toms not the root of the problems faced by organizations and their employees. How does one achieve this? By using systems thinking to build a learning organization.
Senge advocates new component technologies, or disciplines, that will help an organization become a systems thinking learning environment: Systems Thinking; Personal Mastery; Mental Modes; Building Shared Vision; and, Team Learning. Systems thinking takes into account often subtle or hidden components of the whole to make patterns clearer, while personal mastery seeks to evolve a variety of skills to their highest possible level. With systems thinking, Senge argues that like we can only understand a portion of a rainstorm by contemplating the whole, not its specific components, so systems thinking is a “conceptual framework, a body of knowledge and tools that has been developed over the past fifty years, to make the full patterns clearer, and to help us see how to change them effectively” (Senge 7).
Personal mastery is not necessarily control or dominance, but a “special level of proficiency” (Senge 7). It is continual learning in a sense, an effort to clarify and deepen our vision, a method of helping focus our energy, and a way of building patience towards a more objective view of reality. Using management techniques, spiritualism, Greek philosophy and a host of other approaches to make his case, Senge goes on to explain how mental models influence our worldview and thinking. Too many organizations are stuck to a mental model that may not be valid or effective in light of changes or reality. Mental models are “deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures or images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action” (Senge 8). Instead of looking outward, using mental models helps us to reflect and look inward. Once we scrutinize our deeply ingrained ways of thinking, we might be able to decide some part of ou...