Author: Kahane, Adam

Source: Reflections: The SoL Journal, Volume 10, Number 2, April 2010 , pp. 28-36(9)

Publisher: Society for Organizational Learning

Abstract:

The central theme of Adam Kahane's new book, Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change, is that if we want to be able to effect sustainable change in social systems - organizations, communities, societies - then we need to learn to work with two distinct drives that are permanently in tension: power and love. Kahane refers to Paul Tillich's definition of power - “the drive of everything living to realize itself” - and points out that Tillich also “argues for differentiating between power-to that destroys oppressive institutions and power-over that destroys people.” He (Tillich) defines love as “the drive towards the unity of the separated.” Through the story of an ambitious and tough national dialogue project in Israel, this excerpt highlights “stumbling” (a distinct phase in the process of learning to “walk”) as a metaphor for the most difficult challenges we face in aligning the competing drives of power and love.

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2010-04-01

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