Peter Senge, Raffi, and Gordon Campbell…

No, this isn’t a “One of these names is not like the others” test (or one of those jokes). Tonight, I had a chance to see well known Organizational Change Guru, Doctor Peter Senge of MIT speak at the Vancouver Board of Trade. I have to admit, before tonight, I had never heard of Peter Senge. After tonight, I’m a little more of a fan, and definitely enlightened.

Peter talks about the world as one big intertwined system where the things we do on this side of our planet, affect the people on the other side of the planet. One example he gave was, in order for the average North American to have their way of life, there would be about a million pounds of waste produced per year to sustain it. How is that possible? Well, think about all the gadgets we own, and all the food products we consume. Somewhere in the world, waste was produced to create those Nike’s you wear, or MP3 player you are listening too. Of course, with that waste, comes the consequences of pollution in that part of the world, which he also touches on.

At first, I thought he was an environmentalist hiding in a business suit. But as I started to grasp a little more of what he was trying to say, I realized he wasn’t so much an environmentalist, but a human being that wanted to see businesses work together to sustain one another.

Raffi was also in the crowd as one of Peter Senge’s many fans. Even Raffi knows that at the rate we are going, one day, there will be no more “Baby Belugas” and no more Raffi CD’s if we don’t get our act together.

One of Peter’s examples of simplifying the CO2 emission problem was the use of a bathtub. If we keep filling the bathtub, at what point does it stop being filled? Well, everyone knows that in order to stop the tub from filling, we need to shut the water off. But what if we can’t shut it off? Well, then we need to use up the water faster than it fills the tub. Currently, the world is producing more CO2 than the natural ecosystem can absorb, and in order for the planet to get there, CO2 emissions would need to be cut by 80% nearly overnight. 80%??? That’s a lot!

So overall, I really learned a lot from the lecture and I’m very humbled by what I heard. Everyone that attended got his book “Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society”. I can’t wait to crack into this book, and I sincerely hope that anyone that can make a difference read it too. The world needs to stop pointing fingers and just get to that 80% reduction in CO2 emissions, or there will be no world.

On another note, I ran into Gordon Campbell, BC’s famous Premiere at the Starbucks before the show started. He was probably at the Dalai Lama session next door with the High School Kids. Since he was alone, I can only speculate that the Dalai Lama doesn’t make a mean enough cup of coffee, or that they knew better than to give the kiddies access to caffeine.

This Saturday, I get to see the Dalai Lama himself speak. That should be a real treat. Unfortunately, I think that will put me in the bad books with the Chinese Government. I hope they don’t detain me when I try to enter the country next year for COMPUTEX 2007.

I guess I better rent “Seven Years in Tibet” tomorrow for movie night!