Peter Senge

Scientist, professor, lecturer, author

• Born: 1947
• Place of Birth: Stanford, California

• Education: Stanford University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Significance: Peter Senge is an American scientist and lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also founded the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL). Senge specializes in organizational development in business and became well known after the publication of his book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organizationin 1990.

Background

Peter Michael Senge was born in the United States in 1947, the only child of a middle-class family. Not much is known about his early life or childhood. In interviews, Senge said that he grew up in Los Angeles, California, and was raised in a financially stable family. He said his upbringing was wonderful but stifling because his lack of suffering did not give him much compassion for others.

Senge was the president of his high school senior class. He said that he learned the art of speaking and speechwriting during this time because he had to give several speeches to his more than 1,200 classmates. He said that he remembered writing one particular speech and practicing in front of an empty stadium a week before he gave the actual speech. Senge said he found speaking in public fun and enjoyed that he was able to help others with his words.

Many of Senge's friends were Asian, and Senge became interested in their cultures. He learned the art of meditation from one of his friends. After high school, Senge visited the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California. He applied the meditation techniques that he learned there later in his personal and professional lives.

Senge graduated from Stanford University in Stanford, California, where he received an aerospace engineering degree. He then applied to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was the only graduate school to which he applied. He revealed that he only applied to MIT because he knew what he wanted to do but did not know how to accomplish this. In his application, Senge wrote about how he knew big problems existed in the world that needed to be solved in systemic ways. Senge wanted to be the person to develop a program to focus on solving these problems. MIT admitted Senge, and he received a master's degree in social systems modeling and a doctorate in management from the school.

Life's Work

After college, Senge became the director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He studied adaptive capabilities of firms and organizations. He also focused on social systems, including the relationship of the whole to its parts, in relation to businesses. He studied organizational behavior, which focuses on the interaction of people in groups. The idea is applied to business settings to create more efficient ways to manage workers. Through this research, Senge developed an idea known as learning organization. The concept explains that businesses can profit and grow from a process of continuous learning. Learning new things, however, includes unlearning old ways. This is demonstrated in the advancement of technology as new systems replace older ways of doing things.

Senge developed his concept of learning organization in his 1990 book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. In it, he introduced five disciplines: systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, and team learning. He explained how decisions made for one department have ramifications for other departments of an organization. He called on managers to promote learning as a way for a company to produce wanted outcomes. The concept became popular in the United States and around the world. The book sold more than one million copies worldwide. More copies of The Fifth Discipline were sold in China than anywhere else.

In 1997, Senge formed the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL). SoL is a nonprofit organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It promotes connections between groups of individuals, organizations, businesses, corporations, and researchers worldwide. Its goal is to join people with other like-minded individuals in an effort to facilitate learning. SoL also hosts workshops, provides coaching and consulting services, and books speaking engagements. In addition to his work with SoL, Senge continued to lecture at MIT.

Senge followed The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization with the related works The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization (1994) and The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations (1999), which he coauthored with several of his colleagues. He next applied his concepts to education for Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares about Education (2000). Some of his other works include Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (2004), The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World (2008), and The Triple Focus: A New Approach to Education (2014).

Impact

Senge received much acclaim for his idea of learning organizations. Many businesses, institutions, and organizations throughout the world have applied his ideas introduced in The Fifth Discipline. He worked with leaders in many sectors to help them realize the true potential of their organizations. He continues to lecture and host workshops worldwide. The Journal of Business Strategy named Senge one of its "Strategists of the Century" in 1999. He was one of twenty-four people chosen by the publication based on the way they have influenced business in the last century. The Financial Times and BusinessWeek ranked Senge as one of the top management gurus in the world.

Personal Life

Senge lives with his wife, Diane, and their children in Massachusetts.

Bibliography

Business Essential. Bloomsbury Information, 2009, pp. 539–40.

"Faculty & Research: Peter Senge." MIT Sloan School of Management, mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-directory/detail/?id=41415. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"Guru: Peter Senge." Economist, 14 Nov. 2008, www.economist.com/node/12552876. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"Interview: Dr. Peter Senge on Education, Systems Thinking and Our Careers." HR Bartender, 10 Aug. 2014, www.hrbartender.com/2014/training/interview-peter-senge-education-systems-thinking-careers. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"Make a Better World." Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), www.solonline.org. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Nakamura, Tomoya. "What I Learned from Professor Peter Senge." Globis Insights, 13 May 2024, globisinsights.com/purpose/kokorozashi/what-i-learned-from-professor-peter-senge/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"Peter Senge: Founding Chairperson—Society for Organizational Learning." Kaipa Group, kaipagroup.com/interviews/peter‗senge‗full.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"Peter Senge: The Generational Visionary of the Learning Organization." Meridian University, 10 Jan. 2024, https://meridianuniversity.edu/content/peter-senge-the-generational-visionary-of-the-learning-organization. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"Peter Senge and the Learning Organization." Infed, infed.org/mobi/peter-senge-and-the-learning-organization. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.