Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski & Flowers. Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future.
SoL (The Society for Organizational Learning), USA 2004
ISBN 0974239011
A review by Bill Godfrey
I spend a lot of time reading what could be called the more sophisticated end of general management literature and Presence is dramatically different in layout and approach from most of that literature. It is reflective and discursive, with a lot of forays into philosophical thinking and developments in scientific theory. It is probably well pitched to its primary audience of members of the Society for Organizational Learning and the organizational learning community generally. Others, who are more used to a diet of "how to's", sidebars, summaries and highlighted key points are likely to find it hard going.
However, these are probably precisely the people who most need to absorb the ideas in the book. I have a feeling that, just as the ideas in The Fifth Discipline did not really gain wide acceptance until after the companion The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook appeared, we may need some sort of Presence Fieldbook to support Presence. That would also allow inclusion of material by other authors that seems to be highly relevant, for example Howard Gardner's concept of stories and counter-stories (set out in Leading Minds) and some of the ideas in Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point on what it is that makes new ideas catch on.
In this connection, I always find the story of the acceptance of the theory of tectonic plates both sobering and encouraging. The theory was originally put forward by a person who was not even a geologist and was rejected or ignored by the entire geological establishment for many years. However, after 25 years – a generation – it was the only theory of the dynamics of the earth's crust left standing. The ideas, ways of thinking and elements of the practices advocated in Presence have been being refined and developed at least since the mid-1980s (think of Maturana and Varela, Capra, Hock, Meadows, Senge himself among others). On the analogy of acceptance of tectonic plates, perhaps we are at last nearing the 'tipping point' for acceptance of the principles in the book.
The authors' central question is "How do we individually and collectively bring about useful change in circumstances where the past, and established ways of thinking, are not good guides to the future?" If, as the authors believe, globalization, the exponentially growing impact of humans on the environment, and the overwhelming power and influence of a small number of global corporations have produced a situation in which accepted ways of thinking and acting are no longer appropriate, what are the appropriate ways of thinking and acting and how do we learn them, get them accepted and promote their widespread adoption? Is this an issue only for those in 'positions of power', or can all of us make a difference?
The book takes the form of passages of narrative interspersed with conversations in symposium form. The result is a discursive, but valuable, journey into identifying the right questions and approaches to achieving sustainable answers. The subject is overwhelmingly important and the way it is treated is useful and illuminating. Much of its appeal derives from the fact that the four authors are skilled in the art of dialogue and wide-ranging conversation and have complementary skills and experiences.
Many of the conversations build on themes that have been attracting growing attention. The themes can be grouped broadly as:
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those concerned with identifying the issues, why they are matters of concern and what it is about current thinking and approaches to solving them that makes them worse rather than better. Broadly, these centre on impacts on the environment and the disparities of wealth around the world and the limitations of the analytical and linear approach to problem identification and solutions;
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those concerned with the implications of systemicity and complexity, in particular the need to perceive the whole rather than focusing on parts. These elements of the conversations draw extensively on insights of the economist W. Brian Lewis, broader aspects of complexity theory, and on the body of theory relating to autopoiesis (the processes by which living systems self-organize) and emergence; and
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those concerned with holistic ways of perceiving, reflecting on and responding to issues and the conditions necessary for emergence among an empowered group of a radical new understanding of an issue, and shared enthusiasm for concerted action. These themes draw heavily on Eastern philosophies, on systems theory and our growing experience of deliberate use of dialogue, reflection and democratic forms of group process and networking. Much of this material on group process is essentially the rediscovery and reapplication of some of the earliest forms of decision-making developed by humans, forms that were devalued and nearly destroyed by the analytical rationalism of the industrial age.
The conversations are interesting in themselves containing, as good conversations should, all sorts of stories, sub-themes and not-quite-side-issues. For example:
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there is a fairly extended description of the transformation of a regional private health system in Germany that has immediate application to the problems of health systems elsewhere;
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there is an engaging description of the recognition by many leaders of large businesses of the dangerous unintended consequences of some of their actions and policies and their sense of powerlessness to change the situation (an idea that would astound the many people who protest at corporate actions and regard their leaders as all-powerful and uncontrollable);
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there is a good discussion of issues of democracy and networks within corporations, a concern that has regularly been promoted by experts as diverse as Russell Ackoff and Dee Hock, and stoutly resisted in most organizations (with the result that the vast majority of adult members of democratic societies spend over a third of their lives in autocracies).
The authors build up a picture of an idea – a way of 'seeing the world anew' and a process that will help individuals and groups to move through the profound shifts in ways of thinking and communicating needed to move forward. This is expressed in the theory of the "U Movement", the development and exposition of which forms the central organizing principle for the book, particularly Parts 2 through 4. The elements of the theory are most concisely shown in a chart on page 225 (reproduced below). It is a process in three stages.
The first stage is concerned with standing back from our accustomed way of seeing and dealing with issues, through processes of profound reflection and a focus on the whole.
The second is identified as the most difficult both to explain and to experience: it is (at least in part) a profound transformation from the deeply inbuilt Western view of the self as operator on an external world to an understanding of our role as one agent in the emergence of an unfolding future. Chapter 7 contains a number of examples and anecdotes to try to convey the feeling of this transformation: it is not surprising that the printed word is not wholly successful in conveying something which really has to be experienced.
The third is based on the thesis that it is the profound (collective) change in stage 2 that results in shared clarity as to how to move forward through three sub-stages towards full implementation.
The argument of the book as a whole asserts that total reliance on dispassionate analytical rationalism is a sure path to the wrong answer and that we (individually and collectively) need to find ways to see the wholeness of life and to use our hearts and our intuition to become "part of a future that is seeking to unfold". The authors contrive to bring together a good deal of evidence that such a transformation has valuable practical consequences as well as providing for a much more satisfying personal life for those who can make the transformation.
While this world view is still radical, at least in business circles, it is not new but is rather a part of a growing movement. The authors take a valuable further step both in explaining why a change is necessary and in sketching an approach to learning the profound transformations in perspective that are needed.
As the authors point out, times of transition are marked by stark paradoxes. While writing this review, I happened to watch the TV program The Persuaders about the advertising and marketing industry – the next program scheduled being a re-run of OutFoxed. At the same time that members of many large corporations are encouraging this exploration of new, more holistic and more sympathetic ways of relating to our planet and our world community, business and politics are also enmeshed in enormously expensive endeavours to manipulate behaviour in ways that embed the worst of the mindsets from which the authors are trying to wean us. The 'counter-stories' (to use Howard Gardner's term) are indeed powerful, which makes the publication of this book all the more welcome.