The Fifth Discipline is one of my favorite leadership books. I’ll be coordinating a discussion on the book tomorrow.

Some disconnected notes on the book:

• A learning organization is committed to self betterment and adaptiveness to change. This makes it naturally resillient and likely to last longer.
• A shared vision is developed together. Magic happens when you can connect someone’s personal vision to one that the company needs. It creates a natural flow that is impossible to do if leadership is inflexible about the vision. People who do not share the same vision might not contribute as much to the organization.
• Systems thinking helps to connect everything together. I’ve used this in the past in the development of the leadership lattice - a framework of how companies work that highlights how everything is connected to each other.
• Team Learning is a form of flow. When a team is focused on the same things and is consistently readjusting itself through instrospection and intelligent dialogue, it can create powerful business results.
• Personal mastery requires some level of introspection, but cannot be forced. It must be led by example and through creating environments of psychological safety.