Power and love: the theory and practice of social change
Adam Kahane
Adam Kahane is a partner in Reos Partners, an international organisation dedicated to supporting and building capacity for innovative collective action in complex social systems, and a Visiting Practitioner at the University of Oxford and an Associate Practitioner at the University of Waterloo.
Adam is a leading organizer, designer and facilitator of processes through which business, government, and civil society leaders can work together to address their most complex challenges. He is the author of Solving Tough Problems: An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities and Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change.
Abstract
The two methods most frequently employed to solve our toughest social problems - relying on violence and aggression, or submitting to endless negotiation and compromise - are fundamentally flawed. This is because the seemingly contradictory drives behind these approaches - power, the desire to achieve one’s purpose, and love, the urge to unite with others - are actually complementary. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put it, “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.” But how do you combine them?
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