Peter Senge Quotes

42 Sourced Quotes

In dialogue, individuals gain insights that simply could not be achieved individually.

Peter Senge
Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing the 'structures' that underlie complex situations, and for discerning high from low leverage change. That is, by seeing wholes we learn how to foster health. To do so, systems thinking offers a language that begins by restructuring how we think.

Peter Senge
Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures of images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action.

Peter Senge
Many in positions of authority lack the capabilities to truly lead. They are not credible. They do not command genuine respect. They are not committed to serve. They are not continually learning and growing. They are not wise.

Peter Senge
In great teams, conflict becomes productive. The free flow of conflicting ideas is critical for creative thinking, for discovering new solutions no one individual would have come to on his own.

Peter Senge
Like a pane of glass framing and subtly distorting our vision, mental models determine what we see.

Peter Senge
The systems perspective tells us that we must look beyond individual mistakes or bad luck to understand important problems.

Peter Senge
Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small elephants.

Peter Senge
Willpower is so common among highly successful people that many see its characteristics as synonymous with success.

Peter Senge
In a sluggish system, aggressiveness produces instability. Either be patient or make the system more responsive.

Peter Senge
Most leadership strategies are doomed to failure from the outset. As people have been noting for years, the majority of strategic initiatives that are driven from the top are marginally effective - at best.

Peter Senge
Few, if any, forces in human affairs are as powerful as shared vision.

Peter Senge
When teams are truly learning, not only are they producing extraordinary results, but the individual members are growing more rapidly than could have occurred otherwise.

Peter Senge
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.

Peter Senge
The difference between a healthy group or organization and an unhealthy one lies in its members' awareness and ability to acknowledge their felt needs to conform.

Peter Senge
We often spend so much time coping with problems along our path that we forget why we are on that path in the first place. The result is that we only have a dim, or even inaccurate, view of what's really important to us.

Peter Senge
The most effective people are those who can "hold" their vision while remaining committed to seeing current reality clearly

Peter Senge
Small changes can produce big results - but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.

Peter Senge
If people don't have their own vision, all they can do is 'sign-up' for someone else's.

Peter Senge
The discipline of personal mastery...starts with clarifying the things that really matter to us (and) living our lives in the service of our highest aspirations.

Peter Senge
An accurate, insightful view of current reality is as important as a clear vision.

Peter Senge
Mutual reflection. Open and candid conversation. Questioning of old beliefs and assumptions. Learning to let go. Awareness of how our own actions create the systemic structures that produce our problems. Developing these learning capabilities lies at the heart of profound change.

Peter Senge
We believe that, ultimately, the most important learning occurs in the context of our day-today life, the aspirations we pursue, the challenges we face, and the responses we bring forth.

Peter Senge
When placed in the same system, people, however different, tend to produce similar results.

Peter Senge
When executives lead as teachers, stewards, and designers, they fill roles that are much more subtle and long-term than those of power-wielding hierarchical leaders.

Peter Senge
Learning to see the structures within which we operate begins a process of freeing ourselves from previously unseen forces and ultimately mastering the ability to work with them and change them.

Peter Senge
[Seeds Are Small.] Becoming a force of nature doesn't mean that all of our aspirations must be "grand." First steps are often small, and initial visions that focus energy effectively often address immediate problems. What matters is engagement in the service of a larger purpose rather than lofty aspirations that paralyze action. Indeed, it's a dangerous trap to believe that we can pursue onlhy "great visions."

Peter Senge
In essence, leaders are people who "walk ahead," people genuinely committed to deep changes, in themselves and in their organizations.

Peter Senge
Teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit in modern organizations. This is where the "rubber stamp meets the road"; unless teams can learn, the organization cannot learn.

Peter Senge
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.

Peter Senge