Senge et. al, does it again

Peter Senge's team has written a new book, Presence, published in 2004 by The Society for Organizational Learning (SOL). I, like so many others, have found Dr. Senge's books of great value throughout my working career. He has found ways to describe systems and systems thinking in ways that have literally changed the world. I have also had the opportunity to meet Peter and work with him on serveral occasions and have found him to be a delightful person as well.

This new book on how to approach visioning and acting on future possibilities (life) breaks new ground. It is written as a dialogue (no surprise there) and it is written in a series of stories or episodes, each with a message and a lesson.

I took away several really fine learnings and experiences from the book that I will be able to use in my work, in and out of the classroom. His idea that we can project possible learning from anticipated futures, if we view life as a process, rather than series of projects, provides a whole new way of leading and working in organizations. He paints a vision of future leadership that is inclusive not exclusive, that is about providing learning conditions in our organizations that provide opportunites for as many as possible. With the lurking environmental and social limits of technological globalization apon us, never has there been a better time for a new skill set, a new leadership based on how to accelerate and improve our ability to learn.

But this book is more than that. This team of outhors builds on the work of many intellegent people who are finding it hard to "live their lives in color when we paint our world in black and white". So much of what we value is carteasian while practical wisdom is dismissed. We leave a whole palettes of possbilities locked away, and we search for the truth through science and economics, while a whole new reality may be open to those who are bold enough to admit that there may be room for all. Ken Wilber has worked on this for many years, this disconnect between science and philosophy of letters, but this team has demonstrated practical value in a broader view. Approaching organizational learning by enfolding broader value systems will produce broader scenarios. When planning for the future actions of your organizations, this may make your organizations more successful and certainly it can make life more fulfilling.

It will take me several readings and pondering on the book to "grok" the fullness of it.

Switzerland

Our family had a great vacation this summer in Switzerland, staying mostly in the areas in and around the lake of Constance. I have a great friend there and it was good to spend time with them.

It was pretty expensive. Fuel was $5 a gallon and dinners were ~30 a person, but it is certainly one of the most beautiful places in the the world.

From the terrace of our flat, we could see the Alps on one side and the lake on the other. The road that passed by our flat had bike lanes and there were almost as many bikes on the road as cars. If you took the motorbike into consideration, the two wheelers certainly out numbered 4 wheelers. Small trains passed by about every 20 minutes. It struck me, as I was sitting there having a glass of wine and feeling very European, that if oil trekked up to $10 or $20 a gallon, this country could get by without a huge change in lifestyle.

I have tried to discuss this with several people, who cite that yes, it is like that in Europe, but it is so small relative to the US. I would argue that if we broke the US into communities and looked at the investment return over the long haul, verses the true cost of a petroleum based transport system, that it is feasible to do this. Of course what we must have is the will of the public.

This, of course, is not being discussed in our election year debates, but the candidates have implied that they will get the cost of the oil down. This will not be possible. Petrol is now a limited resource. Because us poor Americans cannot think or plan past our current reality, we will continue to spend billions on security that is being used to protect us from terrorists that we have created with our energy and lifestyle policies.

It is so sad. We are fulfilling a destiny that could be so different with just a bit of change in perception of what is possible and what makes for a good life.

When the petroleum shit begins to hit the fan hard, it will be a whole lot better life in Switzerland that in the US, because they have retained the value in their communities and they have paid for it over generations.