Large System Change

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Book Excerpt: Stumbling - Bridging Divides in Israel
By Adam Kahane

The central theme of Adam Kahane’s new book, Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change, is that if we want to be able to effect sustainable change in social systems – organizations, communities, societies – then we need to learn to work with two distinct drives that are permanently in tension: power and love. Kahane refers to Paul Tillich’s definition of power – “the drive of everything living to realize itself” – and points out that Tillich also “argues for differentiating between power-to that destroys oppressive institutions and power-over that destroys people.” He (Tillich) defines love as “the drive towards the unity of the separated.” Through the story of an ambitious and tough national dialogue project in Israel, this excerpt highlights “stumbling” (a distinct phase in the process of learning to “walk”) as a metaphor for the most difficult challenges we face in aligning the competing drives of power and love. Read Full Article

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Food for Thought: Discovering Common Ground
By Bart Hilhorst and Peter Schütte

The Nile’s waters are vital for the livelihood of over 200 million people in its basin. Rapidly rising populations and consequent environmental stresses have lead to water scarcity and complex protracted negotiations. Peter Schütte and Bart Hilhorst describe an interactive process called Food for Thought (F4T), in which a group of 25 representatives from all Nile countries participated in a joint scenario building exercise to consider future water demands, particularly for agricultural needs. The authors share details of this process, demonstrating that scenario thinking can increase the appreciative understanding of a complex problem in a relatively short period of time, surface hidden assumptions, clarify desired futures, and foster trusting relationships among a diverse set of stakeholders and experts by encouraging a wider perspective. Read Full Article

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Capitalism as a Human System: The Value of Relational Equity
By Joseph H. Bragdon

In this article, Jay Bragdon, author of Profit for Life (SoL 2006), explains why companies that mimic living systems consistently outperform those that exist as mechanical entities. The term he uses to describe this emerging living systems model is relational equity. Over the past ten calendar years he has tracked equity returns on the 60 companies in his learning lab against widely used benchmark indices – ones that broadly represent traditional bottom-line-first management methods. His data revealed that companies driven by a traditional bottom-line approach, on average, either lost value or barely broke even. However, those that followed a relational equity model were able to catalyze a powerful reinforcing cycle of profit. In reading this article, we learn that a business managed as if it were a living organism creates a radically different and more beneficial set of relationships than one managed as a static entity. Companies that operate as living systems inherently place a significantly higher value on people and Nature (living assets) than they do on non-living capital assets. They understand, as we as practitioners need to understand, that at a fundamental level living assets are a prolific source of capital assets. Read Full Article

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Law Enforcement Through Community Engagement: From Productivity to Purpose
By Edward Cronin

One of the most common approaches to reducing crime is to increase enforcement. In his first two years as police chief in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Ed Cronin excelled in increasing enforcement. However when these efforts resulted in no decrease in crime, he was persuaded that community policing must address the causes of crime as well as its chronic symptoms. Using systems thinking, a community coalition recruited to address the immediate problem identified a number of strategies to increase safety and sustainability. The results of this new enforcement model include a reduction in criminal activity, the active engagement in the political process of a previously disenfranchised community, a police department who actively partners with other groups to address tough problems, and a law enforcement professional who has become an international advocate for a systemic approach to creating healthier communities. Read Full Article

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Not Just for Profit
By Marjorie Kelly

Conventional wisdom tells us that the purpose of economic activity is to make money for shareholders. While this is true, it is only one truth. As new definitions of capitalism emerge (see "Capitalism as a Human System: The Value of Relational Equity," pages 1-8), a small but rapidly expanding group of corporate leaders believe that economic activity should and can be socially beneficial. In this article, Marjorie Kelly, author of The Divine Right of Capital, explains the rise of the beneficial corporation. The core purpose of beneficial corporations, or B corporations, is to ensure that their goods and services benefit society as they continue to return profits to their shareholders. They regard their businesses as living systems and believe that delivering social benefits is a core purpose, not an incidental by-product. New corporate structures are emerging to actively include the voice of multiple stakeholders and relieve the pressure to focus solely on short-term results - structures essential for the success of this new corporate form. With a commentary by Jason Schulist "In Search of the New Normal". Read Full Article

Of Interest

Organizational Learning and the IFC’S Mission Impossible - A Commentary
By Peter Senge

Leadership offers a powerful thread for understanding the rich tapestry of forces that shape all journeys of deep organizational change, and yet it is far too often misunderstood. I really liked "Organizational Learning and the IFC's Mission Impossible"[Reflections 9.1], both because it tells an important story of change in a very complex public-sector organization, and because it helps people see the diversity of leadership involved, and especially because it entirely omits the one character who, by more traditional accounts, would be hailed as "the leader."

