The Fifth Discipline

Truly creative people use the gap between vision and current reality to generate energy for change.

Leaders like O’Brien go one step further: “In the type of organization we seek to build, the fullest development of people is on an equal plane with financial success.”

At Hanover, O’Brien wrote about “advanced maturity” as entailing building and holding deep values, making commitments to goals larger than oneself, being open, exercising free will, and continually striving for an accurate picture of reality. Such people, he asserted, also have a capacity for delayed gratification, which makes it possible for them

The ability to focus on ultimate intrinsic desires, not only on secondary goals, is a cornerstone of personal mastery.

Managers’ fundamental task, according to O’Brien, is “providing the enabling conditions for people to lead the most enriching lives they can.”

The juxtaposition of vision (what we want) and a clear picture of current reality (where we are relative to what we want) generates what we call “creative tension”: a force to bring them together, caused by the natural tendency of tension to seek resolution. The essence of personal mastery is learning how to generate and sustain creative tension in

Personal mastery goes beyond competence and skills, though it is grounded in competence and skills. It goes beyond spiritual unfolding or opening, although it requires spiritual growth. It means approaching one’s life as a creative work, living life from a creative as opposed to reactive viewpoint.

People with a high level of personal mastery share several basic characteristics. They have a special sense of purpose that lies behind their visions and goals. For such a person, a vision is a calling rather than simply a good idea. They see current reality” as an ally, not an enemy. They have learned how to perceive and work with forces of change

duty as a manager starts with “providing for both the material good and spiritual welfare of my employees.”