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How would the world change if we learned
to access, individually and collectively, our deepest capacity
to sense and shape the future? This is just one of the questions
posed by the authors of a book that combines unusual personal
honesty with rigorous critical thinking.
Presence: Human Purpose and the Field
of the Future gives the reader an intimate look at the
development of a new theory about change and learning. In
wide-ranging conversations held over a year and a half,
Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, and Flowers explore their own
experiences and those of one hundred and fifty scientists
and social and business entrepreneurs in an effort to explain
how profound collective change occurs. Their journey of
discovery articulates a new way of seeing the world, and
of understanding our part in creating it -- as it is and
as it might be.
Radical and hopeful, Presence synthesizes
leading-edge thinking, firsthand knowledge, and ancient
wisdom to explore the living fields that connect us to one
another, to life more broadly, and, potentially, to what
is "seeking to emerge." Seven capacities underlie
our ability to see, sense, and realize new possibilities.
Developing these capacities accesses a deeper level of learning
that is the key to creating change that serves the whole
-- ourselves, our organizations, and the communities of
which we are a part.
Peter Senge is a senior lecturer at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the founding chair
of SoL, a renowned pioneer, theorist, and writer in the
field of management innovation, and the author of the widely
acclaimed book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice
of the Learning Organization (Doubleday/ Currency, 1990).
C. Otto Scharmer is a lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of
Management, a Visiting Professor at the Helsinki School
of Economics, an international action researcher, and author
of the forthcoming book Theory U: Leading from the Emerging
Future. Joseph Jaworski is the chairman of Generon Consulting,
cofounder of the Global Leadership Initiative, and author
of the critically acclaimed Synchronicity: The Inner
Path of Leadership (Berrett-Koehler, 1996). Prior to
her current role as director of the Johnson Presidential
Library and Museum, Betty Sue Flowers was a professor of
English at the University of Texas at Austin and an international
business consultant.
SoL (The Society for Organizational Learning,
Inc.), an outgrowth of the former MIT Center for Organizational
Learning, is a nonprofit international membership organization
that connects researchers, organizations, and consultants
in over thirty countries in building knowledge for systemic
change. A portion of the net proceeds from SoL publishing
sales are reinvested in basic research, applied learning
projects, and building a global network of learning communities.
More information about SoL can be found
at www.solonline.org.
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