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Learning and Performing through Hastily Formed Networks
By George Roth

Contributors: Carol Gorelick, Jeff Clanon, Sue Higgins, Tracy Huston, Jason Schulist, Jean Tully, Greg Clark, Shelia Covert-Weiss, Peter Walker, Bob Wiebe, and Fred Krawchuk

In November 2005, a group of SoL organizational members became interested in network responses to crises. Although organizations typically rely on formal structures and defined decision-making processes to coordinate activities, these officers wondered whether hastily formed network (HFN) insights could be applied to urgent and unpredictable circumstances affecting their own organizations. Together with SoL staff, the group decided to develop, test, and refine ideas about what leads to effective HFN behaviors by undertaking a number of individual learning projects. This article reports on their research and findings. For more information on Hastily Formed Networks, see Reflections 7.1.

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Book Excerpt: The Tao of Sustainability
By John Ehrenfeld

From: Sustainability by Design: A Subversive Strategy for Transforming Our Consumer Culture New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008

Ehrenfeld's work itself is inspired by his experience in the SoL community. He has shared his developing ideas in prior issues of Reflections, and he writes an introduction to the book excerpt which tells that story.

See:
"Searching for Sustainability: No Quick Fix"
"Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously: Is the Emergence of "Sustainable" Practices Meaningful?"

Second, the "tao of sustainability" speaks to the theoretical and practical importance of "recovering our senses" dimmed by the forces of modernity. In his discourse, Ehrenfeld illustrates how we can truly move from viewing sustainability as a problem in need of a solution, to a possibility calling for creation.

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Global Action Networks: An Organizational Innovation
By Steve Waddell

GANs, or Global Action Networks, are a leading innovation for scaling impact to address issues of common good. GANs are a specific type of innovation that contrasts starkly with traditional approaches to global challenges and opportunities that focused upon national and intergovernmental organizations. Over the past few decades, as the pace of globalization has increased and environmental issues have grown, the limits of the nation-state have become increasingly apparent. This article introduces the five strategic qualities of GANS, the stages these networks typically move through, and includes examples of successful initiatives the author has been involved with. Read Full Article

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Tribal Leadership: An Interview with David C. Logan and John King
By George Hall

In Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization (Collins Business, 2008), authors David Logan and John King draw from several decades of consulting experience to examine the winning corporate culture at Amgen, Intel, American Express, Prudential and other leading companies. What makes these companies so successful? Tribes - the groups that naturally form within the company - are the secret to lasting success. It's a fact of life, say the authors: birds flock, fish school, and people "tribe." The authors learned that what separates average tribes from those that excel is culture. Tribal culture exists in stages, evolving from undermining to history-making. The book contains a wealth of interventions to grow and sustain a winning tribal culture. In this interview, the authors address several intriguing questions:

• How can leaders use tribes to maximize productivity and profit?
• Why do great leaders often fail in a new environment?
• Why do average leaders seem better than they really are?
• Why do great strategies fail more often than they succeed?

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The Defining Features of a Megacommunity
By Chris Kelly, Mark Gerencser, Fernando Napolitano and Reginald Van Lee

This article, written by four principals with Booz Allen Hamilton, can be considered a primer for creating successful multi-partite initiatives to solve critical problems that embrace the talents of government, business, and civil society.

As they see it, it takes a "megacommunity" to address the "wicked problems" we face. Such problems cannot be solved by government, business, or civil society alone, and the engagement of all three sectors is a characteristic of their most successful cases. They describe how leaders of many organizations must work together toward common goals, without any one of them being in control of the whole system. A megacommunity initiative combines focused conversation, deliberate development of leadership capabilities, and results-oriented action in an open-ended network of leaders from multiple organizations. Based on their book: Megacommunities: How Leaders of Government, Business and Non-Profits Can Tackle Today's Global Challenges Together (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)

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Serving the Underserved: Progressive Energy Solutions Through a Sustainable Business Model
By Roberto Bocca and Prema Gopalan

