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Presence: Exploring Profound Change in People, Organizations and Society

by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers

London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2005

Presence: Exploring Profound Change in People, Organizations and Society 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, first-hand 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 at SoL, a renowned pioneer, theorist, and writer in the field of management innovation, and the author of the widely acclaimed The Fifth Discipline series, including the three Fieldbooks also from Nicholas Brealey Publishing. 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 Jaworksi 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 Joe Flowers was a professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin and an international business consultant.