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Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of
the Future
by Peter M. Senge, Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue
Flowers (2004) Society for Organizational Learning Press $27.95
Hardcover
ReaderStrength Rating:
Focus 4
Build 3
Adapt 4
Overall Rating 4
(Please see "How Do We Evaluate Resources?" in right column)
How would the world change if we learned to access, individually and
collectively, our deepest capacity to sense and shape the future?
In Presence: Human Purpose and the Field
of the Future, a companion book to the best-selling
classic The Fifth Discipline and its sequels, organizational learning
experts Peter M. Senge, Otto Scharmer and their coauthors provide 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,
the authors explore their experiences and those of 150 scientists and
social and business entrepreneurs in an effort to explain how profound
collective change occurs. Some questions they address include:
• How does something truly new come into the world?
• How do we see with fresh eyes?
• How do we connect or understand the reality we are facing in ways
that we haven't in the past?
Their journey of discovery articulates an inspiring way to see the
world and understand our part in creating it – as it is and as it
might be. Presence synthesizes leading edge thinking, firsthand
practical knowledge, and ancient wisdom to explore the living fields
that connect us one to another, to life more broadly and, potentially,
to what is emerging.
Complex, Intractable Problems
Presence is not a stale, academic tome. Indeed, this
book is beautifully written. Instead, it is a highly-nuanced
‘adventure' story that offers powerful insights with wide practical
application. The book reads like a clever novel: the authors describe
events in their lives that, upon careful reflection, reveal subtle
clues. Working like Sherlock Holmes, these clues are assembled into a
‘big picture' that reflects universal, underlying themes. The reader
is given a rare window into the lives of the authors and swept along
through a series of intimate conversations. This is such a unique way
to present the material, which is already fascinating, that the reader
becomes instantly invested in the ‘characters', their ‘world', and
their ‘story'.
Essentially, the authors feel that leaders around the world are
increasingly being confronted with complex, intractable problems. Such
situations often have the following characteristics:
(1) The solutions are not known.
(2) The problems will evolve over time and are only partially known
now.
(3) The key actors needed for a successful solution are not fully
known.
Traditional decision-making models, which assume that you have all the
knowledge about the alternatives and preferences, are rapidly becoming
useless or invalid.
The Theory of the U
In addition to being largely invalid, the authors argue that
traditional decision-making frameworks will fail (and fail miserably)
in these dire circumstances. Some situations, for example, are much
too complex to figure out - there is too much going on and there is
too much that is uncertain and novel. In such circumstances, it often
looks like the most anyone can do is to say, "Just take your chances
and hope for the best". At that point, it all degenerates into
randomness and educated guesswork.
Senge and his co-authors believe that there is an alternative: you can
develop your capacity to sense and move with situations - even those
that are not fully understood. To deal with these complex challenges,
today's leaders need a different kind of capacity that helps them
manage uncertain, emerging situations. The authors present a process
that leaders can follow to successfully negotiate these complex
challenges – The Theory of the U. This theory represents the authors'
effort to synthesize a variety of important areas around this
transcendent question, "How are we going to understand the world we
live in and act productively in service of the whole?"
Servant-Leaders
The authors advocate a strong servant-leader model to properly frame
their theory. In this context, a leader is someone who embraces his or
her capacity to be a "servant" of what is needed. To the extent that
you see your purpose as being to serve the whole, i.e. the society or
the organization or whatever is considered the meaningful whole, then
you are a leader.
If one accepts this model, then there are two points of view: (1) my
job as leader is to figure out what the whole needs and then figure
out a way to accomplish it or (2) my job as leader is to help this
"whole" evolve: what is its highest possibility? What is its purpose?
Are we all together? In this sense, serving the whole means not acting
in a self-serving way -- i.e. how can I impose my image of what is
needed? Rather, it means cultivating a more genuine or authentic way
of being, not as an isolated individual but as a being who is
inherently an expression of the whole. According to Senge and his
co-authors, if you are a true member of a community, you will do your
best to act in service to the whole. You may not always succeed, of
course, but that will be your natural inclination.
Living Systems
Finally, the authors persuasively argue that there is an important
link between serving the whole and viewing organizations as living
systems (see Arie de Guess' book The Living Company). The authors'
theory would make no sense out of this context. In other words, if we
see a business as a machine, a machine for making money, then the
organization exists to do what I want it to do or what the board of
directors wants it to do or what the ‘owners' want it to do. The
company is in effect a mechanical entity driven by a few in control.
On the other hand, if the organization is seen as a human community, a
living system, the authors' theory follows very logically. The authors
believe that the question, "How will I serve the living whole?"
captures an orientation at the heart of those who are real leaders.
Recommendation
Senge and his co-authors have written a truly wonderful book that we
recommend reading. The book describes how complex, intractable
problems are not solvable using traditional decision-making methods.
The authors describe a theory, a thought-process really, that is
powerful
Reviewer George Hall, a principal of the firm
Bracken, Najor, Hall LLC, consults on workplace learning/performance
issues. George teaches in the College of Business Administration at
the University of Phoenix in Philadelphia. He is the ASTD Links
"In Practice" Field Editor for management development. He can he
reached at georgechall@comcast.net |
LeaderStrength
Brain Byte
Brain-based Leadership Strategies. Extraordinary Business
Results.
In Presence, the authors write that leaders require a new
way of seeing in order to best use their minds in today's rapidly
changing world. One thing that's needed is to "see from the
whole." What they mean by this is to develop the capacity not only
to suspend assumptions, but also to redirect our awareness to the
process that generates what we see.
We know from brain science that what we see is largely determined
by our beliefs, values, memories and expectations. In learning to
look differently, the first step is to observe ourselves by asking
"Why do I see this? What from my past makes it look this way?" By
doing this, we begin to break up old habits of mind so that new
ways of seeing can emerge.
The second step is dissolving the boundaries between seer and
seen, creating ourselves as an integral part of the whole. This
leads to a deep sense of interconnectedness which, in turn, allows
us to see and experience our role as co-creators of the world we
experience. We begin to see reality as dynamic, rather than rigid
or inflexible. And we see ourselves as leaders, having a powerful
role to play in determining what our reality becomes.
Join a Leadership Reading Club:
Temple University's Fox School of Business hosts the Fox Reader's
Club.
We support their efforts by providing a notice in our e-zine each
month.
Check out their website here
Location to meet: Independence Brew Pub,12th & Filbert
Streets, Center City Philadelphia
Date & Time: TBA.
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About ReaderStrength
ReaderStrength is
an e-publication that saves you time. We review books that will fuel
your inspiration as you lead yourself and others.
Each issue is archived at our website.
click here
How Do We Evaluate Resources?
All of the books we review are evaluated on how they support a
leader’s progress in applying our working definition of leadership.
We teach leaders to: Focus, Build, and Adapt:
Focus: A leader is able to see
a new future.
Build: A leader can build from
his or her strengths as a foundation, adding on new skills,
knowledge, and attitudes to create the new future.
Adapt: A leader is skilled at
using feedback from their own thinking, other people’s reactions,
and results/information from their environments to self-correct and
keep moving toward the new future they envisioned.
Our Rating System:
Outstanding 4
Good 3
Satisfactory 2
Unsatisfactory 1
Focus- How well does this book
inspire a vision of a new future?
Build- How well does this book
teach new knowledge and skills?
Adapt-How well does this book
assist readers in examining and optimizing their own behaviors?
Overall Rating as a Leadership Resource:
We average the ratings in the above three categories. |
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