Re-reading the Fifth Discipline

I ordered Gary Hamel's new book, The Future of Management, to read over Christmas but before it arrived I decided to re-read the classic The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge (1990). If you too need to refresh your memory, the five disciplines are the following:
1. Building shared visions to foster commitment to the long term;
2. mental models that focus on the openness needed to unearth shortcomings in our present ways of seeing the world;
3. team learning that develops the skills of groups to look for the larger picture;
4. personal mastery fosters the personal motivation to continually learn how our actions affect our world;
5. and the fifth discipline is systems thinking, closely linked to a learning organisation.
I wonder how many learning organisations there are out there...too few...
To me it is obvious that organisations dealing with knowledge on high-level should develop as learning organisations. And yet, many managers seem to run them as factories.

Def: Systems thinking is a methodology evolving from the application of system dynamics; a strategic simulation tool aimed at mapping and modelling the global interaction of processes, information feedback and policy across organisational sectors. It is being used widely in health and social care to design sustainable patient outcomes and to assist the attainment of performance targets for all service agencies along whole patient pathways. It can help to test new policies and to eliminate those which might have unintended consequences for the system as a whole. It also creates learning and communication for new-world ideas and insights.

Systems thinking teaches that there are two types of complexity: the detailed complexity and the dynamic complexity. The Fifth discipline primarily deals with the latter, the dynamic one.

Oriental scents

The festive winter season is perfect for the oriental scents that are most of the times heavy and more suitable for evening and night rather than work. A large fragrance class, featuring the scents of vanilla and animal scents together with flowers and wood. Frequently enhanced by camphorous oils and incense resins.
Shalimar (Guerlain 1925) is the state of the art among oriental perfumes and the only one in the world's top five which is not a floral scent. Shalimar means "Temple of love" and alludes to Taj Mahal in India.
Notes de tête: Citron, Bergamote
Notes de coeur: Jasmin, Rose de Mai, Opopanax, Fève Tonka, Vanille
Notes de fond: Iris, Encens
Angel (Thierry Mugler 1992) is warm, sweet and spicy, caring. It reminds me of a old friend of mines and times we spent together in the mid-nineties. The list of ingredients reminds of an ice cream parlor... Unzipped (Samba 1998) reminds of this perfume, with the base note of chocolate.
Notes de tête: Bergamote, Mandarine
Notes de coeur: Fruit de la passion, Pêche, Abricot
Notes de fond: Patchouli, Vanille, Chocolat, Caramel
Samsara (Guerlain 1989) is a floral-oriental scent that gains over time, I think, and is less heavy than the above, ladylike.
Notes de tête: Bergamote, Citron, Note Verte, Estragon
Notes de coeur: Jasmin, Rose, Ylang-Ylang, Oeillet
Notes de fond: Santal, Vanille, Benjoin, Fève Tonka

Sensi et Relaxing Fragance

Hier j'ai testé Sensi d'Armani et Relaxing Fragance de Shiseido.

Les deux sont legers, surtout Relaxing Fragance , qui est très "clean", je me demande si ce n'est pas trop de genre savon....mais le long de la journée il tient bien.
Notes de tête: Concombre, Bambou, Armoise, Galbanum
Notes de coeur: Rose, Cardamome, Pivoine, Gardenia
Notes de fond: Santal, Bois de Cèdre, Mousse de Chêne, Fève Tonka
Quant à Sensi, je l'aime bien pour une journée où on a envie de qch

de paisible.
Notes de tête: Kaffir lime, Accacia farnèse
Notes de coeur: Jasmin, orgeat
Notes de fond: Palissandre, benjoin

The August Prize Laureats

The final laureats for the Swedish literary award Augustprisit has been announced.
Fiction: Carl-Henning Wijkmark, for his book on death: "Stundande natten" (Norstedts).
Non-fiction: Bengt Jangfeldt, for the second time. This time it is his book on the Russian poet Majakovskij, entitled "Med livet som insats" (Wahlström & Widstrand).
Children's book: Sven Nordqvist for the book "Var är min syster?" (Opal).
Increased sales to be expected!