Presence

300 Pages·2005·4.45 MB·English

by  Peter Senge

Presence
Exploring Profound Change
in People, Organizations, and Society

Presence
Exploring Profound Change
in People, Organizations, and Society
Peter Senge
C. Otto Scharmer
Joseph Jaworski
Betty Sue Flowers
First published in Great Britain by
Nicholas Brealey Publishing in 2005
3–5 Spafield Street 20 Park Plaza, Suite 1115A
Clerkenwell, London Boston
EC1R 4QB MA 02116, USA
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www.nicholasbrealey.com
www.presence.net
Copyright © 2004, 2005 Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer,
Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers
The rights of Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty
Sue Flowers to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN: 978-1-85788-355-8
eISBN: 978-1-85788-429-6
Managing Editor: Nina Kruschwitz
Book design: Chris Welch
Coltsfoot illustration: Diane Leonard-Senge

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording and/or otherwise without the
prior written permission of the publishers. This book may not be lent,
resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form,
binding or cover other than that in which it is published, without the prior
consent of the publishers.
Dedicated to the memory of Francisco J. Varela
(1946–2001)

Contents
Introduction 3
Of Parts and Wholes 5
The Emergence of Living Institutions 7
New Ways of Thinking About Learning 10
The Field of the Future 12
Presence 13
About This Book 15
Part 1 Learning to See
1. The Requiem Scenario 21
2. Seeing Our Seeing 27
The Capacity to Suspend 29
Suspending Together 31
Building a Container 33
The Courage to See Freshly 35
Contents vii
The Inner Work of Suspending 37
Integrating Inner Work 38
3. Seeing from the Whole 41
Redirection: Seeing the Generative Process 42
Encountering the Authentic Whole 45
Seeing from Within an Organization 48
The Inner Work of Redirecting 50
4. Seeing with the Heart 53
Part 2 Into the Silence
5. The Generative Moment 71
6. An Emerging Understanding 83
The Seeds of a Theory 84
A Second Type of Learning 86
Sensing 88
Presencing 89
Realizing 91
7. The Eye of the Needle: Letting Go
and Letting Come 93

A Question from the Heart 94
Surrendering Control 96
Primary Knowing 97
The Alien Self 100
Surrendering into Commitment 102
8. The Wedding 105
Part 3 Becoming a Force of Nature
9. In the Corridor of Dreams 117
viii Contents
10. The Grand Will 131
Crystallizing Intent 133
Seeds Are Small 138
Intentional Work 140
Awakening 142
11. In Dialogue with the Universe 145
Prototyping 146
Creating and Adjusting 149
Listening to Feedback 152
Rediscovering Purpose 154
Staying Connected 158
Synchronicity 159
12. Realizing and the Craft of Institution
Building 163
Part 4 Meeting Our Future
13. Leadership: Becoming a Human Being 177
14. Science Performed with the
Mind of Wisdom 187
Fragment ation 190
Measurement 192
Unbroken Wholeness 193
The Blind Spot 196
A Reflexive Science of Living Systems 198
Science Performed with the Mind ofWisdom 201
Our Faustian Bargain: Shifting the Burden
to Modern Science and Technology 203
A New Path 204
15. Presence 213
Contents ix
Epilogue: “With Man Gone, Will There Be Hope
For Gorilla?” 235
Notes 249
Acknowledgments 263
About the Authors 257
About the Organizations 271
Index 273
Reader Comments 285

x Contents