www.gurteen.com

Quotation

On prejudice by Peter Senge

  



AuthorPeter Senge MIT-based author, researcher & educator
Search Amazon.comPeter Senge 
Search Amazon.co.ukPeter Senge 
SourceThe Fifth Discipline
Books by AuthorThe Fifth Discipline
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
The Necessary Revolution
CategoriesAwareness; Behavior; Influence; Mental Models; Paradigms; Perception; Systems Thinking
OtherQuotations

Consider prejudice. Once a person begins to accept a stereotype of a particular group, that "thought" becomes an active agent, "participating" in shaping how he or she interacts with another person who falls in that stereotyped class. In turn, the tone of their interaction influences the other person's behaviour. The prejudiced person can't see how his prejudice shapes what he "sees" and how he acts. In some sense, if he did, he would no longer be prejudiced. To operate, the "thought" of prejudice must remain hidden to its holder

Peter Senge MIT-based author, researcher & educator

David Gurteen's comments: I feel this is a powerful example of how the hidden influence of our paradigms determines how we perceive the world - "our thoughts shape our reality".

Quotations are extremely effective at capturing and concisely communicating thoughts and ideas. They can be inspirational but more importantly quotations can help us reveal and assess the assumptions, values and beliefs that underlie the ways in which we perceive the world.

I have compiled over 800 quotations and short excerpts on this website. It is an eclectic mix but most of them are inspirational or insightful in nature and relate to knowledge, learning or personal development in some form.

If you love quotations as much as I do then you may wish to register to have a quote e-mailed to you once a week or more frequently by clicking on the button below and completing the form.


You can also subscribe to an RSS feed RSS Feed Gurteen Daily Knowledge Quotes that will deliver a quote to your newsreader each day. Or you can follow GurteenQuotes on Twitter and receive a quote there each day.


Quotations from Peter Senge:

 Learning is all about connections, and through our connections with unique people we are able to gain a true understanding of the world around us.

Peter Senge, MIT-based author, researcher & educator



 Through learning we reperceive the world and our relationship to it ... This then, is the basic meaning of a 'learning organization' -an organization that is continuously expanding its capacity to create its future. 'Survival learning' or what is more often called 'adaptive learning' is important - indeed it is necessary. But for a learning organization, 'adaptive learning' must be joined by 'generative learning', learning that enhances our capacity to create.

Peter Senge, MIT-based author, researcher & educator



 The fantasy that somehow organizations can change without personal change, and especially without change on the part of people in leadership positions, underlies why many change efforts are doomed from the start.

Peter Senge, MIT-based author, researcher & educator



 People don't resist change; they resist being changed.

Peter Senge, MIT-based author, researcher & educator



 Consider prejudice. Once a person begins to accept a stereotype of a particular group, that "thought" becomes an active agent, "participating" in shaping how he or she interacts with another person who falls in that stereotyped class. In turn, the tone of their interaction influences the other person's behaviour. The prejudiced person can't see how his prejudice shapes what he "sees" and how he acts. In some sense, if he did, he would no longer be prejudiced. To operate, the "thought" of prejudice must remain hidden to its holder

Peter Senge, MIT-based author, researcher & educator
The Fifth Discipline



 Real learning gets to the heart of what it means to be human. Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do. Through learning we reperceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life. There is within each of us a deep hunger for this type of learning.

Peter Senge, MIT-based author, researcher & educator
The Fifth Discipline



 Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting something from them. That is only valid for information sharing. Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes.

Peter Senge, MIT-based author, researcher & educator



 Our traditional views of leaders - as special people who set the direction, make the key decisions, and energize the troops - are deeply rooted in an individualistic and non-systemic worldview.

Especially in the West, leaders are heroes -great men (and occasionally women) who rise to the fore in times of crises.

Our prevailing leadership myths are still captured by the image of the captain of the cavalry leading the charge to rescue the settlers from the attacking Indians.

So long as such myths prevail, they reinforce a focus on short-term events and charismatic heroes rather than on systemic forces and collective learning.

At its heart, the traditional view of leadership is based on assumptions of people's powerlessness, their lack of personal vision and inability to master the forces of change, deficits which can be remedied only by a few great leaders.

Peter Senge, MIT-based author, researcher & educator



 The unhealthiness in our world today is in direct proportion to our inability to see it as a whole.

Peter Senge, MIT-based author, researcher & educator



 The Army's After Action Review (AAR) is arguably one of the most successful organizational learning methods yet devised.

Yet, most every corporate effort to graft this truly innovative practices into their culture has failed because, again and again, people reduce the living practice of AAR's to a sterile technique.

Peter Senge, MIT-based author, researcher & educator



If you are interested in Knowledge Management, the Knowledge Café or the role of conversation in organizational life then you my be interested in this online book I am writing on Conversational Leadership
David Gurteen


Follow me on Twitter

How to contact me


My Blog

Gurteen Knowledge Community
The Gurteen Knowledge Community
The Gurteen Knowledge Community is a global learning community of over 21,000 people in 160 countries across the world.

The community is for people who are committed to making a difference: people who wish to share and learn from each other and who strive to see the world differently, think differently and act differently.

Membership of the Gurteen Knowledge Community is free.
Knowledge Community



     

home
back
contact
request help
visitor book
Thursday 28 March 2024
07:39 PM GMT