Presence: Exploring Profound Change in People, Organizations and Society

Presence explores a new theory of change and learning. In wide-ranging conversations held over a year and a half, Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, and Flowers explored their own experiences and those of one hundred and fifty scientists and social and business entrepreneurs in an effort to explain how profound collective change occurs. They articulate a new way of seeing the world, and of understanding our part in creating it - as it is and as it might be.

The book introduces the idea of ‘presence’ - a concept borrowed from the natural world which asserts that the whole is entirely present in any of its parts - and applies it to the worlds of business, education, government and leadership. Too often, 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.

Radical and hopeful, Presence synthesises leading-edge thinking, first-hand knowledge and ancient wisdom to examine what connects us to one another, to life more broadly and, potentially, to what is seeking to emerge. It goes on to define the capabilities that underlie our ability to see, sense, and realize new possibilities in ourselves, our institutions and organisations, and in society.