Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers, Presence. Human Purpose and the Field of the Future. Crown Business, 2008.
Referenced in: Leading Change and Transition
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
In our time, the focus is not on linear problem-solving processes, but the capacity of groups, even congregations to “access, individually and collectively, our deepest capacity to sense and shape the future,” namely, “the future that is wanting to emerge.” Traditionally, planning has been done by reflecting on what may be learned from efforts of the past. This is likened to “downloading” from existing frameworks. Yet there are no molds for today’s challenges. Futures must be created from other currencies. The authors suggest this must come from tapping into the collective emotional field, or “the intelligence of the heart.” This intelligence, they contend, is the only way to “illuminate the blind spot” and craft futures yet unimagined.
The authors lay out a three-step learning process for this to happen: the open mind, the open heart, and the open will. This facilitates what the authors call “presence,” which results when participants listen deeply, relinquish control, welcome uncertainty, and allow the future to emerge. They provide several case studies where this has worked.
The value for churches may be found in their openness to the “intelligence of the heart.” It is important to remember, however, that methods like this are more complex than they seem, and need to be implemented with great care.
From the Publisher
Presence is an intimate look at the development of a new theory about change and learning. In wide-ranging conversations held over a year and a half, organizational learning pioneers Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers explored the nature of transformational change—how it arises, and the fresh possibilities it offers a world dangerously out of balance. The book introduces the idea of “presence”—a concept borrowed from the natural world that the whole is entirely present in any of its parts—to the worlds of business, education, government, and leadership. Too often, the authors found, we remain stuck in old patterns of seeing and acting. By encouraging deeper levels of learning, we create an awareness of the larger whole, leading to actions that can help to shape its evolution and our future.
Drawing on the wisdom and experience of 150 scientists, social leaders, and entrepreneurs, including Brian Arthur, Rupert Sheldrake, Buckminster Fuller, Lao Tzu, and Carl Jung, Presence is both revolutionary in its exploration and hopeful in its message. This astonishing and completely original work goes on to define the capabilities that underlie our ability to see, sense, and realize new possibilities—in ourselves, in our institutions and organizations, and in society itself.
About the Author
Peter Senge is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the founding chair of SoL, a renowned pioneer, theorist, and writer in the field of management innovation, and the author of the widely acclaimed book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (Doubleday/Currency, 1990).
C. Otto Scharmer is a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, a Visiting Professor at the Helsinki School of Economics, and international action researcher, and author of the forthcoming book Theory U: Leading from the Emerging Future.
Joseph Jaworski is the chairman of Generon Consulting, cofounder of the Global Leadership Initiative, and author of the critically acclaimed Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership (Berrett-Koehler, 1996). Prior to her current role as director of the Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, Betty Sue Flowers was a professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin and an international business consultant.
SoL (The Society for Organizational Learning, Inc.), an outgrowth of the former MIT Center for Organizational Learning, is a nonprofit international membership organization that connects researchers, organizations, and consultants in over thirty countries in building knowledge for systemic change. A portion of the net proceeds from SoL publishing sales are reinvested in basic research, applied learning projects, and building a global network of learning communities.
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- Change and Transition in Churches, Intro
- Change Concepts and Theories
- Overcoming Change Resistance, Creating Change Receptiveness
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