Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future

Presence is 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, organizational learning pioneers Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers explored the nature of transformational change—how it arises, and the fresh possibilities it offers a world dangerously out of balance. The book introduces the idea of “presence”—a concept borrowed from the natural world that the whole is entirely present in any of its parts—to the worlds of business, education, government, and leadership. Too often, the authors found, we remain stuck in old patterns of seeing and acting. By encouraging deeper levels of learning, we create an awareness of the larger whole, leading to actions that can help to shape its evolution and our future.
 
Drawing on the wisdom and experience of 150 scientists, social leaders, and entrepreneurs, including Brian Arthur, Rupert Sheldrake, Buckminster Fuller, Lao Tzu, and Carl Jung, Presence is both revolutionary in its exploration and hopeful in its message. This astonishing and completely original work goes on to define the capabilities that underlie our ability to see, sense, and realize new possibilities—in ourselves, in our institutions and organizations, and in society itself.

• Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges
• Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies
• The Essentials of Theory U: Core Principles and Applications
• Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership
• The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World
• The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization
• The Dance of Change: The challenges to sustaining momentum in a learning organization
• The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization
• The Stake: The Making of Leaders
• Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Emerging Adults in Their Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Faith