
Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $14.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kevin Pierce
-
By:
-
Adam Kahane
About this listen
War is no way to resolve our most problematic group, community, and societal issues, but neither is a peace that simply sweeps our problems under the rug. To create lasting change, we have to learn to work fluidly with two distinct, fundamental drives that are in tension: power - the single-minded desire to achieve one's solitary purpose - and love - the drive toward unity.... They are seemingly contradictory but in fact complimentary. As Martin Luther King put it, "Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic."
Using revealing stories from complex situations he has been involved in all over the world - the Middle East, South Africa, Europe, India, Guatemala, the Philippines, Australia, Canada, and the United States - Kahane reveals how to dynamically balance these two forces. Just as when we are toddlers we learn to shift from one foot to the other to move ourselves forward, so we can learn to shift back and forth between power and love in order to move society forward.
©2010 Adam Morris Kahane (P)2012 Berrett-Koehler PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
Collaborating with the Enemy
- How to Work with People You Don't Agree with or Like or Trust
- By: Adam Kahane
- Narrated by: Jeff Hoyt
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We're trying to get something done that really matters to us. To do this we need to work with others. But these others include people we don't agree with or like or trust, so working with them seems impossible - like collaborating with the enemy. What can we do?
-
-
Run for Cover
- By Judy on 06-21-17
By: Adam Kahane
-
Transformative Scenario Planning
- Working Together to Change the Future
- By: Adam Kahane
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
People who are trying to solve tough economic, social, or environmental problems often find themselves frustratingly stuck. They cannot solve their problems in their current context; the larger system within which they are operating is too unstable or unfair or unsustainable. They cannot transform this system on their own or by working only with their friends or colleagues; the system is too complex to be grasped or shifted by any one person or organization or sector.
-
-
Stories & Narratives are powerful for transformative futures
- By Channing on 07-27-21
By: Adam Kahane
-
Facilitating Breakthrough
- How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge Differences, and Move Forward Together
- By: Adam Kahane
- Narrated by: Jeff Hoyt
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Making progress on complex, problematic situations requires a new approach to working together: transformative facilitation, a structured and creative process for removing the obstacles to fluid forward movement. This book is for anyone who helps people work together to transform their situation, be it a professional facilitator, manager, consultant, coach, chairperson, organizer, mediator, stakeholder, or friend. It offers a broad and bold vision of the contribution that facilitation can make to helping people collaborate to make progress.
-
-
Powerfully Enlightening and Humbling
- By Wayne Burrell on 09-28-21
By: Adam Kahane
-
The Art of Gathering
- How We Meet and Why It Matters
- By: Priya Parker
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day, we find ourselves in gatherings, Priya Parker says in The Art of Gathering. If we can understand what makes these gatherings effective and memorable, then we can reframe and redirect them to benefit everyone, host and guest alike. Parker defines a gathering as three or more people who come together for a specific purpose. When we understand why we gather, she says - to acknowledge, to learn, to challenge, to change - we learn how to organize gatherings that are relevant and memorable.
-
-
Would have liked a different narrator
- By Marta on 08-26-18
By: Priya Parker
-
Emergent Strategy
- By: adrienne maree brown
- Narrated by: adrienne maree brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, here is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. Change is constant. The world, our bodies, and our minds are in a constant state of flux. They are a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, Emergent Strategy teaches us to map and assess the swirling structures and to read them as they happen, all the better to shape that which ultimately shapes us, personally and politically.
-
-
Great book. Too many footnotes.
- By Moon 🌙 on 09-09-23
-
Get a Grip
- An Entrepreneurial Fable - Your Journey to Get Real, Get Simple, and Get Results
- By: Mike Paton, Gino Wickman
- Narrated by: T. David Rutherford
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eileen Sharp and Vic Hightower were frustrated. After years of profitable, predictable growth, Swan Services was in a rut. Meetings were called and discussions held, but few decisions were made and even less got done. People were pointing fingers and assigning blame, but nothing happened to solve Swan’s mounting problems. It felt as though they were working harder than ever but with less impact. The company Eileen and Vic had founded and built for 10 years was a different place. It just wasn’t fun anymore.
-
-
Very Good Companion Book to "Traction"
- By Mike on 07-26-17
By: Mike Paton, and others
-
Collaborating with the Enemy
- How to Work with People You Don't Agree with or Like or Trust
- By: Adam Kahane
- Narrated by: Jeff Hoyt
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We're trying to get something done that really matters to us. To do this we need to work with others. But these others include people we don't agree with or like or trust, so working with them seems impossible - like collaborating with the enemy. What can we do?
-
-
Run for Cover
- By Judy on 06-21-17
By: Adam Kahane
-
Transformative Scenario Planning
- Working Together to Change the Future
- By: Adam Kahane
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
People who are trying to solve tough economic, social, or environmental problems often find themselves frustratingly stuck. They cannot solve their problems in their current context; the larger system within which they are operating is too unstable or unfair or unsustainable. They cannot transform this system on their own or by working only with their friends or colleagues; the system is too complex to be grasped or shifted by any one person or organization or sector.
