Why a Fieldbook?

Why have we named this web-based resource a “fieldbook”?

In his 1990 book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, Peter Senge introduced business audiences and the general public to the concept of systems thinking, along with four other interconnected areas of practice: personal mastery, mental models, team learning, and shared vision. The book was a global bestseller and widely influenced management and leadership thinking. Three fieldbooks followed, designed to help put the concepts into practice. We see this project as a natural evolution of those efforts. Those three books were designed not as static, abstract textbooks but rather as hands-on tools to guide teams in the real-world work of creating meaningful change in organizations and beyond. Today’s technology allows us to continually add to and update the material and include new formats—such as videos. It also enables us to draw content from the community and let users share their own stories and resources. Our goal is to make this online fieldbook a practical resource you can return to time and again for guidance, inspiration, and community as you tackle the complex challenges you care about.

Background

In 1994, after the publication and wide acclaim of The Fifth Discipline, Senge and coauthors Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Bryan Smith, and Richard Ross published The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. They chose the term “fieldbook” because it represents a collection of notes, reflections, and exercises “from the field” to guide people and organizations in putting practices into action in their own settings. The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations and Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education followed several years later with same goal: to support groups of people in continually enhancing their capabilities to create results they want in the systems they care about. In response to requests over the years for an updated, web-based compilation of practical know-how—including tools, case studies, and resources—around both the organizational and personal aspects of systems change, the Academy for Systems Change launched this online fieldbook, with initial funding from The Nature Conservancy and The Omidyar Group. During the planning phase, participants from those organizations and from the Academy took part in interviews, in which they shared their insights about how an online resource on systems change could best serve people’s needs.

Inspiration

This current version builds on work done by George Roth, Claudia Madrazo, Peter Senge, Robert Hanig, and others to compile a database of tools and practices drawing from many lineages and cutting across diverse bodies of theory and method. That project was originally called the “Social Bauhaus,” in recognition of the pioneering impact of the “Bauhaus School” in Germany in the early 20th century to codify and teach the basic principles of design. This project also draws inspiration from the work and life of Donella “Dana” Meadows. Dana was an environmental scientist and system dynamicist who had a rare gift for communicating complex concepts in rich, engaging ways. Her essays “Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System” and “Dancing with Systems” are key sources of insight and encouragement for bringing our full humanity to the challenging work of systems-level change. For more information about Dana and her groundbreaking work, visit The Donella Meadows Project.