The Dance of Change

Citation

(1999), "The Dance of Change", Work Study, Vol. 48 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.1999.07948fab.016

The Dance of Change

The Dance of Change

Peter M. Senge, Art Kleiner (Editor), Charlotte Roberts, George Roth and Rick RossDoubleday$35.00ISBN: 0385493223

Keywords:

Since its release in 1990, Peter M. Senge's bestselling The Fifth Discipline has converted readers to its innovative business principles of the "learning organisation," personal mastery, and systems thinking. This book which carries Senge's name (but such world gurus can no longer write complete works!) is an attempt to tackle the practical issues associated with implementing the ideas of The Fifth Discipline. Potential obstacles (such as initiating transformation, personal fear and anxiety, and measuring the unmeasurable) are identified and the book proposes ways of turning these obstacles into sources of improvement. Senge - with considerable help from the team who worked on the follow-up development manual, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook - presents an insider's account of long-term maintenance efforts at General Electric, Harley-Davidson, the US Army, and others who have become learning organisations, along with experience-based suggestions and exercises for individuals and teams. Senge explains that, "We are seeking to understand how people nurture the reinforcing growth processes that naturally enable an organization to evolve and change, and how they tend to the limiting processes that can impede or stop that growth."

You can read this as a book or just dip in anywhere to find a provoking thought or a challenge. The book can be quirky and perplexing, but is always interesting and quite often there is an idea that makes you stop and think hard, or rethink what you thought you knew!