-
-
Stories & Narratives are powerful for transformative futures
- By Channing on 07-27-21
By: Adam Kahane
-
Facilitating Breakthrough
- How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge Differences, and Move Forward Together
- By: Adam Kahane
- Narrated by: Jeff Hoyt
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Making progress on complex, problematic situations requires a new approach to working together: transformative facilitation, a structured and creative process for removing the obstacles to fluid forward movement. This book is for anyone who helps people work together to transform their situation, be it a professional facilitator, manager, consultant, coach, chairperson, organizer, mediator, stakeholder, or friend. It offers a broad and bold vision of the contribution that facilitation can make to helping people collaborate to make progress.
-
-
Powerfully Enlightening and Humbling
- By Wayne Burrell on 09-28-21
By: Adam Kahane
-
The Art of Gathering
- How We Meet and Why It Matters
- By: Priya Parker
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day, we find ourselves in gatherings, Priya Parker says in The Art of Gathering. If we can understand what makes these gatherings effective and memorable, then we can reframe and redirect them to benefit everyone, host and guest alike. Parker defines a gathering as three or more people who come together for a specific purpose. When we understand why we gather, she says - to acknowledge, to learn, to challenge, to change - we learn how to organize gatherings that are relevant and memorable.
-
-
Would have liked a different narrator
- By Marta on 08-26-18
By: Priya Parker
-
Emergent Strategy
- By: adrienne maree brown
- Narrated by: adrienne maree brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, here is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. Change is constant. The world, our bodies, and our minds are in a constant state of flux. They are a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, Emergent Strategy teaches us to map and assess the swirling structures and to read them as they happen, all the better to shape that which ultimately shapes us, personally and politically.
-
-
Great book. Too many footnotes.
- By Moon 🌙 on 09-09-23
-
Get a Grip
- An Entrepreneurial Fable - Your Journey to Get Real, Get Simple, and Get Results
- By: Mike Paton, Gino Wickman
- Narrated by: T. David Rutherford
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eileen Sharp and Vic Hightower were frustrated. After years of profitable, predictable growth, Swan Services was in a rut. Meetings were called and discussions held, but few decisions were made and even less got done. People were pointing fingers and assigning blame, but nothing happened to solve Swan’s mounting problems. It felt as though they were working harder than ever but with less impact. The company Eileen and Vic had founded and built for 10 years was a different place. It just wasn’t fun anymore.
-
-
Very Good Companion Book to "Traction"
- By Mike on 07-26-17
By: Mike Paton, and others
-
Gene Keys
- Embracing Your Higher Purpose
- By: Richard Rudd
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 35 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is our destiny written inside our very DNA? Richard Rudd suggests that humanity is on the verge of a major shift in consciousness rooted in a new understanding of how our genes operate. He introduces this fantastic possibility, showing how the "gene keys" are an inner language designed to transform our core beliefs about ourselves and raise us to a higher level of awareness.
-
-
Chapter Labels.
- By Jim D. on 12-22-19
By: Richard Rudd
-
Coming Alive
- 4 Tools to Defeat Your Inner Enemy, Ignite Creative Expression & Unleash Your Soul's Potential
- By: Barry Michels, Phil Stutz
- Narrated by: Phil Stutz, Barry Michels
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Tools, Barry Michels and Phil Stutz revolutionized the world of personal growth and self-actualization by offering doable, dynamic actions that transformed challenges into opportunities for change. Now, in Coming Alive, they provide four vital tools for tapping into the Life Force that resides within each of us - a wellspring of positive energy that is the source of creativity, renewal, confidence, and engagement.
-
-
A Stunning Work of Generosity
- By JTN from Seattle on 10-05-17
By: Barry Michels, and others
-
A Course in Miracles: Text, Vol. 1
- By: Dr. Helen Schucman - scribe
- Narrated by: Jim Stewart
- Length: 37 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Course in Miracles, also known as "the Course" or ACIM, was scribed by Dr. Helen Schucman. It is a self-study course that aims to assist listeners, readers, and students in achieving spiritual transformation. Book 1: The Text is largely theoretical, and sets forth the concepts on which the Course's thought system is based. Its ideas contain the foundation for the lessons in Book 2, the Workbook for Students.
-
-
Not useful for real course students
- By Kalen on 08-12-12
-
No Bad Parts
- Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model
- By: Richard C. Schwartz PhD, Alanis Morissette - foreword introduction
- Narrated by: Charlie Mechling
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems (IFS) model has been transforming psychology for decades. With No Bad Parts, you’ll learn why IFS has been so effective in areas such as trauma recovery, addiction therapy, and depression treatment - and how this new understanding of consciousness has the potential to radically change our lives.
-
-
Superb content, but painful dramatizations
- By January on 12-02-21
By: Richard C. Schwartz PhD, and others
-
Happy Money
- The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money
- By: Ken Honda
- Narrated by: Louis Ozawa Changchien
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Become Zen with your money and alleviate your anxieties about finances and earning potential. Ken Honda - Japan’s number-one best-selling personal-development guru - will help you heal your relationship with money and discover the lifestyle that will truly make you happy.