One of the most highly rated sessions at SoL’s 2008 Global Forum in Oman was a presentation by Roberto Bocca, the director of Emerging Consumer Markets for BP Alternative Energy, and Prema Gopalan, the founder and executive director of Swayam Shikshan Prayog (Self Education for Empowerment, or SSP), a non-governmental organization (NGO) in India. The two organizations partnered to look at solving the problem of bringing clean energy to some of India’s poorest people. This took the form of creating a market together for an innovative, affordable cooking stove that uses pellets made of agricultural waste as fuel. The following is adapted from that session, which addressed the unique nature of corporate-NGO partnerships. Read Full Article

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The Role of the Corporation in Supporting Local Development
By Muhammad Yunus

At SoL’s Global Forum held in Oman last year, Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, joined Roberto Bocca, director of emerging consumer markets at BP Alternative Energy; Lynne Dovey, director of strategic planning at the Ministry of Economic Development in New Zealand; Shaikh Saleh Al-Turki, the chairman of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Omar Shaban, director of operations at Cisco NetVersity to look at the ways in which business can be modeled in order to help the poor. Muhammad Yunus related the story behind Grameen Bank and shared his concept of “social business.” Moderated by social researcher Laurent Marbacher, the panel also explored the idea of what human beings are capable of doing for local development, as well as how systems can enhance these capacities so that they can flourish. Read Full Article

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BOOK EXCERPT from The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World - "How We Got into this Predicament"
By Peter Senge, Bryan Smith, nina kruschwitz, Joe Laur and Sara Schley

Something important has happened in the last stage of the industrial era that sets it apart from the past: Globalization has brought a level of interdependence between nations and regions that never existed before, along with truly global problems that also have no precedent. The Industrial Age isn’t ending because of a decline in opportunities for further expansion. It is ending because individuals, organizations, and governments are realizing that its side effects are unsustainable. But endings are also beginnings. In The Necessary Revolution, Peter Senge and his coauthors share the guiding ideas that are essential for creating a more sustainable future: seeing systems, collaborating across boundaries, and moving from problem solving to creating. The book is full of stories and examples of individuals and organizations who are putting these ideas into action, many of whom are associated with SoL. This excerpt explains “how we got here” and lays out the case for urgency in radically shifting the kind of thinking that has made the industrial era so successful, and so disastrous. Read Full Article

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BOOK EXCERPT from Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Update - "Tools for the Transition to Sustainability"
By Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers and Dennis Meadows

In 1972, three scientists from MIT created a computer model that analyzed global resource consumption and production. Their results – published in the bestseller Limits to Growth – shocked the world and created stirring conversation about global “overshoot,” or resource use beyond the carrying capacity of the planet. In this update, published 30 years later, they offer an analysis of present and future trends in resource use, and assess a variety of possible outcomes. The authors believe that humanity can still reverse some of its damage to Earth if it takes appropriate measures now to reduce inefficiency and waste. In this excerpt, they lay out five tools that will be necessary for our survival over the long term. Read Full Article

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Organizational Learning and IFC’s Mission Impossible
By Dorothy Berry, Yolanda Hegngi and Marilyn Darling

Beginning in 1998, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) embarked on a journey of transformational change aimed at serving more people, in new and underserved markets. IFC founded its change effort on the principles and methods of organizational learning. Their decentralized approach focused first on using dialogue to create a shared vision that would inspire, and shared spaces for innovation. Ten years later the results speak for themselves – and the journey continues. Read Full Article

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Distributed Knowing: A Conversation with Philippe Descola
By Thierry Groussin

Philippe Descola, a graduate of l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, is an anthropologist and professor at Collège de France. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Claude Levi-Strauss, announced the beginnings of a new research field: comparative anthropology in the socialization of nature. His field research led him to study the Jivaro tribe in the Amazon basin. Philippe Descola’s work was discussed at the SoL Forum on Collective Intelligence held on May 11, 2007 in Paris, having been cited by Andreu Solé, a participant in the panel of researchers. Les Cahiers de SoL, SoL France’s version of Reflections, interviewed Philippe Descola for its December 2007 issue, which was devoted entirely to the subject of collective intelligence. A large portion of the original interview is reproduced here. Read Full Article

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Book Excerpt: The Real Wealth of Nations - Chapter 1, We Need a New Economics
By Riane Eisler

