A Learning Organization as defined by Peter M. Senge

"This is the basic meaning of a "learning organization" - an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future."

"The organizations that will truly excel will be the organizations that discover how to tap people's commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in an organization."

Excerpts from "The Fifth Discipline - The Art and Practice of a Learning Organization",
Peter M. Senge.

Peter M. Senge is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and chairman of the Society of Organizational Learning, a global community of corporations, researchers, and consultants dedicated to personal and institutional development. He is the author of The Fifth Discipline and co-author of The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, The Dance of Change, and Schools That Learn.

At Global Partners, we have co-developed an education, "Creating What Matters" with Robert Fritz. Fritz's work was included as a core discipline in Peter Senge's book, The Fifth Discipline, under the topic of personal mastery. Fritz's work has been referred to as the foundation knowledge and structure that organization's must understand if they are going to transition to a learning organization. This body of work has been instrumental to the successful transitions of General Electric, Shell Oil, Hanover Insurance, and ABB.

"The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage."

Arie De Geus, former head of planning for Royal Dutch/Shell