The Fifth Discipline
by Peter Senge, Peter M. Senge · first published 1990
74% recommend26% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Practical introduction to systems thinking and the learning organization, with the beer game chapter and sections on mental models. Suits managers and engineers wrestling with how teams and organizations interact.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
This revised edition of Peter Senge's bestselling classic, The Fifth Discipline, is based on fifteen years of experience in putting the book's ideas into practice. As Senge makes clear, in the long run the only sustainable competitive advantage is your organization's ability to learn faster than the competition. The leadership stories in the book demonstrate the many ways that the core ideas in The Fifth Discipline, many of which seemed radical when first published in 1990, have become deeply integrated into people's ways of seeing the world and their managerial practices. In The Fifth Discipl
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…Systemantics) that were difficult to apply in real life. I come from the perspective of someone with a systems/theory builder personality. The only systems thinking book that I found remotely practical was The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge. The most useful piece of short writing on systems thinking that I've come across is "How Complex Systems Fail" [1, 2], which talks about designing systems for resiliency, and not for…
on “A Lifetime of Systems Thinking” ↗…systems theory: An Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Gerald M. Weinberg https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-General-Systems-Thinking... - For systems thinking and the learning organization: The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter Senge https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Or... - There is a great course that covers soft systems methodology, specifically…
on “Ask HN: Any recommended resources to develop system thinking?” ↗…postmortem on every project that you undertake. 2.Go through existing projects and see if you can structure them differently and the benefits changing the structure will provide. 3.Buy and read The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge https://amzn.to/30IKxdZ . It is one of the best books on systems thinking. 4.It takes time to build the systems thinking muscle so be patient with yourself.
on “Ask HN: How to Think Systematically as a Programmer?” ↗The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge, a professor at MIT. Some might call it a business book. It focuses primarily on teaching readers to use "systems thinking" to turn companies into learning organizations that respond and…
on “Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?” ↗…things(Ben Horowitz): This book is mostly recommended for managers but I found it very useful to adjust my estimations about life. Also, you will learn about silicon valley history and it's dynamics. The fifth discipline (Peter Senge): This book is one of the systems thinking references and it helped me to learn more about hidden dynamics in the world around me. I truly wish I've read this when I was junior in college.
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗…know how to succed and want to keep doing it. Why doesn't the Roman Catholic Church let their clergy marry? That's the mother of all systems questions. How to bust into this way of thinking? Read "The Fifth Discipline" by Peter Senge. Be an anthropologist. To practice, read worseThanFailure.com as am amateur anthropologist. Don't just laugh, try to figure out WHY people do silly-seeming things.
on “Ask HN: What topics/subjects are worth learning for a new software engineer?” ↗I am reading The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge at the moment. It is a fantastic book that came out in the 90s and was updated in the 00s. It describes the need and practical solutions to systemic thinking for a learning / adaptive…
on “Ask HN: Which books teach mental models?” ↗The Fifth Discipline by Senge. Also a great introduction to systems thinking. Also everything written by Goldratt. In particular: The Goal and It's not luck Both are business novels, they read lightly but the lessons are…
on “Ask HN: What to read after “Thinking in Systems”?” ↗I first learned about this from reading Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline. If you're interested in this sort of thing, TFD is a worthy read. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Learning-Or...
on “Beer distribution game” ↗…http://dhemery.com/articles/managing_yourself_through_change... Macro Skills: * Toyota Production System - Taiichii Ohno * Workplace Management - Taiichii Ohno * Thinking in Systems - Donella Meadows * Fifth Discipline - Peter Senge Agile: * Extreme Programming, Explained (2nd ed.) - Kent Beck (the annotated bibliography is a goldmine) * Chaos: Making a New Science - James Gleick Programming: * Implementation Patterns…
on “Theory-building and why employee churn is lethal to software companies” ↗The Fifth Discipline (Senge) As a systems architect struggling with Conway's Law, this has helped me understand systems-of-people better and given me some simple ways to think about interactions in a more abstract fashion.
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2014?” ↗Peter Senge's Fifth Discipline. The chapters on mental models and learning disabilities definitely change the way you look at the world.
on “Ask HN: Books that altered your view of reality” ↗…traditional managers (very useful): http://www.amazon.com/The-High-Velocity-Edge-Operational-Com... Another good one that's a bit long-winded, but another set of applied examples: http://www.amazon.com/The-Fifth-Discipline-Practice-Organiza... Senge, in the foreward of that book, gives almost all credit to W. Edwards Deming—who is the originator of many of the ideas of organizational systems thinking and how it integrates…
on “How Completely Messed Up Practices Become Normal” ↗I found each of these invaluable at different points in my life. YMMV Biz - the Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman - http://amzn.to/2aFsj3c Org - the Fifth Discipline - Peter Senge - http://amzn.to/2aNpbQz SciFi - Perdido Street Station - China Mieville - http://amzn.to/2aNoWFn Parenting - The Continuum Concept - Jean Liedloff - http://amzn.to/2aZEAAL
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗Peter Senge's Fifth Discipline is great. Related, I would also recommend "Thinking in Systems" by Donella Meadows and "An Introduction to General Systems Thinking" by Jerry Weinberg.
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