The Dance of Change: The Challenges of Sustaining Momentum in a Learning Organization
by Peter Senge, Richard Ross, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, George Roth, and Bryan Smith
(Doubleday, 1999)

This is the book we have been waiting for! From the opening pages, the concept of the learning organization takes on new meaning. This isn't just another book that talks about learning organizations. It provides the practical "how to" to make learning organizations work. Ever since The Fifth Discipline and derivative works like Thomas Hawkins's The Learning Congregation arrived on the scene, people's response has been, "It sounds great, but how do we make it happen?" The Dance of Change is how.

The Dance of Change is a big book that addresses almost every question you can think of about what it means to be a learning organization, what roadblocks you might meet on the way, where the resistance points will be and how to deal with them, what kind of time frame is required for fundamental change and organizational transformation. This is an imminently practical book that you will refer to again and again.

The Dance of Change is more than just a smorgasbord of ideas to try on the road to building a learning organization. There is systemic method to the madness. The book reads like a novel at times -- the common sense and the seamless weaving of ideas into a comprehensive whole are impressive.

For churches, the transition from the business lingo and illustrations is fairly straightforward. What has happened in such places as Coca Cola, Chevron, and Shell Oil is not so radically different from what we face in Anytown United Methodist Church. Ultimately, it is all about people. People in companies and people in churches are just people. And the way we will create a new environment all hinges on how we understand people.

Change is frightening -- even positive change. People face transformation with anxiety. Too often, the anxiety stops us in our tracks and makes our best efforts at change come to naught. Senge and company lend a clear understanding of the human element to building a learning organization and making the new reality practical and attainable.

This is a book for study in leadership teams in the church. It is a rich minefield that will stimulate discussion, challenge assumptions, and inspire commitment. But most of all, it will empower people to move from thinking about being a learning organization to actually becoming a learning organization.

This book receives my highest recommendation. Buy it, study it, share it, reflect on it . . . and do the dance!

Dan R. Dick is a former staff member of the General Board of Discipleship.

(originally posted March 22, 1999)

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