Are the five disciplines of a learning organization also an example of
shrink wrapped ideas?
Building on Kent Myers (LO 11815 comments) I think Senge's book is a
masterful example of using skillful conceptual packaging to convey to a
wide audience a set of very complex ideas. Interestingly (to me at
least), most of the content of the disciplines builds on the published
work of others (including Argyris, Forrester, Bohm, Fritz - all given
ample credit by Senge). Packaging their ideas is an art form itself, the
nature of which is a cognitive discipline probably worthy of a lot of
examination.
Appreciating this packaging as packaging usually keeps me from making to
much of the five as a special entity, beyond their reflection of Senge's
genius at creative choice. I doubt I would ever try to derive fundamental
principles or laws from this particular packaging. But I do accept it as
a great base upon which to pick, choose and extend, as a situation
requires.
Bob Tomasko
RMTomasko@aol.com
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>