RSA - Power and Love: A theory and practice of social change

Power and Love: A theory and practice of social change

19th May 2010; 18:00

(full recording including audience Q&A)
Please right-click link and choose "Save Link As..." to download audio file onto your computer.

RSA Keynote

Why do some groups of people manage to solve complex problems, while others stumble or fall?

The two methods most frequently employed to solve our toughest social problems—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 anaemic." But how do you combine them?

For the last twenty years Adam Kahane and his colleagues at ReosPartners have worked around the world on many tough and vital challenges: food security, health care, economic development, judicial reform, peace making, climate change.

In this extraordinary event he draws on this experience to delve deeply in the dual natures of both power and love, exploring their subtle and intricate interplay.

Adam Kahane has been involved in facilitating a series of extraordinary high-conflict, high-stakes problem-solving efforts: in Colombia during the civil war; in Argentina during the collapse; in Guatemala after the genocide; and in Israel , Northern Ireland , Cyprus , and the Basque Country. Through these experiences, he learned to create environments that enable new ideas and creative solutions to emerge—even in the most stuck, polarized contexts.

Suggested hashtag for Twitter users: #rsakahane