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5 out of 5
by
Paul
from
The United States | Oct 29, 2007
In seminary, I took a class called "Mysticism and Human Presence." Later, I stumbled onto Ralph Harper's book, "On Presence." Then I discovered Bernard McGinn's magnum-opus-in-progress, a history of Western Christian mysticism called "The Presence of God." All of these were significant to the formation of my theology. So when I saw this book - co-written by Peter Senge, whose work on "learning organizations" I have found so helpful - it was irresistible. When I began reading it, I was reminded of Jane Jacobs's "The Nature of Economies." While Jacobs invented a fictional dialogue to get her ideas across, rather like Plato's dialogues, here was an account of a real dialogue among the authors. There is something inherently inviting about a written dialogue. I feel welcomed to the table. There is something about the form that forces the language to be more accessible. I feel involved in the thought process. And I'm led to compare the ideas expressed to my own experience. That's how this book engaged me.
How it felt to read this book enhanced my grasp of its message. Many of us struggle with change in our lives, wanted and unwanted. Communities, even whole societies, struggle collectively with change. When the collective struggle is upon us, how do we struggle well, productively, and collaboratively? The authors describe seven capacities to cultivate: suspending (becoming aware of our habitual thoughts and actions), redirecting (from the habits to their sources), letting go (of feeling like you need to control it all), letting come ("surrendering into commitment" to a larger whole; envisioning new habits), crystallizing (making our intent and work explicit), prototyping (enacting a new way of working, adjusting as you go - the plan doesn't have to be perfect before you act, if you are doing something genuinely new), and institutionalizing (holding onto what's valuable in our intent and our work). These, in this order, are also steps toward change. The authors offer a diagram to show the steps, and they are easily gleaned from the table of contents. What persuades - at least, it persuaded me - is the authors' descriptions of the inner work needed to effect significant change (drawn in part from the wisdom of religious or spiritual ideas and practices) and the examples they cite from their own and their colleagues' work helping to facilitate large-scale collective change. We all resist inner work, we all struggle to collaborate, and we are all inspired by real results. The authors connect the struggles with the results, offering hope and motivation both for doing the inner work and for collaborating.
Concepts from mysticism abound in this book. Mystical sources cited range from Plato to Masaru Emoto - a great range both in epoch and in methods. What anchors and ties them together is how they are related throughout the book to experience, place and presence. If we wish to be the change we want to see, both the seeing and the being must go deep. That is the authors' challenge and invitation.
1 people found this review helpful
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5 out of 5
by
Elizabeth
from
The United States | Feb 26, 2009
from the library c2004 Authors Peter Senge, C Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers
The book before Theory U which in my opinion is the real book about this subject of groups learning to learn.
about 290pages with notes, acknowledgments, Index
Table of Contents
Introduction p3-21
Part 1 Learning to see
Ch 1 the requiem scenario
ch 2 Seeing our Seeing
The capacity to Suspend/ Suspending together/Building a container/the courage to see freshly/the inner work of suspending/integrating the inner work
Ch 3Seeing from the whole
Redirection: seeing the generative process/encountering the authentic whole/seeing from within an organization/the inner work of redirecting
Ch 4 seeing with the Heart
Part 2 Into the Silence
Ch 5 the Generativfe Moment
Ch 6 An Emerging Understanding
the seeds of a theory/a second type of learning/ sensing/presencing/realizing
Ch 7 The Eye of the Needle:Letting Go and Letting Come
A Question from the Heart/surrendering control/primary knowing//the Alien Self/Surrounding into the Commitment
Ch 8 the Wedding
Part 3 Becomiing a Force of Nature
Ch 9 In the Corridor of Dreams
Ch 10 The Grand Will Crystalizing intent/seeds are small/ intengional Work/Awakening
Ch 11In Dialogue with the Universe/
Prototyping/creating and Adjusting/listening to Feedback/Rediscovering purpose/Staying Connected/Synchronicity
Ch 12 Realizing and the Craft of Instituion Building
Part 4 Meeting Our Future
Ch 13 Leadership:Becoming a Human Being
Ch 14 Science Performed with the mind of Wisdom
Fragmentation/measurement/unbroken wholeness/the blind spot/a reflexive science of Living Systems/Science perfprmed with the mind of wisdom/Our Faustian Bargain:Shifting the Burdon ro Modern Science and Technology/a new path
Ch 15 Presence
Epilogue: "With Man gone will there be hope fir Gorilla?"
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4 out of 5
by
Jennifer
from
Tucson, AZ | Apr 28, 2008
I'm going to have to read this book again when I finish it. Am enjoying it incredibly. Looks like the business case for presence to me!
1 people found this review helpful
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5 out of 5
by
Shir_bel
from
Colombia | Apr 13, 2009
Often the thinking of each of us depends on how you can see how "things" or situations, religion, customs and the way we are taught how to look at life.
Learning plays an important role as it integrates the thinking and acting together, it's alternative to the types of capacities that develop from the interactions and what is different is the depth of thought and the will to act.
The key to learning at the deepest levels is that the large life of which we are active are not inherently stable. So may be changing. How we are witnessing the world has a unique perspective in thinking systematically.
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3 out of 5
by
Drick
from
Philadelphia, PA | Nov 29, 2009
This is one of those books that may take several reads to truly "get." I was drawn to the book by the subtitle: "an exploration of profound change in people, organizations, and society." Four scientific thinkers get together to ponder the meaning of change in everyday life, in organizations, in the4 world and in the universe. It is pretty heady stuff, largely steeped in Eastern religious thought, that at times I tried to translate into my Western ,Christian framework. At times I felt like they were talking about calling, that sense of being put in this world for a larger purpose, and that in Gandhi's terms "we can be the chagne we want to see in the world."
One of the more interesting discussions comes in the epilogue, where they raise the issue that human beings may not be the end of the evolutionary change, but are evolving into yet a higher being. This is where evolution goes off track for me in that it assumes a linear progression in life that may or may not be true.
In any case, this is a book to which i will have to return, if I am to fully understand its meaning and message.