My Review of Adam Kahane's "POWER AND LOVE"

A few weeks ago I was invited to join a group called, somewhat whimsically, "The Imaginal Discs Book Club." The other members are all students or instructors in this year's Certificate in Dialogue & Civic Engagement program at SFU (I graduated in April). The club's first meeting was held last Thursday evening, in the boardroom of MODUS ENGAGEMENT & DESIGN--courtesy of MODUS principal Vince Verlaan. Vince teaches the Practice of Engagement course in SFU's CDCE program.

The Imaginal Discs? The name is Vince's inspiration, alluding to the ground-breaking social change that occasionally emerges from truly generative dialogue, and drawn from:

Inside the Chrysalis

The metamorphosis of caterpillar to butterfly has been called a biological miracle.

Enzymes are released that digest all the caterpillar tissue, so that the caterpillar dissolves and is converted into a kind of “caterpillar soup.”

But the contents of the chrysalis are not entirely an amorphous mess. Certain highly organized groups of cells--known as “imaginal discs”--survive the digestive process.

Once a caterpillar has disintegrated all of its tissues except for the imaginal discs, those discs use the protein-rich culture all around them as a medium to fuel the rapid cell division required to form the wings, antennae, and all the other features of an adult butterfly.

The Imaginal Discs are a terrific group of smart, social people who care deeply about our world and humanity's place in it. My assignment for the first meeting was Adam Kahane's POWER AND LOVE. Just 142 pages and published back in 2009, it's truly a jewel of of book, with each page packed with wisdom, insight and inspiration. I read POWER AND LOVE too quickly the first time around to appreciate its, well, POWER. Second time around, I was very, very impressed. Read my review to find out why.