Managing in Complexity Series Lecture on "Addressing Complex Social Challenges"
by Mr Adam Kahane, Partner in Reos Partners and Visiting Practitioner, University of Oxford and University of Waterloo
3.30pm – 5.30pm, CSC Saffron Room
The two methods most frequently employed to address our most complex social challenges—either 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?
For the last twenty years Adam Kahane has worked around the world on many tough and vital challenges: food security, health care, economic development, judicial reform, peace making, climate change. In this lecture he will draw on this experience to delve deeply in the dual natures of both power and love, exploring their subtle and intricate interplay. He will relate how, through trial and error, he has learned to balance them, and offer practical guidance for how others can learn that balance as well.
*A complimentary copy of Mr Adam Kahane's book "Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change" will be given to registered participants.
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