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.