Recognized as a truly original thinker, Riane Eisler, author of the best seller The Chalice and the Blade continues to bring fresh solutions to the world’s social problems in her new book, The Real Wealth of Nations. Hailed as “revolutionary” by Gloria Steinem, and “desperately needed” by Peter Senge, the book begins with a look at our day-to-day behaviors and values, and then moves to the changes needed in the policies and practices of governments and business leaders. A renowned social scientist, macrohistorian, attorney, and activist for human rights, peace, and the environment, Eisler offers solutions based on solid research that are compassionate, sustainable, and practical. Here we excerpt the first chapter, in which she introduces the first of five foundations for a caring economics: a full-spectrum economic map that includes the life-supporting activities of households, communities, and nature. Read Full Article

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The Future of the Corporation
By Charles Handy

In November, 2007 the Tellus Institute co-hosted (with SoL) the Summit on the Future of the Corporation in Boston. The meeting was the culmination of an initiative begun in 2004, Corporation 20/20, which brought together a group of business and civic leaders to grapple with the question of the nature and purpose of the corporation, and how corporations should be designed in the future to meet societal needs and expectations. Charles Handy, an author (most recently of the autobiography Myself and Other More Important Matters) and philosopher focused on organizational behavior and management issues, opened the meeting with the following remarks. Read Full Article

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Research Update: A “SoL” Way of Seeing - Investigating Conditions Enabling and Inhibiting Collective Intelligence
By Manfred Mack

In 2007, members of SoL France undertook a survey of members in order to determine their familiarity with the idea of “collective intelligence.” The results of the survey were shared with participants at an international workshop on the subject in Paris, which was attended by more than 200 people. The survey questions, and a summary of answers, reveal some interesting dichotomies among members about the idea of collective intelligence, and how it can help members grappling with questions of personal, organizational, and societal change. Read Full Article

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Inside the Theory of the U: An Interview with Peter Senge and Otto Scharmer
By George Hall

In Presence (SoL, 2004), Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer and their coauthors Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers provided an intimate look at the development of a new theory about change and learning. The theory was further refined in Otto Scharmer’s subsequent book Theory U (SoL, 2000). In both books, the authors seek to explain how profound collective change occurs. Ultimately, they tackle universal and persistent questions – What are we here for? How would the world change if we learned to access, individually and collectively, our deepest capacity to sense and shape the future? What do we really care about? How can we serve an emerging future that averts environmental degradation and species destruction – including our own? In this, the first half of an interview conducted by George Hall, Peter Senge and Otto Scharmer share their views on innovation, insight, and leadership. Read Full Article

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Building a Systems Thinking Culture at Ford Motor Company
By Jeremy Seligman

The Ford Motor Company was an early sponsor of the MIT Center for Organizational Learning, and has been a member of SoL since its inception. Jeremy Seligman, a passionate systems thinker, has captured some of the story of building a systems thinking culture at Ford from the perspective of a relative newcomer. The candor of this piece helps us appreciate the fact that organizational systems will naturally limit the success of even the best-intentioned efforts. Recognizing, planning for, and learning to correct these limits helps build organizational capacity for systems thinking that survives and grows over time. A key ingredient in developing a deep appreciation for the systemic nature of issues is the ability to consider diverse perspectives. Read Full Article

Commentary by Michael Goodman

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Awakening Faith in an Alternative Future: A Consideration of Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future
By Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers

With so many social systems – families, companies, governments, communities and societies – in disarray, it often seems that the future does not look promising. The scenarios we imagine most easily reveal our worst fears rather than the legacy to which we aspire. What can we do? Based on extensive research, first-hand experience, and a multi-year dialogue, Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers – authors of the new book Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future – have concluded that in order to “create the world anew” we will be called to participate in changes that are both “deeply personal and inherently systemic.” Given SoL’s mission to support the interdependent development of individuals and their institutions, we are delighted to share highlights of the authors’ exploration into the essence of generative learning. The article that follows is based on the introductory chapters of their book. Read Full Article

Commentary by Darcy Winslow

Commentary by Elena Diez Pinto

Commentary by Robert Fritz

Emerging Knowledge

Training Often Fails to Get Results
By Brian McDonald

We need to rethink the design of leadership development programs so they reflect how people really learn. There is increasing evidence of training's limited success in achieving its goals of sustained individual growth and lasting organizational change. McDonald summarizes the current research, including data from his own leadership development consulting practice, and its implications for effective leadership development program design. SoL member Grady McGonagill offers a comment, proposing that McDonald's findings are well accepted. So why do we continue with ineffective practice? What if "folks responsible for all that classroom training, like me, are aware of and even endorse the above principles, yet continue to ignore them. In that case we need to look deeper into how leadership developers make choices about how to approach their craft." Grady offers some reflections on what might be driving his own choices, and the underlying beliefs we must address. Read Full Article

