Learning Organisations

I was reading a chapter by Peter Senge recently on "Give me a lever long enough ... and single-handed I can move the world". Well, in physics we learn that this is possible if you place the fulcrum near the object that is to be moved.  The title alludes to a learning organisation as a place where people are continually discovering that reality can be changed.  We have to see ourselves as very much connected to this world and how we can be both the problem and solution of life.

There five components to a learning organisation.  Each of them provides a vital dimension in building organisations that can truly "learn", that can continually enhance their capacity to realise their highest expectations.
1. Systems Thinking: a conceptual framework, body of knowledge and tools developed over the past 50 years.  Many things that happen in life are to due to a series of inter-connected actions.
2. Personal Mastery: discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision.
3. Mental Models: deeply ingrained assumptions or generalizations that influence how we view the world.
4. Building Shared Vision: shared "pictures of the future" that foster genuine commitment.
5. Team Learning: to suspend assumptions and enter into a genuine "thinking together".

For any organisation, be it a business or educational one, its success depends on the interplay of the 5 components.Through collective effort and the willingness to learn from one another, we foster a culture of care and growth.  Through learning we are enabled to do things which we were never able to do.  Through learning, we extend our capacity to create, and move beyond mere existence.  As we examine our own mental models, we must be willing to jettison those thought patterns that are detrimental to the growth of an organisation.

Applying the five components to our faith, systems thinking has to do with understanding the connectedness of our world with the supernatural realm.  Personal mastery has to do with cultivating spiritual disciplines to sharpen our spiritual senses.  Where kingdom realities are concerned, the opposites are often true such as "If you believe you shall see" or "The first shall be the last and the last, first".  As such, we have to change our mental models, which can be subjected to a lot of different interpretations of Scriptures. .  Kingdom vision must replace local ones that can be very myopic.  And of course, learning from one another and the Holy Spirit must take place on a regular basis.