Personal Mastery concept and methods from Peter Senge

1. Personal mastery
Concepts and methods from Peter Senge’s “The Fifth
Discipline” & ‘’ The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook ”

2. Mostly people seek physical and intellectual development, very few
emotional / personal advancement
There is no tradeoff between higher virtues in life and economic
success, on the contrary [!]
Vision without sense of underlying purpose is just a good idea.
Conversely, purpose without vision has no sense of appropriate scale.
Purpose: “advancing man’s capability to explore heavens”
Vision: “a man on the moon by the end of the 1960’s”
Some background info

3. • “There’s an ease, effortlessness about the way they get things
done” – Bill O’Brien from Hannover Insurance
• “They’re more committed, have more initiative, have deeper
sense of responsibility, learn faster” - Kazuo Inamori of Kyocera
Observed Characteristics of people
with “Personal Mastery”
Reactive orientation
towards life
Creative orientation
towards life

4. The Concept of Personal Mastery is all
about empowering people
So how does it work?

5. Constantly
clarifying what
is important
for me
Constantly
learning
seeing Current
Reality more
clearly
“Creative
Tension”
“Creative Tension” seeks resolution. It is a
source of energy and motivation. After you’ve
defined these two, CT seeks a resolution,
towards Vision or back to Current Reality
We have an exercise for this

6. But there is a “Structural Conflict” between
your vision and your deep beliefs of
INABILITY and UNWORTHINESS of having
your vision realized

7. • People mostly use 3 strategies to deal with “Structural Conflicts”
– Lowering the vision
– Doing things due to fear of failure, “Conflict Manipulation”
– Overpowering resistances to reach goals through “Willpower”
• All these 3 strategies have weaknesses:
– Becoming agree on mediocrity
– Living in constant fear of failure
– Overwhelming yourself and using too much emotional resources for
success, acting without finding high leverage points (remember Pareto
principle?)

8. • Dealing with the problem of “Structural Conflict” - It
needs to be removed! Not coped with.
• How? – as these conflicts are the results of deep beliefs,
they can be removed via changing those beliefs
• Trough:
1. Commitment to the truth (this is the strongest technique
psychologist have found yet, better than any “formula”)
2. An using subconscious mind for our advantage

9. • Commitment to the truth
– don’t lie or deceive yourself, be absolutely honest about your
shortcomings, weaknesses, mistakes.
– Two traits play important part here – Courage and Humbleness
– Meditation helps us learn to “govern” our mind
• Using subconscious mind (or you don’t need to figure it all out)
– Subconscious (in comparison with conscious) mind has a capacity that
is larger by a factor of ten or more
– Thus, it has more power to deal with complexities, if activated it
performs most of the “dirty work”

10. • A rapport can be created between conscious and subconscious parts of mind
– Subconscious has no objectives, doesn’t determine its own focus
– It is very receptive of our genuine desires, because they are part of the subconscious
– It is subject to directing and conditioning [!]
– It is responsive to clear focus
– In our normal, highly active state of mind the it is overwhelmed with contradictory
thoughts and feelings
– Einstein “I have never discovered anything with my rational mind”
• How do you direct and condition it?
1. You need to focus on intrinsic desires, most people do not differentiate means with
ends, when you blend these two subconscious has no way of prioritizing
2. Making explicit choices

11. • A team needs to be created to lead transformation
to Learning Organization
• A workshop is needed to introduce LO and
Personal Mastery, Organizational Learning
consultant is a good idea
• Exercise needs to be performed twice per year
How - to

12. • “To encourage personal mastery an organization must invest intelligence, time,
and attention, taking trouble to design new elements into infrastructure”
• To empower people in an unaligned organization can be counterproductive,
people need to be having same “shared vision” and same “mental models”,
otherwise fostering personal mastery can increase stress and conflicts
• In Beckman Instruments USA practicing “personal mastery” technics took 6
month to start the results showing up
• Ideas of resistance will occur:
– Why do we need to talk about this stuff? Isn’t it obvious? Don’t we already know this?
• (One executive vice president said “I’ve lost some good people through this
program, I’m here to find out what has been going on in my organization” at the
end of the course he said – the reason is that my employees felt they weren’t
free to pursue their own vision at that company. Solution is in reworking
structures – discussed on page 220)
Keep in mind

13. • First Part
• Imagine achieving a result in life that you deeply desire (can be anything,
regardless of the fact that you are or not in a position to achieve that). For
example living in a place or a house you really want to, or having
relationships you truly desire.
• Write down – how does it look like? What does it feel like? What words
would you use to describe it? (it’s OK if you don’t see your self being in this
company)
• To each of the sections below ask two questions – If I could have it now,
would I take it? What does it bring me?
Personal Mastery exercise –
understanding what you really want

