organisation that will contribute to the vessel successfully sailing upon the waters. The concept of a learning organisation has been explained, but I wondered how a small company becomes a learning organisation. What theories of learning relate to the learning disciplines and how does this assist an organisation with becoming a learning one? I also thought ahead and considered the most appropriate approach to research this concept on the vessel, one that would capture the

environment and setting of the vessel as well as contribute to, without swaying, the learning that was taking place.

The journey proceeds as we continue to peruse the navigation manuals of a learning organisation before boarding a vessel to investigate it.

CHAPTER 3:

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW -