In 1990 Peter Senge introduced us to the term the learning organization in his seminal publication The Fifth Discipline. According to Senge A learning organization is developed from a group of people who are working collaboratively to broaden their capacity to reach and create the outcomes that are important to them. It is a way of approaching complex problems and challenges and is rooted in systems thinking. For Senge there are five essential characteristics of the learning organization which include Systems thinking, Personal mastery Mental Models shared Vision and team learning. The important feature of the learning organization is the removal and elimination of traditional hierarchical structures which, in many cases is a concept so foreign to many organizational leaders that it presents a tremendous barrier. Traditional hierarchical structures have been limited in their ability to bring full synthesis between current iterations of  human service theories and models of support and the organizations through which they are implemented. Interestingly enough it is the milieu of human services where these components of a learning organization could take the deepest root.