14. • Second Part
• Questions to be answered:
1) Self-image: if you could be exactly the same person you wanted to be what would
your qualities be?
2) Tangibles: what material things do you want to own?
3) Home: What is your ideal living environment?
4) Health: what is your desire for health, fitness and anything to do with your body?
5) Relationships: what types of relationships would you like to have with friends,
family, others?
6) Work: what is your ideal professional or vocational situation? What impact would
you like your efforts to have?
7) Personal pursuits: what would you like to create in the arena of individual learning,
travel, reading or other activities?
8) Community: What is your vision for the community or society you live in?
9) Other: what else in any other arena of your life would you like to create?
10) Life purpose: imagine that your life has a unique purpose-fulfilled through what
you do, your interrelationships, and the way you live. Describe that purpose, as
another reflection of your aspirations

15. • Example of such dialog:
My goal right now is to boost my income
What would it bring you?
- I could buy a house in North Carolina
What would that bring you?
- For one thing it would bring me closer to my sister
What would that bring you?
- A sense of home and connection
But did you put down on your list that you wanted to have more of a sense of
home and connection?
- No I didn’t, I just now realize what lies behind my minor desires, major one is
sense of home and connection
And what would a sense of home and connection bring you?
A sense of satisfaction and fulfillment
What would that bring you?
Nothing else, I just want that, this is what I am striving for, and all the rest – higher
income, a house in North Carolina, being close to my sister – these are means to the
major desire

16. • Many components of your vision lead you to same
three or four major goals.
• Almost all people believe to have values which we
believe to possess and there are values in action
that actually govern our behaviors (exceptions are
people who possess personal mastery)

17. • Step 1 – what I value the most:
From the list select 10 most to you important ones, you can add
any if you want
Understanding your guiding values
Achievement Ethical practice Location Security
Advancement and promotion Excellence Loyalty Self – respect
Adventure Excitement Market position Serenity
Affection (love and caring) Expertise Meaningful work Sophistication
Arts Fame Merit Stability
Challenging problems Fast living Money Status
Change and variety Fast-paced work Nature Supervision others
Close relationships Financial gain Being around people who are open and hones Time freedom
Community Freedom Order (tranquility, stability, conformity Truth
Competence Friendships Personal development (living up to fullest use of my potential Wealth
Competition Growth Physical challenge Wisdom
Cooperation Having a family Pleasure Work under pressure
Country Helping other people Power and authority Work with others
Creativity Helping society Privacy Working alone
Decisiveness Honesty Public service Involvement
Democracy Independence Purity Job tranquility
Ecological awareness Influencing others Quality of what I take part in Knowledge
Economic security Inner harmony Quality relationships Leadership
Effectiveness Integrity Recognition (respect from others, status) Reputation
Efficiency Intellectual status Religion Responsibility and accountability

18. • Step 2 – Elimination
Now that you identified ten, imagine that you are only
permitted to have five values. Which five would you give up?
Now imagine you are permitted four, delete one
Now imagine you are permitted three, delete one
Now imagine you are permitted two, delete one
Now imagine you are permitted one, delete the other
The one left is (or should be the one that you truly care
about). Don’t worry if you have doubts, its like that for the
beginners, gradually as you test yourself you come to realize
what is truly important for you

19. • Step 3– Articulation
Take a look at the top three values on your list
1. What do they mean exactly? What are you expecting from yourself – even
in bad times
2. How would your life be different if those values were prominent and
practiced?
3. What would an organization be like which encouraged employees to live
up to those values?
4. Does the personal vision which you drew forth reflect these values? If not,
should your personal vision be expanded? Or are you prepared to
reconsider your values?
5. Are you willing to choose a life? And an organization in which these values
are paramount?

20. • Organization or a group leader thinking of installing
shared vision and personal mastery principles
needs to consider these questions for him:
1. What would you personally want to see your organization become?
2. What kinds of customers could it have?
3. What sorts of processes might it conduct?
4. What reputation would it have?
5. What contribution would it make?
6. What sorts of products or services would it produce?
7. What values would it embody?
8. What mission would it have?
9. Who would be its clients and customers?
10. What would its physical environment look like?
11. How would people work together?
12. How would people handle good and bad times?
13. If you created such organization, what would it bring you? How would it allow
your own personal vision to flourish?

21. Will be glad to help if you have questions
anasrashvili@gmail.com