Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change

by Adam Kahane and Jeff Barnum

Book Overview

"A profound book that offers us a wise way to negotiate our toughest group, community, and societal challenges." --William Ury, New York Times-bestselling coauthor of Getting to Yes

To try to solve their toughest problems, people either push for what they want at all costs or try to completely avoid conflict. Adam Kahane argues that these two seemingly contradictory approaches are each a reflection of two distinct, fundamental drives: power, the single-minded desire to achieve one's solitary purpose; and love, the drive towards unity. They are inextricable parts of human nature, so to achieve lasting change you have to able to work fluidly with both.

Kahane delves deeply in the dual nature of power and love, exploring their complex and intricate interplay. With disarming honesty he relates how, through trial and error, he learned to balance between them, shifting from one to the other as though learning to walk--at first falling, then stumbling forward, and finally moving purposefully toward true, lasting reconciliation and progress.

For the last twenty years Kahane has worked around the world on a variety of challenges: economic development, food security, health care, judicial reform, peacemaking, climate change. He has worked with diverse teams of leaders--executives and politicians, generals and guerillas, civil servants and trade unionists, community activists and United Nations officials, clergy and artists. He has seen, up close and personal, examples of inspiring progress and terrifying regress. Power and Love reports what he has learned from these hard-won experiences.

"This exceptionally brave book pierces to the heart of how we must act in the world we so want to change." --Margaret J. Wheatley, bestselling author of Leadership and the New Science

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1605093041
• ISBN13: 9781605093048
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Insightful and relevant

Having read and been inspired by Adam Kahane's previous book, Solving Tough Problems, I was eager to read Power and Love. What I found was a personal story, told in a highly readable way, in which I found lessons and insights which could be applied to both my work and my personal life. The key message is that both Power (the drive for self-realisation) and Love (the need for unity) are necessary, and that there is an inherent dilemma between the two. Just like your two legs, they should be used in dynamic balance to be able to walk smoothly. I really enjoyed the Falling, Stumbling and Walking chapters where Kahane highlights his theories through examples from both his work and personal life. I also appreciated that he was not shy in sharing his blind spots and mistakes so the reader can also learn from them. I think Power and Love is a book that can be read several times with different mindsets - e.g. a quick entertaining read, a more reflective experience and also great for a book club / discussion group.

A Practical Theory and a book with Power and Heart

"Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change" uses Adam Kahane's tremendous experience of designing dialogue processes and mediations in South Africa, Colombia, Guatemala, Israel and on several environmental issues as examples of the generative and degenerative uses of power and love. The book is both theoretical and at the same time extremely practical for anyone working in the fields of group facilitation, large-scale systems change, or mediation. The lengthy examples of his work with diverse stakeholders around contentious issues are riveting and instructive. He is quite transparent about his successes and failures, and also very self-disclosing about his own process in the journey of learning how to walk with both power and love. Because of this journey the book has a lot of power and a lot of heart. I recommend it highly.

Power and Love

Adam Kahane's writing style understates the wisdom of his reflections. He has the rare ability to put ego aside, identify mistakes and reflect, design, and test better ways to help his clients. Although I have over 45 years of experience dealing with large organizations and with government bodies, I learned something new and useful from Adam's reflections on his work.

Stimulating

I always enjoy Adam's skills at story-telling, and how he manages to make sense of his complex work in a historical context and with thoughtful frameworks. I recently hosted a parallel event to the COP15 UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, called the Survival Academy, where we launched the book and handed out copies. It was fascinating to see how quickly power and love became a framework for conversation in many of the Survival Academy conversations. Adam's thoughts on power and love and the relationships between the two, while profound, are very accessible and I found that they stimulated our conversations to go deeper than they otherwise would have. I was also impressed by the impact of Jeff Barnum's drawings. When I was reading the text and then one of the drawings popped up, they provided a moment to pause, become present, and absorb the meaning of what I was reading. I didn't expect this impact, and so I found this role of the artwork very effective!! As mentioned in one of the other reviews on this page, the book is "brutally honest". It reads as a book written as a reflective process, to make sense of a series of complex experiences, and so comes across very personal and human, while dealing with some of the biggest systemic issues of our time.

Powerful and imporant message for leaders in all sectors

Adams book delivers a wise and illuminating message about the exacting partnership of power and love. He delivers with clarity and wisdom the critical importance that love plays in all worthy human effort - lifting it out from under the cultural and soicial constraints and myths that trivialize love and over reward power. Adams insights are important in all areas - business, government,social movements,and our own individual lives. He addresses the complexity of the insights he shares with vulnerability and courage. This book is easy to read and embodies a power and loving message we can all benefit from.