Mar 2011: Connections - Saybrook University

19
Author
Adam Kahane
(LIOS ‘98)
Power and love:
A theory and
practice of social
change
A book review by Lorelette Knowles, MA, MSLIS
Our most intractable group, community and societal challenges
are highly complex because our world is so full–of people,
cultures, ideas, pollution, etc. These problems are complex
dynamically (solutions require systems thinking), socially
(solutions require the active engagement of the participants),
and generatively (solutions require new “next practice”
solutions), and when people try to solve them, best-selling
author, consultant and LIOS graduate Adam Kahane argues that
they tend to respond in one of two ways. They either struggle
to save themselves and to get what they want by dominating
others regardless of costs (e.g., by waging war as an extreme
case), or they ignore problems and try to avoid conflict.
These apparently contradictory approaches reflect two separate,
fundamental drives: power, which theologian and philosopher
Paul Tillich defines as “the drive of everything living to realize
itself, with increasing intensity and extensity,” and love, which
Tillich calls “the drive towards the unity of the separated.” Both
of these drives are inextricably part of being human, “delineate
the space of social change,” according to Kahane (p. 9), and have
a generative and a degenerative side: love “pulls” and makes
power generative, and power “pushes” and makes love generative.
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., observed, “Power without love
is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental
and anemic.” Therefore, in order to achieve sustainable, systemic
change, a person must realize that, in a “full world” of complex
challenges, one must be able to understand the interrelatedness
of, and choose to work creatively and fluidly with, both power
and love. In this book, Kahane explores how, through over 20
years of varied experiences in some 50 countries, he learned
how to do this, first falling, then stumbling, then walking, then
stepping forward.
This brief, highly engaging and clearly written narrative has
earned enthusiastic praise from many sources for its timeliness,
wisdom and insights, all based on the author’s personal experience
and learning. It should be of great value to consultants,
teachers and students, leaders in the private, public and social
sectors, change agents of all kinds, and anyone who is interested
in solving problems and making a positive difference using
power combined with love.
Organizer, designer and facilitator Kahane is a partner in the
Cambridge, Massachusetts, office of Reos Partners (www.
reospartners.com), an international organization dedicated to
taking innovative collective action in complex social systems.
He is a member of the World Academy of Art and Science, the
Commission on Globalisation, the Aspen Institute’s Business
Leaders’ Dialogue, the Society for Organizational Learning, the
Global Leadership Network, and the Global Business Network.
He is also an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Science, Innovation
and Society at the University of Oxford’s Said Business
School, and, as a “country changer” working for social justice,
he was one of the 16 exceptional people featured in Fast Company’s
1999 “Who’s Fast”
(http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/20/whosfast.html).
Kahane is the author of the 2007 book, Solving Tough Problems:
An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities (with
a foreword by Peter Senge, 2nd edition, Berrett-Koehler, ISBN-
10:1576754642, ISBN-13:978-1576754641; both are available in
the LIOS Library). He holds a BSc in physics (first class honors)
from McGill University in Montreal, an MA in energy and resource
economics from the University of California at Berkeley, and an
MA in applied behavioral science from LIOS.
Adam Kahane can be reached at kahane@reospartners.com, and
both of his books can be browsed using Amazon.com’s “Look
Inside” function.
Reference
Kahane, A. (2010). Power and love: A theory and practice of social
change. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler. Drawings
by Jeff Barnum. Paperback: 172 pages, including notes,
bibliography, and index. ISBN-10: 1605093041; ISBN-13:
978-1605093048