Peter Senge - The Next Discipline

Peter Senge - The Next Discipline

Abstract of an interview with Peter Senge by Mike Hanley

Peter Senge wants to save the earth. Now, with the rise of sustainability and corporate social responsibility, Senge thinks it’s time for a global awakening of consciousness. unless companies understand the impact they have on the world, and use that understanding to create a deep and lasting sustainability, we are all, literally, doomed. Senge compares modern corporations to a cancer, expanding blindly, Businesses, he says, cannot afford the kind of narrow ideologies that have driven them in the past. They need to engage with other parts of society with a systems view in order to survive.

The idea is to create a world that is no longer “governed primarily by habit”. Senge argues that habit prevents people, companies and societies from making radical change. Systems thinking is a way of imposing a wider perspective on our everyday actions and he has developed a number of tools, one of which is the concept of a systems archetype – a way of viewing patterns of interdependence.

The art of conversation is something that people spend their lives developing. Fifty or a hundred years ago, what did people do at the end of the day? They talked, they sought out each other’s perspectives. In real conversation, we not only discover each other, we also discover ourselves. Whereas when one person ‘tells’ another they are making a demand for obedience.

Senge’s research is based on the principle that fundamental change happens because people decide to make it happen, and organisations can inhibit or enable that change. He is convinced that real changes are created by maybe 5 to 10 per cent of people and organisations over time.

Published in AFR Boss Magazine August 2005. Read full article:

http://www.afrboss.com.au/magarticle.asp?doc_id=24915&listed_months=1

The Power of Negative Thinking and Negative Feeling

By Steve Wells

Numerous new age and pop psychology authors and so-called experts insist that you should always frame your goals and affirmations in the positive because your unconscious mind “only thinks in positives”. So instead of thinking that you want to “lose weight” you are supposed to focus on being “fit and healthy at my desired weight”.

A similar pronouncement that is very popular right now since the publication of The Secret is that you are supposed to always feel good, because all negative emotions are vibrationally bad! So if you are feeling bad then you should immediately find something that makes you feel good to focus on…

This is going to shock many of you: Many very successful people regularly use what may appear to you to be negative statements and negative motivation with extremely positive results! And many many people can trace the day they turned their life around to the day they experienced a negative emotion.

How can this be? Because the key to the power of an affirmation is not in the statement itself, but in the energy it evokes and the actions it leads to. And all of our feelings have a place, and can ultimately lead us to wholeness if we allow them.

Let’s look at these one at a time…

read the whole article

http://www.eftdownunder.com/blog/?p=8

IBM - Hungry for Change

IBM - Hungry for Change

The Enterprise of the Future is capable of changing quickly and

successfully. Instead of merely responding to trends, it shapes and

leads them. Market and industry shifts are a chance to move ahead

of the competition.

Innovative Beyond Customer Imagination

The Enterprise of the Future surpasses the expectations of increasingly

demanding customers. Deep collaborative relationships allow it

to surprise customers with innovations that make both its customers

and its own business more successful.

Globally Integrated

The Enterprise of the Future is integrating to take advantage of today’s

global economy. Its business is strategically designed to access the

best capabilities, knowledge and assets from wherever they reside in

the world and apply them wherever required in the world.

Disruptive By Nature

The Enterprise of the Future radically challenges its business model,

disrupting the basis of competition. It shifts the value proposition,

overturns traditional delivery approaches and, as soon as opportunities

arise, reinvents itself and its entire industry.

Genuine, Not Just Generous

The Enterprise of the Future goes beyond philanthropy and compliance

and reflects genuine concern for society in all actions and decisions.

http://www-07.ibm.com/innovation/au/ideas/ceostudy/index1.html

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Tough Times ideal for change facilitators

Tough Times ideal for change facilitators

Training budgets cut, change programs put on hold,

Facilitators thrive. Get people together, workshop ideas, seek potential solutions, flush out innovations, build morale through conversations. Bring it on.

Facilitation is like leadership. It’s for everyone, can be used anywhere, any time.