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I am currently employed at Hertford Regional College as a Media Lecturer.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Some quotes that have helped me so far from "The Fifth Discipline" by "Peter M. Senge"

I only received this book on Friday, so I have only read a little, but what I have read has helped me greatly in deciding my questions for the beginning of my "Inquiry".

I have decided to post some of the quotes that got me thinking and hopefully these will also give others some inspiration.


"It is no longer sufficient to have one person learning for the organization... It's just not possible any longer to "figure it out" from the top, and have everyone else following orders from the "grand strategist". The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap people's commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in an organization.

The team that became great didn't start off great- it learned how to produce extraordinary results." 
Page 4

This quote got me thinking about the organization I work for and how it allows me to develop my skills in order to benefit the "company" as well as myself. I also realized how I learn from my peers and how I help them to develop their skills.

When working side by side with my manager, it is also a great eye opener to how we work, relying on each others' skill set to get a job done and how important everybody's role within the establishment is.


"Systems Thinking. A cloud masses, the sky darkens, leaves twist upward, and we know that it will rain. We also know that after the storm, the runoff will feed into groundwater miles away, and the sky will grow clear by tomorrow. All these events are distant in time and space, yet they are all connected within the same pattern. Each has an influence on the rest, an influence that is usually hidden from view. You can only understand the system of a rainstorm by contemplating the whole, not any individual part of the pattern"
Page 6/7
I felt that this quote was a great metaphor for realizing the skills we already have. From this quote I took that if we realize the extent of our current knowledge we will know how to develop out skills further.


"Personal Mastery. People with a high level of personal mastery are able to consistently realize the results that matter most deeply to them- in effect they approach their life as an artist would approach a work of art. They do that by becoming committed to their own lifelong learning.
  Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively.

The discipline of personal mastery, by contrast, starts with clarifying the things that really matter to us, of living our lives in the service of our highest aspirations."
Page 7/8

The whole section on "Personal Mastery" touches on the quote "Systems Thinking", giving a clearer detail into the fact that realizing the skills we already have will allow us to see the skills we need to develop, however, I feel this quote is more related to realizing what we actually want to achieve, rather than what skills are needed to develop within our practice.

I hope these quotes are helpful to others, I will post some more as I read further.

1 comment:

  1. they are great quotes daniel thank you for posting them looks like it was a good purchase! i read an extract from that book last week and a quote i found i liked about organisations was this one,

    '…organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together.'

    something i think we will all be doing together in the coming weeks!

    steph.

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