The Necessary Revolution - Peter Senge
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rEFLEctIoNS
| V o LU M E 9, N U M B E r 2
reflections.solonline.org
Book ExcErpt 9.2
The Necessary Revolution
How We Got Into This Predicament
Something important has happened in the last stage of the industrial era that sets it apart from the past: Globalization has brought a level of interdependence between nations and regions that never existed before, along with truly global problems that also have no precedent. The Industrial Age isn’t ending because of a decline in opportunities for further expansion. It is ending because individuals, organizations, and governments are realizing that its side effects are unsustainable. But endings are also beginnings. In The Necessary Peter Senge Revolution, Peter Senge and his coauthors share the guiding ideas that are essential for creating a more sustainable future: seeing systems, collaborating across boundaries, and
moving from problem solving to creating. The book is full of stories and examples of individuals and organizations who are putting these ideas into action, many of whom are associated with SoL. This excerpt explains “how we got here” and lays out the case for urgency in radically shifting the kind of thinking that has made the industrial era so successful, and so disastrous.
The Wages of Success
H
ow did we get to the point where we are running out of the resources (such as oil) that support our way of life, and others (such as clean air and fresh drinking water) that support life itself? And how did entire industries, such as fishing and agriculture, find themselves in trouble as well, as chronic overfishing and the drive for ever-higher crop yields led to widespread depletion of fish stocks and a historic loss of topsoil? how on earth did we get here? the short answer is because of our success, success beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. In the first stage of the Industrial revolution (1750 to 120), the rise of large-scale manufacturing caused labor productivity in England to
rEFLEctIoNS
| V o LU M E 9, N U M B E r 2
reflections.solonline.org
Book ExcErpt 9.2
The Necessary Revolution
How We Got Into This Predicament
Something important has happened in the last stage of the industrial era that sets it apart from the past: Globalization has brought a level of interdependence between nations and regions that never existed before, along with truly global problems that also have no precedent. The Industrial Age isn’t ending because of a decline in opportunities for further expansion. It is ending because individuals, organizations, and governments are realizing that its side effects are unsustainable. But endings are also beginnings. In The Necessary Peter Senge Revolution, Peter Senge and his coauthors share the guiding ideas that are essential for creating a more sustainable future: seeing systems, collaborating across boundaries, and
moving from problem solving to creating. The book is full of stories and examples of individuals and organizations who are putting these ideas into action, many of whom are associated with SoL. This excerpt explains “how we got here” and lays out the case for urgency in radically shifting the kind of thinking that has made the industrial era so successful, and so disastrous.
The Wages of Success
H
ow did we get to the point where we are running out of the resources (such as oil) that support our way of life, and others (such as clean air and fresh drinking water) that support life itself? And how did entire industries, such as fishing and agriculture, find themselves in trouble as well, as chronic overfishing and the drive for ever-higher crop yields led to widespread depletion of fish stocks and a historic loss of topsoil? how on earth did we get here? the short answer is because of our success, success beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. In the first stage of the Industrial revolution (1750 to 120), the rise of large-scale manufacturing caused labor productivity in England to