Emerging Knowledge

What Can We Learn for the Next War?: The Story of the Metalogue Conference as a Large System Intervention Method
By Rudolph Attems, Christoph Ernst Mandl, Hanna Mandl, Kuno Sohm and Josef M Weber

The "Metalogue Conference," is a type of large group intervention with some well-known elements of other "classic" intervention methods, like Open Space and dialogue. Rather than focusing on a certain method, it looks at the process of managing diversity in a more fundamental sense. Different methods, "architectures of communication," are used to cr Read Full Article

Emerging Knowledge

Are You Ready?
By Jennifer Walinga

Readiness for change is the crux to any change management strategy. If people are not ready to change, they won't. The key question for any change agent, however, is not simply whether people are ready to change, but how people get ready to change, according to Olympic athlete Walinga. She offers a framework for thinking about mental, physical and emotional clarity in an organizational setting as an important addendum to Lewin's change framework. She proposes that readiness to change can be facilitated by asking two questions: What is important to you and what are you afraid of? - not as challenge by rather as a true inquiry. The result is an openness rather than resignation or resistance to change. Read Full Article

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Creating Desired Futures in a Global Economy
By Peter Senge

Underlying every significant issue that organizations and societies face is the question: How can we create desired results in an increasingly interdependent world? That question has been the focus of Peter Senge's work for more than 20 years. It also is at the heart of the Society for Organizational Learning's research in innovation, large-systems change, sustainability, the future of education, and leadership development. In June 2003, 335 researchers, consultants and executives from business, government, and civil society gathered at SoL's first Global Forum, in Helsinki, Finland. This article was adapted from Peter's remarks at that forum. Read Full Article

Commentary by Sherry Immediato

Commentary by Karen Ayas

Commentary by Muhammad Yunus

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Models and Tools for Stability and Change in Human Systems
By Ed Schein

Edgar Schein scrutinizes the nature of change and stability—“two sides of the same coin”, in his understanding—and outlines techniques to implement the resultant findings to achieve desired results. Schein: “…Learning is a perpetual process…” Read Full Article

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From the Chair
By Peter Senge

Peter Senge cautions us against developing programs for organizational change that ignore the ‘concrete particulars’—the “here and now” of our conscious experience—and hints at an alternative. Senge: “After all the grand plans and all the brilliant strategizing, victory and defeat often turn on the cumulation of many small matter, each by itself easy to miss.” Read Full Article

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Strategies for the Bottom of the Economic Pyramid: India as a Source of Innovation
By C.K. Prahalad

In light of the ongoing economic transformation in India—including both its failures and its successes—Prahalad questions our assumptions about the operation of global and local markets. Prahalad: “In order to create a new India, we need to recast assumptions that have guided public and private policy for the past 50 years of independence.” Read Full Article

Commentary by Andre van Heemstra

Commentary by V. Rangan

Commentary by Vindi Banga

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The Human Side of Enterprise
By Douglas McGregor

Douglas McGregor shows that the operative assumptions of controlling managers are outdated in an age when workers demand the fulfillment of human needs. McGregor: “We know that past conceptions of the nature of man are inadequate and in many ways incorrect.” Read Full Article

Commentary by Bill O'Brien

Commentary by iva wilson

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A New Corporate Design
By Jay Forrester

Jay Forrester shares his vision of the organizations that result from a deeper connection to our social and physical environments in this classic piece. Forrester: “…It is time to apply to business organizations the same willingness to innovate that has set the pace of scientific advance.” Read Full Article

Commentary by Daniel Kim

Commentary by Georgianna Bishop

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Competence and Compassion in an Age of Uncertainty
By Donald N. Michael

With updated commentary from Arie de Geus, Donald Michael attempts to discredit the classic model of power and control in society in order to replace it with a systemic one in this 1981 article. Michael: “…The human condition is, to an unknown degree, inherently unpredictable…” Read Full Article

Commentary by Frances Hesselbein

Commentary by Arie de Geus