A Timeline

A combination of events and gatherings, significant projects, and seminal publications help tell the story of the evolution of organizational learning. We invite your additions. Please send these to our webmaster.

Organizational Learning Milestones

1938 - In his book Experience and Education, John Dewey publicizes the concept of experiential learning as an ongoing cycle of activity.

1940s - The Macy Conferences - featuring Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, and Lawrence Kubie - introduce "systems thinking" to a cross-disciplinary group.

1940s - Scottish psychologist Kenneth Craig coins the term "mental models," which later makes its way to MIT through Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert.

1946 - Kurt Lewin, founding theorist of National Training Laboratories, proposes the idea of a "creative tension" between personal vision and a sense of reality.

1960 - The Human Side of Enterprise by Douglas McGregor, is published.

1961 - Jay Forrester publishes Industrial Dynamics. This book, the first major application of system dynamics to business, describes the turbulence within a typical industrial value chain.

1979 - Consultant Charlie Kiefer, Forrester student Peter Senge, and researcher-artist Robert Fritz design the Leadership and Mastery seminar and offer it for the first time.

1984 to 1985 - While on sabbatical at Harvard Business School, Pierre Wack, of Royal Dutch/Shell, writes two articles about scenario planning as a learning activity.

1989 - The Center for Organizational Learning is formed at MIT, with Senge as director and with Ed Schein, Chris Argyris, Arie de Geus, Ray Stata, and Bill O'Brien as key advisers.

1990 - The Fifth Discipline is published. The book draws on many influences: system dynamics, "personal mastery," mental models, shared vision, and team learning.

1994 - The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook is published. Its authors include Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross, Bryan Smith, and Art Kleiner (who serves as editorial director).

1995 - Working with Dee Hock, the Organizational Learning Center begins a two-year process of building a consortium called the Society for Organizational Learning.

1997 - The Society for Organizational Learning is formed.

1999 - The Dance of Change, the second book in the The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook series, is published. [View study notes.]

2000 - Schools that Learn, the third book in the The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook series, is published.

2004 - Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, by Peter Senge, C.Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworkshi and Betty Sue Flowers is published in a private edition by SoL, introducing "Theory U", and sells over 15,000 copies.

2005 - Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society is published in conjunction with Doubleday and is distibuted worldwide.

Much of this timeline appeared in the May 1999 issue of FastCompany magazine, in connection with an interview with Peter Senge