The Power of Balance

I have come accross a most fascinating book today, which is a real page-turner. It is by William R. Torbert, the founder of Action Inquiry and its title is: The Power of Balance: Transforming Self, Society, and Scientific Inquiry (Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA, 1991). This short extract (page 13), give a good idea of its content.

This book proposes that leaders in politics, business, the media, education, and science can exercise an inherently positive kind of power that can be called the power of balance. It also proposes that leaders must exercise this power of balance if they are to succeed in generating and sustaining organizations that:

• (1) empower their members;
• (2) reliably increase their productivity and legitimacy; and
• (3) transform appropriately in/ and responsibly manage their impact on turbulent environments.

A further claim is that whereas other types of power corrupt and require balancing by one another in order to limit corruption and injustice the exercise of the power of balance generates increasing self-balancing increasing personal integrity, increasing institutional efficacy, and increasing social justice.

A version of the book, and many other publications, are available as pdf files from “The Selected Works of William R. Torbert” on eScholarship@bc, on the Boston College Website.