Peter M. Senge

Peter M. Senge is the founding chair of SoL (Society of Organizational Learning), a global network of organizations, researchers, and consultants dedicated to the “interdependent development of people and their institutions”, Senior Lecturer, Sloan School of Management MIT, and cofounder of the Academy for Systemic Change, which seeks to accelerate the growth of the field of systemic change worldwide. His work centers on promoting shared understanding of complex issues and shared leadership for healthier human systems. This involves major cross-sector projects focused on global food systems, climate change, regenerative economies, and the future of education.

Peter is the author of The Fifth Discipline and coauthor of the three related fieldbooks: Presence, and The Necessary Revolution. The Fifth Discipline (over two million copies sold), was recognized by Harvard Business Review as “one of the seminal management books of the last 75 years,” and by the Financial Times as one of five “most important” management books. The Journal of Business Strategy named him one of the 24 people who had the greatest influence on business strategy in the 20th century. Recently, he was named to the “1000 Talents” Program (Renzai) in China to help China become a leader in systemic change, to benefit itself and the world.

Peter has been at the forefront of organizational learning since publishing his classic text, The Fifth Discipline, in 1990. The Fifth Discipline provides the theories and methods to foster aspiration, develop reflective conversation, and understand complexity in order to build a learning organization. Peter is driven by the desire to understand how we can work together to live in harmony with one another and with Mother Earth. He continues to push the boundaries of our understanding of organizational learning, teaching his principles in workshops and seminars across the country. Peter describes his process as “sharing” rather than “teaching”, in an attempt to “help people see not just what has been done before, but sharing what has been done, by suggestion, surfacing, or eliciting what new might be possible.”

Throughout his career, Peter has been asking, “How do we create the best conditions, including the tools and methods, for enabling learning communities?” Since the publication of The Fifth Discipline, Peter has shared the driving principles of organizational learning with business, education, health care, and government. Through his work, Peter strives to foster learning communities around the globe in order to improve our world.

Peter graduated from Stanford University with a BS in engineering. He holds an MS in social systems modeling and a PhD in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management.