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The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations |
Author: Peter M. Senge
Published: 1999-03-16 |
List price: $35.00
Our price: $23.10
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Effective Change Management
In "Dance of Change", Peter Senge and his co-authors argue that the key to achieving and sustaining significant change lies in changing people's basic ways of thinking. This is a big challenge as organisations have to grapple with some deep seated ways of thinking. Peter Senge did an excellent job of confronting this challenge and suggesting some practical and useful ideas to achieve change in people's mindset and organisational practices. The book explains the processes that help to reinforce change and minimise resistance to change. This fascinating book explains and provides advice on how to initiate, sustain, and redesign and shape new ways of thinking.
The book methodically, step-by-step discuss the ten key challenges to profound change. The authors buttressed their arguments and conclusions with some notes on successful organizational change initiatives highlighting the specific approaches taken by the likes of British Petroleum, Ford, GE, Hewlett-Packard, and Dupont. The book also includes round-table discussions, team exercises, case histories, checklists, and helpful guidance.
Peter Senge is the renowned author of "The Fifth Discipline" which had a profound impact on the notion of organizational learning. The "Fifth Discipline" is still is a must read for receptive and motivated readers, especially those working on organizational change, training and human resource development in all industries.
In fact, "Dance of Change" starts with an insightful review of the "five disciplines" of learning from "The Fifth Discipline" namely personal mastery, mental models, shared visions, team learning, and systems thinking. Hence this book makes an excellent resource to the Fifth Discipline, although it is so well written and presented that it can stand on its own feet as a handy and useful handbook or reference material for effective change management.
 A Little Exhausted
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When 'The Dance of Change' was published in '99, Senge's work was already reaching the end of it's relevancy. A brilliant thinker, he's had difficulty sustaining creative thinking since 'The Fifth Discipline'. Not surprising. With such a brilliant, breakthrough book like his 1990 masterpiece, one tends to get trapped by one's own fame. Thus is born The Fifth Discipline Industry.
The Dance of Change contained nothing new in 1999. By 2006 the ideas contained in 'Dance' are so passe for most industry. Many others have built upon Senge's work in far more effective ways and your time is better spent with them. While you can skip 'Dance', 'The Fifth Discipline' still is a must read, especially if you're working on organizational change in education or human services, two industries that remain stubbornly stuck in the 80's.
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 A good resource- should be used in conjunction with The Fifth Discipline
This book is written as a resource book usable in conjunction with co-author Peter Senge's book, the Fifth Discipline. This book explores the challenges to sustaining momentum in a learning organization.
The authors of this book describe the processes that help to reinforce change and those processes that conflict with change, thereby limiting an organization's ability to make change. They begin this by reexamining and reviewing the "five disciplines" of learning from The Fifth Discipline: personal mastery, mental models, shared visions, team learning, and systems thinking.
In order to maintain the momentum for change, they expound on what they identify as the three fundamental reinforcing processes required sustaining real change: enhancing personal results, developing networks of committed people; and improving business results.
The main focus of this book is the ten challenges the authors see as the most likely challenges a company will experience when attempting to sustain change. These challenges are the challenges of:
1. control over time.
2. inadequate internal resources
3. relevance
4. management clarity and consistency
5. fear and anxiety
6. negative assessment of progress
7. isolation and arrogance
8. autonomy and power
9. the inability to transfer knowledge across the organization.
10. organizational strategy and purpose.
Ponderous
While I enjoyed this work and read it from cover to cover, it did begin to seem like too much of good thing. Some of the organization information seemed dated and some of the people who are offering advice are probably no longer held with such high regard in their former organizations. In any case, I would recommed it to anyone who is doing graduate or post-graduate work in organization and management or just wants some insight into how organizations really work.
Great book to look at change from different lenses
This book is touted as a "resource" to the Fifth Discipline, but my view is that it could itself stand on its own steam as a handbook for change management. With articles contributed by a variety of authors, the book looks at the challenges of triggering, initiating, aligning and sustaining change and the various diverse ways to confront and solve those challenges.
The challenges that the book identifies are the challenges of:Orientation, Generating Profound Change, Not Enough Time, No Help, Not Relevant, Walking the Talk, Fear & Anxiety, Assessment & Measurement, True Believers and Non-believers, Governance, Diffusion, Strategy & Purpose. The book is choc-a-block with tools, explanation of jargon and
references to other resources. An orientation to Systems Thinking and looking at organizations as complex systems would help in clarifying the book more. Hence it is desirable to read "the fifth discipline" before you read it.
However, the delightful nature of this book ensures that you can flip open any page, read a little bit and keep it back, and feel refreshed and not thirst for more.
For people who look at organizations as communities, as networks and as human systems in addition to just being an economic entity this book will delight and scare.
For others, this book will act as a provoking way to look at change and organizations in search of equilibrium.
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