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Laws of the Fifth Discipline

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EDD 8020

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07/23/2020

Laws of the Fifth Discipline

The Audience

****ADD THIS INFO University Prep Schools (U Prep Schools) is a K-12 charter school system headquartered in the New Center area of Detroit. It has two districts within its system: University Preparatory Academy (UPA) and University Prep Science & Math (UPSM).The perspective drawn from the Fifth Discipline is addressed at a group audience of university administrators where expectations are placed at expanding capacities for creating desirable results at a given learning institution. Moreover, social change efforts by groups of administrators explain expansive thinking patterns where collective aspirations are natured, immediate solutions are found, and voiding reliance on the need for both structural and systemic changes. According to Senge, (2006), the audience therein is addressed to find revolutionary management philosophies that would initiate a course for establishing successful future admission techniques. This would imply that building change foundations by the administrators would require perception of the current realities more clearly, making explicit choices on what is regarded important, and creating connections between the current state and future aspirations.

Description, Summary & Interpretation

In regards to the description of the laws of the fifth discipline, these pertain to specific basic principle systems that embody philosophies that are often forgotten by groups of individuals. According to Bui, (2020), most arguments point out that almost all, if not all, apply to systems or organizations. In the creation of the fifth discipline, a description is given to represent the various challenges that humankind has been facing through their inabilities to manage and grasp complex systems. The laws of the fifth discipline are stated by a specified eleven principles. The first law describes how the current ostensible solutions would be the causes of tomorrow’s problems. For instance, institutional departments that find it hard to admit students may resort to lowering admission grades. This would let in weak students would reduce the national reputation as well as their ranking. The second law describes how systems would give back an equal force in equal measure of a push. For instance, a progressive university administration may not be willing to reduce resource allocation for low-grade admission departments, as this would still cause further deterioration in the quality of their offerings. The third law which is ‘behavior grows better before it grows worse’ would also go together with the sixth law which is stated as ‘faster is slower’. In this regard, an example can be given by how easy and quick fixes often give ineffective results.

According to Flood, (1999), the fourth law describes how systems may shun easy ways of redressing challenges by devising a long-term solution to issues. In this regard, the law states that ‘easy way out often leads to back in’. The initial scenario where student admissions are based on lower grades, a typical representation of the fifth law is given. The law, stated as “the cure can be worse than the disease” gives a reflection of how problems would be more serious in the future compared to the current status. However, the seventh law, which is stated as, “cause and effect are not closely related in time and space”, describes how anticipated improvements may not have instant realization but rather takes time. Consequently, any enlightened managers would not impose harsh penalties on any department with regards to their unfavorable views of performance, but device change processes to discover underlying structures (Senge, 2006). The eighth law states that small changes are capable of producing big results, but the centers of the biggest leverage are often the least obvious. On the other hand, the ninth law states that you can have your cake and eat it too, but not all at once. Having an elephant divided into two-halves does not produce two small elephants is as a stated version of the tenth law. Lastly, the eleventh law would give ideal systems thinkers and understanding that “there is no blame” for a single party, but rather the solution lies within the relationship with the perceived challenge.

Application & System Thinking of Fifth Discipline

The other aspect herein requires a fundamental definition of Fifth Discipline. As Senge points out, institutional administrators often face challenges of integrating new administrative tools. Therefore, the fifth discipline can be defined as systems thinking where various five component technologies are ensembled into a coherent perspective of practice and theory. Fifth Discipline is largely designed to address how contemporary institutions can have continuous performance and still be very competitive. As pointed out by Hoe, (2019), fifth disciplines give interrelation between disciplines so that new and expansive thinking patterns can be nurtured. The vital five disciplines are expressed by building shared visions, systems thinking mental models, team learning, and personal mastery.

First, the building of shared vision within administrative institutions is a creation of interactions within these institutions. As further asserted by Bui, (2020), personal visions that lack shared transfer contribute very little to the institution. Shared visions enhance the relationships within the institution as well as influencing its performance on learning techniques. Secondly, systems thinking largely reflect the observational processes of an entire system rather than focusing on individual concerns. For instance, in fixing admission issues within a system, administrators understand that each action and consequence is correlated. The understanding of the correlation enables the exploitation of patterns and interrelationships of change so that administrators are capable of determining cause and effect (Hoe, 2019). Moreover, the third discipline pertains to mental models. Senge postulates that visualizing future developments requires the identification of institutional values and visions. Through this, the institution would be flexible to accept new mental models and images. Just like in the personal mastery and shared vision, team learning as a discipline is set to accomplish the best functional team dynamics. This is where collaborative environments are created from which honest mistakes can be solved amicably. Lastly, personal mastery is created when administrators bear clear vision combined with accurate perceptions of reality. According to Senge, (2006), this discipline can train the subconscious mind to handle more complex issues faster compared to consciousness one.

Identify, Define & Question the Three Laws

From this perspective, the targeted audience pertains to a group of administrators trying to solve the challenges drawn from the academic contexts. First, for every issue, the First Law of the Fifth Discipline applies. The law states that ‘today’s challenges are drawn from yesterday’s “solutions”. From a personal perspective, I believe that previous trials to sort out issues from previous instances are responsible for future tribulations. According to Liu, (2018), when the administrators merely need to consider their solutions as potential causes current problems. The explanation herein is that certain solutions merely cause a shift of challenges from one part of the system to another. Consequently, most of these shifting solutions are often undetected since the initial solution providers differ from the inheritors of the new issues. For instance, initial college administrators who recruit lower grade students may not necessarily be the ones to be faced with reduced institutional reputations in the future.

Secondly, Fifth Law in action which states that the potential cures can be worse compared to the disease, give a classical connection with the First Law. Senge asserts that some of the easy and familiar solutions given by administrators are not only ineffective but are at times addictive. This implies that the long-term application of these nonsystematic solutions would consequently increase the urge for more and more solutions. According to Bui, (2020), the philosophy of initiating short-term improvements would consequently make the administrators develop a long-term dependency on systems thinkers. In this regard, the shift of burden structures, the administrators need to ensure that the system is strengthened so that they are capable of shouldering their burdens. For instance, a college principal who has shifted the student admission problems to departments may develop the hardship of taking back the burden.

Finally, the Seventh Law which states that cause and effect are not closely related in time and space. This implies that all the predicaments that may befall the system of the academic administration may fundamentally be drawn from the complexity of human systems. According to Senge, (2006), the cause and effect aspects do not exist closely in time and space. The effect aspect is an indicator that problems exist while the cause represents the interaction within the underlying systems responsible for generating the challenges.

1. How do we realize that our initial solutions do not act as recipes for future problems?

2. What are the possible institutional obligations that need to be put in place to ensure that each individual can shoulder responsibilities?

3. How do we establish the interaction between affect and cause to get the symptoms of problems within the organization?

References

Bui, H. T. (2020). From the fifth discipline to the new revolution: what we have learned from Senge’s ideas over the last three decades. The Learning Organization.

Flood, R. L. (1999). Rethinking the fifth discipline: Learning within the unknowable. Psychology Press.

Hoe, S. L. (2019). Digitalization in practice: the fifth discipline advantage. The Learning Organization.

Liu, H. (2018). A brief analysis of learning organization practice from the perspective of the fifth discipline model theories—a case study of jatco (Guangzhou). American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 8(11), 2143-2157.

Senge, P. M. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Broadway Currency.