The Necessary Revolution - Peter Senge et al - Part 3

The Necessary Revolution - Peter Senge
and others

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 58

 February 27, 2017 

Book 17 - The Necessary Revolution:
How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World
by Peter M. Senge, Bryan Smith, Nina Kruschwitz, Joe Laur, Sara Schley (2008)
 Part 3 - pages 119-178
Reading Time - 70 minutes

This book seems to be written for people who are working in government, corporations or NGOs, people who can begin to make a difference in the world. It leaves me wondering, what one little person can do? I know that we do have a voice... and we have power. Everything that I'm reading in this books suggests that our power lies in us demanding something different from government and companies. If we want green products... then we will get green products.


The authors did refer to a neat diagram which shows how change can begin. It looks at Today vs. Future and Internal vs. External. Most companies start with changes in the lower left quadrant - the internal changes today - things like reducing waste and emissions. This works because companies see tangible benefits in increased profitability. "See... sustainability isn't that hard!"

They refer to a couple of neat case studies, one being DuPont - that big chemical company that was the bad guy in the world. DuPont turned themselves around to the point that sustainability is now their core corporate mission. They are turning away from petroleum based products to sustainable bio-products.

A big part of this section deals with how to get people engaged and how to build the case for change. I know this is hard to believe, but advocacy doesn't work very well. Telling people that you have the answer and know the way doesn't land very well. The trick is to be people to explore ideas together and to get them to alter their thinking. Asking questions, inquiry, works way better than advocacy. Particularly when you ask people about their underlying assumptions. That gets them thinking about the bigger picture and can lead them in the direction of altering their thinking. Most of us aren't even aware of our underlying assumptions...

In making changes in an organization: 1 person trying to change an organization will get killed (not literally), 2 people will commiserate, 3 people can start a revolution. It's all about finding like-minded folk.

On a rather amusing note, the authors talked about a fisheries game that has been in use for about 20 years. It's a board game, kind of like Monopoly, except the players get boats and nets and can go fishing and make a profit. Almost every group of players that has played the game has over-fished and the fisheries have collapsed. People get caught up in the profits thing - bigger boats, better nets, get more fish, out-compete the other players. One group actually managed the fisheries without collapsing it... a group from Harley-Davidson! They played the game so that they would let each other know how many fish they were catching and they could all see when the stocks started to decline and adjust accordingly. The least profitable player in the Harley-Davidson game made more money than the most profitable players who were in the overfishing gigs. Moral of the story... collaboration and competition can work together.