Book Recommendation #9 Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change
“
Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.” – Martin Luther King
Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change digs into some of the tougher and significant challenges of social change. The author Adam Kahane’s book bases on first-hand experiences working with teams, governments and civil society leaders around the world. It is both a profound and personal book which shows the practical ways of social change.
The author takes us on his journey, and his learning process, and he gives us insights into how to thrive in a world that is both competent and caring. He argues that the two main ways people try to solve difficult group or societal dilemmas have some fundamental flaws, though they also have two fundamental drivers that are within us all: power, the single-minded desire to achieve one’s sole purpose; and love, the drive towards unity.
We think this is a book for any professional who recognizes the need to merge business with communities and governments to address the sustainability challenges of our time.
If you are ready to tackle change and want to read this book, you can find it here
Focus on company culture as the #1 priority and make money too.
“A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”
“If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control – myself.” – Stephen R. Covey
Dr. Dale Hunter is a leader and author within the field of facilitation and we think The Art of Facilitation is a great resource for first-time facilitators or professionals who want to get a basic introduction to the field of facilitation. This book is packed with easy to grasp concepts without being too abstract, and also comes with a numerous amount of practical exercises. We recommend this book for you who have just stumbled upon facilitation and want to understand the mindset and how facilitation is practiced. We also think that this book is great for new facilitators or facilitators in training, who want something to revise, as it is a book that can easily be used for revising tools and concepts in a daily use.
Edgar Schein is a former professor of the MIT Sloan School of Management and is a notable mark on organizational development and culture. With multiple publications, experience and research under his belt his books have an extensive amount of information and can sometimes be a real academic read, though worth it. For those who want a less heavy read yet highly practical guide then Process Consultation is a perfect fit. It is both humble and realistic book on the delicate art of intervening at process levels of an organization without creating dependency on your clients. One of the big factors Schein points out is the difference between “content” consulting and “process” consulting which is something we believe is utterly important to distinct when changing an organization. We could probably recommend every publication by Schein but we think this book is one for facilitators whether or not they are consultants or managers.
“The things we fear most in organisations – fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances – are the primary sources of creativity.”
ating with Ease is an intuitive book which provides more in-depth insights into the principles of facilitation than most. This is a book filled with practical applications for concrete situations and is filled with a good amount of exercises, surveys, and checklists for your own facilitation development. Ingrid Bens is very thorough and also brings forth important behaviors which most don’t always look for when facilitating. Whether you are new or an experienced facilitator, this is a great tool to review your own practice and approaches from time to time. We recommend using the book as a reference guide rather than reading it from beginning to end. You will find relevant chapters for the situations you are finding yourself in and can easily look at the others as well to gain new insights for many years to come.