Becoming a Force of Nature

A summary of:
Senge, P., Scharmer, C.O., Jaworski, J. & Flowers, B.S. (2004). Presence: Exploring Profound Change in People, Organizations and Society. Nicholas Brealey Publishing: London.
Part 3 – Becoming a Force of Nature

This section is all about marrying your intention to action, and believing that you can get there. For inspiration, the authors quoted Margaret Mead, who is known for saying, “Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has” (134). But this notion of being a lone warrior somewhat dilutes the truth that being effective has to do to some extent with tapping into – if not the zeitgeist – this ‘field’ they alluded to earlier, which we can do by ‘presencing’. “The transformation of will that arises from presencing was beautifully articulated by George Bernard Shaw: ‘This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose you consider a mighty one, the being a force of nature, rather than a feverish, selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy’” (133). Or, simply put by Victor Hugo: “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come,’ said Victor Hugo” (131).

I like the idea of making my methodology as spiritual as possible, to walk the walk as it were. For this reason, I like this passage that explains from a spiritual perspective the process of developing one’s intention:

“…John White, one of the original founding partners of the Institute of HeartMath, said, ‘Often people need greater clarity before they can act decisively and with full commitment. Once they see clearly their heart’s intent, their focus becomes like a laser – a powerful, coherent beam, as opposed to an incandescent, incoherent light. An earnest commitment from the heart emerges, vision becomes clearer, broader, and more inclusive of others. Strength of will is replaced by energetic integrity and a knowingness of ‘what else is there’ or ‘I can’t afford to not do this’” (135).

I suppose the idea is that it’s important to put love into your work. As Mother Teresa said when asked how one can do great things, “You cannot do great things. You can only do small things with great love” (139).

The chapter also seeks to dissuade us of the notion that you need to “to know how to do something before you can do it” (149). Instead, the authors argue that the key is getting the intention right, and then beginning what is effectively a prototyping process. As they say, “the creative process is actually a learning process, and the best we can possibly have at the outset is a hypothesis or tentative idea about what will be required to succeed. Robert Fritz characterizes the essence of the creative process as ‘create and adjust.’ We learn to do something truly new only through doing it, then adjusting” (149). Along the way, they explain, the creator will go through a series of “small ‘U’s’” (149). One author describes this process as “chaordic,” i.e., “how order emerges from chaos” (172).

Finally, this chapter asks the important question of how you create major change. They suggest that in some cases, we have to make the brave decision to kill a dying system so that a better one can be born in its place. As someone the authors interviewed said, “‘Maybe what’s needed right now is to stop trying to keep the system alive artificially and perform a controlled emergency shutdown’” (165). This reminds me of a question that I was asked by a college professor that has changed my life forever. He asked, ‘If you really want to change something, do you do it by helping as much as you can to fix it, or do you try to speed up its collapse?’ He was referring to the economy at the time, and asked whether you are better off donating money, or becoming an investment banker who tries to increase the gap between rich and poor. This idea, the notion that the only way to make Real Change is to destroy the current system and all that props it up is something that I constantly think of when I see something in the world I don’t like. In the case of the Internet, the question is whether you try to tweak it as it is now to begin to accommodate our spiritual needs (as an afterthought), or to somehow push us closer to the tipping point where we see the need to abandon our old ways. I suppose there is a third option, however, and that is to provide an alternative, and see if people want to switch to this new rail.