-
-
It’s a great book for anyone struggling with money
- By Home on 06-12-19
By: Ken Honda
-
Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box
- By: The Arbinger Institute
- Narrated by: Steve Carlson
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This third edition of an international best-seller - more than two million copies sold worldwide and translated into 33 languages - details how its powerful insights on motivation, conflict, and collaboration can benefit organizations as well as individuals.
-
-
Biggest waste of time in my life
- By Richard on 04-29-19
-
7 Rules of Power
- Surprising—but True—Advice on How to Get Things Done and Advance Your Career
- By: Jeffrey Pfeffer
- Narrated by: Zac Aleman
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 7 Rules of Power, Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, provides the insights that have made both his online and on-campus classes incredibly popular—with life-changing results often achieved in 8 or 10 weeks. Rooted firmly in social-science research, Pfeffer’s 7 rules provide a manual for increasing your ability to get things done, including increasing the positive effects of your job performance.
-
-
Great advice and evidence based perspective
- By Camilo Velasquez on 06-22-23
By: Jeffrey Pfeffer
-
Nice Racism
- How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm
- By: Dr. Robin DiAngelo
- Narrated by: Dr. Robin DiAngelo
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo explained how racism is a system into which all White people are socialized and challenged the belief that racism is a simple matter of good people versus bad. DiAngelo also made a provocative claim: White progressives cause the most daily harm to people of color. In Nice Racism, her follow-up work, she explains how they do so. Drawing on her background as a sociologist and over 25 years working as an anti-racist educator, she picks up where White Fragility left off and moves the conversation forward.
-
-
A follow up to White Fragility that's just as weak
- By matthew on 10-26-21
-
Asian Journals
- India and Japan (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
- By: Joseph Campbell
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the beginning of his career, Joseph Campbell developed a lasting fascination with the cultures of the Far East, and explorations of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy later became recurring motifs in his vast body of work. However, Campbell had to wait until middle age to visit the lands that inspired him so deeply. In 1954, he took a sabbatical from his teaching position and embarked on a year-long voyage through India, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and finally Japan.
-
-
What a journey!
- By Anonymous User on 08-11-18
By: Joseph Campbell
-
The Practice of Adaptive Leadership
- Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World
- By: Ronald A. Heifetz, Marty Linsky, Alexander Grashow
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When change requires you to challenge people's familiar reality, it can be difficult, dangerous work. Whatever the context - whether in the private or the public sector - many will feel threatened as you push though major changes. But as a leader, you need to find a way to make it work.
-
-
Simple & Practical
- By Anonymous User on 12-30-24
By: Ronald A. Heifetz, and others
-
Crucial Accountability, Second Edition
- Tools for Resolving Violated Expectations, Broken Commitments, and Bad Behavior
- By: Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and others
- Narrated by: Kerry Patterson
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Broken promises, missed deadlines, poor behavior - they don't just make others' lives miserable; they can sap up to 50 percent of organizational performance and account for the vast majority of divorces. Crucial Accountability offers the tools for improving relationships in the workplace and in life and for resolving all these problems - permanently.
-
-
Really hard to follow along with speaker
- By Ximakatija on 01-27-25
By: Kerry Patterson, and others
-
Change
- How to Make Big Things Happen
- By: Damon Centola
- Narrated by: James Fouhey
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most of what we know about how ideas spread comes from best-selling authors who give us a compelling picture of a world, in which "influencers" are king, "sticky" ideas "go viral", and good behavior is "nudged" forward. The problem is that the world they describe is a world where information spreads, but beliefs and behaviors stay the same. When it comes to lasting change in what we think or the way we live, the dynamics are different: beliefs and behaviors are not transmitted from person to person in the simple way that a virus is.
-
-
Complex Contagion
- By Dave B on 08-19-21
By: Damon Centola
What listeners say about Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ed
- 11-21-17
great premise poor delivery
I'm totally with the message of the book. love and power need to work together. however this book offers very little insight past that. if you want to know what this book is about just go watch his Ted talk on the subject and you'll pretty much get the overall message
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tacito
- 10-16-13
Joyful and Insightful!
Any additional comments?
Listening to Power and Love was a joyful and insightful ride. It touched my heart and head. Social change obviously is never easy, and Adam’s humble accounts of his failures just brought into a brighter light his great successes. It is, as he says at the beginning of the book, a personal and universal journey – as Adam matures as a person and consultant, so does a whole new field of social transformation. But, actually, the book subtitle – A Theory and Practice of Social Change – is understated. It should say “A Theory and Practice of Any Change”, because all change has a social component. When I am facilitating change at a C-level Board, for example, I see Marketing, Finance, Operations, HR, Legal etc. executives working more like different stakeholders than colleagues facing important company issues, and Adam’s learnings of bringing power and love together are just as useful.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful