For them, organizational learning requires a shift from "downloading" (operating with habitual ways of knowing and doing) to "presencing" (awareness of the present moment). The specifics of the shift are found in success stories--like the creation of Visa in the 1960s--and in the moving stories of the authors. For example, Senge's story about an Afrikaans businessman who wept as he rejected apartheid or Scharmer's memory of his childhood home destroyed by fire. In addition, Scharmer and Jaworski's innovative research with 150 thought leaders, such as Francisco Varela, a Chilean born Buddhist biologist, add rigor to "The U Process": a seven capacity model for deep individual and collective change.
The authors also draw on a diverse supporting cast including Martin Buber, Goethe, Lao Tzu and Carl Jung to illustrate their core concepts of intention, self-reflection, and awareness of the whole. On occasion, too many voices and examples can blur the clarity of these bold, juicy ideas about self and system. That said, readers who follow the conversations will be richly rewarded with the understanding of what it means to be an authentic agent of change. --Barbara Mackoff
It looks like this is essentally the same book as the ohter Presence book by Senge, et.all.
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Source: Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future
Contributed by: Helen Titchen Beeth.
The basic problem with the new species of global institutions is that they have not yet become aware of themselves as living. Once they do, they can become a place for the presencing of the whole as it might be, not just as it has been.
Source: Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, Page: 7
Contributed by: Helen Titchen Beeth.
A living system continually re-creates itself. But how this occurs in social systems such as global institutions depends on our level of awareness, both individually and collectively… As long as our thinking is governed by industrial, “machine age” metaphors such as control, predicatbility, and “faster is better”, we will continue to re-create institutions as we have, despite their increasing disharmony with the larger world.
purpose
Do you have any books in your library that have 200 tabs sticking out of the book marking passages of note? This is one of them for me. This book is so rich and so full of insights that I truly do not know where to start. First of all it is a conversation and my work is based on conversation so it speaks to me. Second, the examples and the passages create such thought provoking reflection that I can only say that you are missing so much if you do not read. Pick this book up. It is a must for any ones library.