Peter Senge is at the forefront of
waking people up to the aftershocks of a world gone flat.
Through his position as a lecturer at MIT
and founding chair of the Society for
Organizational Learning, Senge’s work
frequently involves the promotion of sustainability. Senge and a team of coauthors wrote “The Necessary Revolution”
as a rallying cry to lead organizations
out of the era of denial and into a new
dawn of environmental consciousness.
Here are some recent thoughts from
Senge on the subjects affecting companies of all sizes.
Perceptions of globalization
For most of us, (globalization) means
global financial markets where capital
moves at the speed that electrons move
around the world. It means producing
and shipping products all around the
world.
However, I think there are a couple
subtleties of globalization that we tend
to feel more (internally) than (externally). The first is that globalization is
about multiculturalism. As Americans,
we’re especially blind to this because
we have this history of the melting pot.
It’s a bad metaphor because that’s not
what’s happening in the world today.
Despite the projection of American culture, the Chinese have every intention
of remaining Chinese.
The second aspect is the contradictions between globalization and the
larger natural world in which we live.
The average pound of food travels more
than 2,000 miles before it’s purchased
by an American in a grocery store. We
think nothing of getting our cantaloupes
in the middle of winter from 4,000 miles
away.
Unfortunately, one of the costs of this is
the increased dependence on fossil fuels
to do all this shipping, as well as carbon
accumulating in the atmosphere, which is
now starting to show up as significant
instability in the climate around the
world. … Globalization at the subtlest
level means how do we live in harmony
with one another and with Mother Earth.
Making transformational changes
We hear the term all the time, and I
sometimes think people use it to simply
mean big change. I think that misses the
point. Transformational change is a
process of change that shifts us inside as
well as outside. Transformational change
is about deep, systemic change, and
what’s most systemic is actually most personal.
It makes perfectly good sense for people
to think about producing a product on one
side of the planet and selling it on another
side of the planet, because over the last
several decades, we’ve all seen it happen.
But it’s happened in part because
nobody has paid much attention to the
cost and the byproducts of the energy
used to do it.
The side effect of the energy we use in
its impact on the climate is definitely
something on people’s minds. Insurance
companies are starting to pay the cost.
Investors are starting to see it as a huge
risk. Transformational change is a process
where we have to question taken-for-granted assumptions. It is about changing
the external systems, the arrangements,
the procedures, the processes, maybe
even the rules of the game. But all those
are a reflection of our mental models, our
taken-for-granted assumptions that we
stopped questioning a long time ago. So,
transformational change is always a
process of reflection, of questioning, of
challenging ourselves and challenging the
way we do things.
The Necessary
Revolution: How
Individuals and
Organizations are
Working Together
to Create a
Sustainable World
By Peter Senge,
Bryan Smith, Nina
Kruschwitz, Joe Laur and Sara Schley
DOUBLEDAY ©2008, 406 pages, $29.95
About the book: “The Necessary
Revolution” seeks to upend the prevailing “take,
make, waste” philosophy that has driven industry for the past century or more. In its place, a
new initiative for sustainability and environmental
conscience will drive the future of business.
The authors: Lead author Peter Senge
is a senior lecturer at MIT and is the founding
chair of the Society for Organizational Learning
(SoL). He authored the groundbreaking book
“The Fifth Discipline.” Senge’s co-authors
include Bryan Smith, a member of the faculty at
York University’s Sustainable Enterprise
Academy, Nina Kruschwitz, manager of the Fifth
Discipline Fieldbook Project, and Joe Laur and
Sara Schley, who co-founded the SoL
Sustainability Consortium in 1998.
Why you should read it: Politics
aside, the U.S. is beginning to hold businesses
accountable for the level of resource consumption and pollution created in industry. In a world
where even consumers are influenced by the
green factor, companies need to quickly get on
board. “The Necessary Revolution” helps businesses that are lagging slightly behind the times
as well as those at the forefront of the movement.
It does an excellent job of demonstrating the
need for collaboration and that sustainability
affects people at every level of industry.
Why it’s different: When it comes to
business books on the green movement, the
market is experiencing a flood of global warming proportions. “The Necessary Revolution”
sets itself apart from the pack by avoiding farsighted theory and instead offers practical tools
and concrete ways of thinking about sustainability. The book also doesn’t seek to shame big
business, preferring to focus on the positives of
companies such as Nike, GE and BP.
Can’t miss: “Getting People Engaged.”
Senge and company detail a variety of ways to
get people to shake the dust off the resource-wasting school of thought. Being a leader in the
fight for sustainability is tiring, if not lonely, work.
“The Necessary Revolution” offers environmental
advocates the needed advice to make sure their
efforts are not wasted. The chapter covers everything from opening a dialogue to building a team
to get to the next level.
SPECIAL AUDIO CONFERENCE OFFER: Soundview Executive Book Summaries will host a 90-minute interactive audio conference
with Peter Senge as part of the Beyond the Books series at 1 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, March 17. To sign your company up for a live connection to this conference so your managers can hear Senge’s advice firsthand, call (800) 775-7654; mention Smart Business to earn a
special discount or go to www.sbnonline.com/senge.
