In this episode, I speak with Adam Kahane, author of the book, Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust.
Adam is a full-time disruptor, he spends his time completely dedicated to helping people address their most important and intractable challenges. Adam is a pioneer in the in the lab space and has written several books related to systems change. He argues that we spend a lot of time focusing on what other people should or ought to be doing. For him, this kind of thinking is a complete waste of time.
In this episode, Adam and I discuss martial arts and dialogue. You would need to listen to the episode to understand how these two concepts connect. One of the powerful moments in our conversation came when we talked about power, self-development and love. In the episode, he references Martin Luther King and makes that point that in our society we place so much emphasis on love and unity, that we “risk being sentimental and anaemic actually sentimental and anaemic at best and at worst cynically reproducing of the status quo.”
I truly enjoyed my conversation with Adam and it was a pleasure to talk to someone who has spent so much time thinking about who we disrupt sectors and systems. The final point I leave you with is that he reminds us that so often we are quick to blame or tell other people what to do, how things should be done or we conclude that they need to change. Drawing on the work of Edgar Schein and is the notion of humble inquiry is a lot more powerful or transformative approach to start from a place of asking questions. I hope you enjoy this episode of Disruptive Conversations.