Just read Presence, a book by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers.
The book is about how we think and how we think affects how we can change the world. It combines modern physics, spirituality, sociology, meditation practice, politics and more.
Some of the best parts of the book are its stories. It includes a fascinating narrative of a grass-roots health care initiative in Germany, where doctors, patients and other community members met and designed ways to make their health care system better. Here in the USA, where we are stuck on getting insurance for all, it is helpful to read this (pp 154 ff) to think about what we really want health care to be, even if everyone were insured. The problem (and the solution) around health care is not only access, but what kind of care we should have. This example describes methods and importance of community input This narrative helps us understand that health care should not only be a service that doctors provide — but rather a system that all of us must create.
I have a question for the authors about their values. They challenge making money as the most important value. However, their examples are mostly about innovation in for-profit companies. They tout a new development at The Gap. They describe how VISA created a new business model, but they don’t challenge the need for a new line of clothes (made where and by whom?) or the overall effect ... more »
