5LQ Episode 286: Book Breakdown: The Fifth Discipline

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im breakdown the leadership book The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge. In their conversation they discuss the following questions: What’s the book and why does it matter? Overview of the book How applicable is the book to leadership in my church? What are things churches should ignore from the book? What can you do this week in light of the book? BEST QUOTES “This book is about creating a learning organization.” “If you want to grow your church, you have to grow your people.” “Non-learning organizations react, whereas learning organizations look at the deeper underlying systems that generate that behavior.” “In building learning organizations there is no ultimate destination or end state, only a lifelong journey.” “Are you spending more time reacting or acting upon?” “How do we grow people’s commitment to the mission that Jesus has given us?” “Learning in front of people is a lot of what your job is as a leader.” “A lot of times the short term cure is worse than the long term disease.” “Ultimately, you do not want to settle for a warm body model.” “Churches are systems.” “God uses systems. Systems aren’t unholy.” “It’s really about identifying the natural patterns instead of seeing snapshots of problems.” “If you are on staff at a church trying to lead up, this is a great book for next steps.” “Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions.” “Walk through the framework of the book and then take your team through it.” RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Ministry Grid The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge Systems Thinking for Social Change by David Peter Stroh Leading Change by John Kotter Accelerate by John Kotter Strengths Finder No Silver Bullets by Daniel Im Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network