1.     Systems Thinking: Business and other human endeavors are all systems. They are bound by invisible fabrics of interrelated actions, which often take years to fully play out their effects on each other. The essence of the discipline of systems thinking lies in a shift on mind: a) seeing interrelationships rather than linear cause-effect chains, and b) seeing processes of change rather than snapshots.

2.     Personal Mastery: This is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively. Three important elements of personal mastery are: a) Personal vision: Most people have goals and objectives, but little sense of a real vision. b) Creative tension: When we hold a vision that differs from current reality, a gap exists, which the author calls, "creative tension".

3.     Mental Models: Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action. The discipline of working with mental models starts with turning the mirror inward; learning to unearth our internal pictures of the world and scrutinize them. It also means carrying on "learningful" conversations that balance inquiry and advocacy, where people expose their own thinking effectively and make that thinking open to the influence of others.

4.     Building Shared Vision: At its simplest level, a shared vision is the answer to the question "What do we want to create?" Many leaders have personal visions, which never get translated into shared visions that galvanize an organization. When there is a genuine shared vision (as opposed to the all-too-familiar "vision statement"), people excel and learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to.

5. Team Learning: Team learning is vital, because teams, not individuals are the fundamental learning unit in modern organizations. Team learning is the process of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results its members desire. >>>>