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by F. David Peat

ISBN: 978-88-95604-03-9
Price: €13.50 | £9.99 | US$16.95
Format: paperback, 176pp, 198 x 129 mm

Available worldwide.

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Synopsis

Creative alternatives to society's dependence on quick-fix solutions.

How can we build a better world for our families, our businesses, our institutions, society and ourselves? Gentle Action provides clear answers: Rather then treating situations as external to ourselves, the keys to the issues we face today demand solutions from within. F. David Peat's latest book shows we can exercise more effective, creative and non-invasive action in everything from the local to the international level.

Contents includes

• Shaking hands to transform a community
• Reaching beyond the clockwork world
• The amazing power of butterfly effects
• Facing complexity and using the strength of feedback
• Creating flexible responses
• How creative suspension spells organizational creativity
• The importance of trust
• Gentle Action in action

The book is packed with examples of ways in which individuals and groups have totally transformed economies, societies and situations though gentle and creative actions. It also highlights those far-too-many cases in which well meaning attempts to help or to provide aid have gone disastrously wrong; wrong because the organizations involved were over rigid, failed to understand the complexities involved and operated from “outside the system”.

Each chapter concludes with a series of questions and challenges for the reader, leading to ways in which creative change can be brought both to individuals and groups. The book will be an invaluable resource for everyone from CEOs, policy makers, community leaders, opinion makers, aid organizations, business groups, consultants and politicians to teachers and parents as well as those who would like to make a positive impact on the world and society around them.

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Intended audience

Community leaders, business people, aid organizations, people working in government, business consultants, life coaches, families and all those interested in creating a better life.

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What people have said about the book

“David Peat is one of those rare authors who can consistently blend scientific curiosity with emotional insight and compassion. The ideas and analogies contained in this book are both powerful and compelling. His gift for skillfully layering complex thoughts with subtle, crisp reasoning brings theoretical physics to the mainstream in a way that will leave you spellbound.”
Mark Adams, author, The Elements of Transformation

“The key question for any responsible person in this world beset with so many staggering problems is: what can I do? David Peat has written a most timely and inspiring book. In Gentle Action he shares with us not only valuable insights about how to act but provides us also with a rich array of people who took a stand and made a difference. This encouraging book should be widely read!”
Edy Korthals Altes, former Ambassador of the Netherlands; former Co- President World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP)

“David Peat's acute analysis of human behaviour and mechanistic systems, as seen through the eyes of a physicist, is both fascinating and insightful. His perspective on the historical interplay between arts and science during the Renaissance seems particularly relevant in considering man’s influence on today's turbulent world. Above all, this book highlights the curse of unintended consequences which can arise from ill-thought out interventions in our society and environment. If nothing else, read the story of the Nile perch. This and other pertinent case studies are shocking examples of what can happen when we fail, in David's words, to take gentle action or dance with nature.”
Geoffrey Bush, Chairman, Diageo Foundation

“If you read only one book about how to contribute to positive change in your world today, choose Gentle Action by physicist turned philosopher F. David Peat. As usual, he has found a way to link abstract, yet pervasive qualities of human nature and the physical universe with practical approaches to making a difference.”
Marguerite M. Callaway, President, Callaway Group, LLC, an international management consultancy. Author, The Energetics of Business: A Practical guide to bringing your business to life

“David Peat takes his deep life experience as a physicist, systems thinker, teacher, social entrepreneur and philosopher distilling what he has learned as a gift to our future. Gentle Action embraces positive change toward a sustainable world, showing in many fascinating stories, how each of us can contribute to healthier communities and societies.”
Hazel Henderson, author, Ethical Markets: Growing the green economy

“F. David Peat has written perhaps his most important book, one that is required reading for those aspiring to address society’s most complex and pressing issues. Peat's approach is both practical and elegant. It calls for subtle but significant action, consistent with natural principles, producing radical whole system transformation.”
Joseph Jaworski, Generon International. Author, Synchronicity: The inner path of leadership

“Gentle Action gives hope in the face of the most common sources of powerlessness—the feeling that nothing can be done and that there are no resources to do it. In this intriguing book David Peat shows how with courage, intelligence, engagement and sensitivity we can help problems speak for themselves and suggest their own solution.”
Graham Leicester, Director, International Futures Forum

“I enthusiastically endorse David Peat's book Gentle Action as a primer in the field of whole systems healing. The concept of gentle action has a key role to play, as it offers the framework for translating theory into action. In short, it is wonderfully useful!”
John Miller, External fellow, University of Minnesota, Founder and President of the forthcoming Albert Schweitzer College

“Gentle Action is profound and yet...gentle. It doesn't beat people up with an intellectual stick. Reading the book is like going to visit David Peat in Pari; it is an invitation to stop, rest, think and have a chat with fellow travelers and residents alike. Over food, of course, and wine...both made locally, by people who care.”
Ernesto Sirolli, author, Ripples from the Zambezi: Passion, entrepreneurship and the rebirth of the local economy

“The damage we have done to our planet cannot be reversed by more of the same heavy, violent and invasive work. The system needs to evolve more subtly to stop this destruction. It is one thing to ‘think’ this—but even then, to stop the damage, the notion needs to be experienced ‘outside’ normal ‘thought’. David Peat knows that these changes must emerge from Gentle Action. His book is an example of his action. It can help us save the Planet.”
Lord Stone of Blackheath, Chairman of DIPEx a health charity, and Deputy Chairman of Sinicatum Carbon-Capital, a climate change company

“F. David Peat is an uncommon philosopher/physicist—he provides a theoretical framework, based in general systems theory, that brings the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer into the 21st century, making them relevant, practical and accessible. He's leading the way to a greener, kinder kind of engaged social action. Onward!”
Eric Utne, founder, The Utne Reader

“I have long lived by the dictum that we should in public life try to get as far as possible to the right-hand side of the following scale:
done to → done for → done with → done by
But never before have I had so clear a statement of why that should be the case as David Peat's Gentle Action provides.”
Perry Walker, Head, Democracy and Participation, New Economic Foundation

“Too many change initiatives use control and fear, only creating more chaos. David Peat, with his always keen and discerning mind and heart, offers us real wisdom for how we can respond to turbulence in ways that create real possibilities and affirm life.”
Margaret J. Wheatley, author, Leadership and the New Science