A review by Robert Fritz
Peter Senge, Claus Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers have just released a remarkable book entitled Presence - Human Purpose and The Field of the Future.
The book is doing something quite original. Rather than the typical transference of information proclaimed from on high from esteemed author-experts, it's a look behind the curtain as the authors engage in an organic search for authentic insights and understanding in areas which do not easily lend themselves to understanding.
Presence is not a book that proposes definitive answers. Nor is it a book in which the reader can immediately translate insights into actions. It is not a "how to," or a "here's how it goes," or a "this is what you should think." If anything, it's an exploration by four very fine minds who are also very good people. Together, they are developing a thought process that delves into the current precarious condition of the world. They wonder aloud if humanity can understand the profound changes it needs to survive, they connect dots of science, ancient wisdom, and their personal experiences. They play off each other, developing lines of reflection, egging each other on, sharing personal stories, joining each other in questioning, looking, searching, and sometimes, finding answers. But the answers they discover are not designed to be Truths one should come to believe. Rather they are perspectives from which to view reality, flexible vantage points that engender looking further, deeper, higher.
If you read Presence, which I hope you do, I suggest you read it more as if it were a documentary film rather than a typical book. There is something quite cinematic in the way the book develops. Often, the four authors are meeting in Otto Scharmer's Cambridge home, and we, the readers, are suddenly there, observing the flow of ideas that develop as they engage in a penetrating exploration of the human condition. Often the conversation is philosophical. Other times they tell each other stories that allow us to live vicariously in their experience. The stories are often moving, touching something deeper within the human spirit.
One such story is about a training Peter Senge conducted in South Africa in 1990 on the eve of the breakdown of apartheid. Within the group of thirty, half were white business executives and half black community organizers. At that point in South Africa's history, these people took quite a risk to attend Peter's workshop. On the last day of the program, President F. W. de Klerk appeared on television and gave the now famous speech that began the process of rejecting apartheid. The group was making history and also being a witness to a great historic moment. At the end of the training, when people were making their closing statements, a taciturn Afrikaans business executive looked in the eyes of one of the black leaders and said, "I want you to know that I was raised to think that you were an animal." And then he began to cry. The black leader nodded, and Peter described the impact of this moment as "a huge knot becoming untied"…they were becoming free, even though free elections were still four years in the future.
Otto Scharmer tells a story of his family home being destroyed by fire when he was in his teens. The family had lived there for many generations, but now 350 year-old farmhouse was gone. The next day, his eighty-seven year old grandfather arrived, summoned all the energy he had left, walked straight to were Otto's father was working on clean-up, took his hand and said, "Keep your head up, my boy, look forward." He then turned around, walked back into a waiting car and left. A few days later he died. Otto's eyes were tearing as he told the story. "You can see that even after all these years, this moves me still -- that little scene of my grandfather walking by, ignoring the ruins of his home, and focusing all his remaining life energy on shifting my father's attention from reacting to the past to opening up what might emerge from the future."
One of the major themes Presence explores is the world as a living system. Much of the ecological dangers the earth faces are from the inability of people all over the world to understand how their local decisions are connected to the breakdown our environmental systems. The authors discuss what type of changes it will take for people to understand their interrelatedness to their planet. Rather than prescriptive answers, the authors let their thought process lead them to consider nature, consciousness, science and technology, spiritual traditions, personal experiences and emotions, and the multidimensional approach that humanity must confront.
Peter Senge has always been a brilliant shinning light. I am awed by his ability to bring people into higher levels of perspective, much higher than most of us are able to envision on our own. Having known him for a long time, I know this is part natural talent, but also part discipline, part self-generated growth, and also true intellectual integrity. Peter is dedicated to evolve as a person and is a true lifetime learner, a phrase he helped popularize.
In Peter's speeches, there's a way that he seems to "think in public" so as to include the audience in the essence of his thought process. He is able to provoke visions of new possibilities, insights, and greater involvement with life. He does this, not as a preacher or motivational speaker, but as a soulful and brilliant thinker who is able to bring others into the universe he inhabits.
Over the years, Peter has grown from a system dynamisist, to the prime figure in the Learning Organization movement, to a leader in "learning communities." He began his career dealing with management issues, and has developed into an agent of social change, thought leader, and now, a true world leader.
In Presence , we get an almost "meta-lesson" by watching how he interacts with his colleagues. Although a monumental public figure, he never dominates the conversation. He truthfully explores his own dilemmas, poses penetrating questions, shares his spiritual and intellectual quest, and listens carefully as his fellow authors express their thoughts. Peter, Otto, Joe, and Betty Sue are equal players in Presence , and the result is a book with "emotional truth" (as they say in theater.) Something rings true even beyond the ideas they explore. The something is not simply the ideas, but the dialogue, the reaching, the goodness of these four people, their lack of ego and the presence of their humanity.
The process of creating this book began in the fall of 2000. The events of September 11th, 2001 causes a change of tenor in their ongoing conversations as they delved even more deeply into questions of human development and survival. The group's major theme is that our way of thinking is limited and faulty. They encourage thinking in wholes rather than in fragmented parts. They look at systems of relationships rather than single isolated events demanding solutions. And from this perspective, they are able to look freshly at the world and ask new questions that open new possibilities to consider.
he book is not only conversation among the group, but also essays written in a single voice. The play of conversation and essay keeps the book moving forward over time, expanding our understanding, and enabling us to engage in a wonderful combination of intellectual and visceral experience with the authors.
The books title Presence can be understood in many ways, as the book progresses we are able to be in the presence of these remarkable people, while even more "present" to ourselves and the world we inhabit. Presence is a journey from the present to an unknown future, a journey of exploration rather than dogma, a journey of creating rather than reacting or responding to prevailing circumstances, a journey toward a vision of humanity at its highest.