Adam’s book is recently translated in Portuguese and launched in Brazil. In English it is called: “Power and Love, A theory and practice of social change.” What I like so much in his book is his brutal honesty. He describes his and his teams failures next to their successes. If you don’t keep on reading you almost got the feeling that it all failed. This honesty is something we hardly see in our consultancy practices and then it is hard to learn…
Power he defines as “the drive of everything living to realize itself.” So power in this sense is the drive to achieve one’s purpose, to get one’s job done, to grow. He defines love as “the drive towards the unity of the separated.” So love in this sense is the drive to reconnect and and make whole that which has become or appears fragmented. (page 2)
In Theory U we emphasize the love part a lot. Bring all stakeholders together, have dialogues, connect with our heart and build containers. The power dimension is there in realizing our full potential. But the power dimension in the sense of execution, discipline and having impact is less clear. More and more I meet people who are enthusiast about the left side of the U and the spiritual dimension of it. Sometimes it feels even as if this is enough for them. As if the U is a means in itself.
The spiritual part seems to be of less interest for Adam. He is there for social change. I’m impressed with how much detail he describes his experiences and how keen he is to learn from it.