Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems - A Conversation with Adam Kahane

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Jun 7, 2025

In an engaging conversation, Adam Kahane, Director at Reos Partners and renowned facilitator of complex social processes, shares insights on transforming systems through everyday habits. He emphasizes radical engagement as a way for young people and educators to actively participate in change. Adam discusses the balance between agency and authority in education, the need for strategic rest in activism, and the importance of humility in decision-making. He also philosophizes on love, power, and justice, advocating for collaboration in addressing societal challenges.

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ANECDOTE

Interview Inspires Transforming Systems Book

Adam Kahane shares an embarrassing, confusing interview with Trevor Manuel about South Africa's transformation.
This failure sparked Kahane's interest in understanding the daily actions behind system transformation.

INSIGHT

Be Part Of Problem To Solve

Transforming systems is collective but individuals must understand their role and responsibility.
Being part of the problem is necessary to be part of the solution in systems change.

INSIGHT

Abiding Stance Is Meta Habit

Abiding or "being with" a system means staying present and working with reality rather than forcing change.
This stance is a meta habit underlying radical engagement for effective system transformation.

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This week, it's a huge pleasure to welcome Adam Kahane onto the podcast to talk with Tim about the everyday habits and radical engagement that young people as well as educators and leaders, at all levels of our education systems, can learn in order to do the coordinated and constant work of transforming systems.

Adam Kahane is a Director at Reos Partners, a global social impact company dedicated to supporting sustainable and equitable progress on humanity's most crucial

challenges. He is an internationally renowned organizer, designer and facilitator of complex and conflictual multi-stakeholder processes through which business, government, and civil society leaders collaborate to address such challenges.

Adam has worked in more than fifty countries, with executives and politicians, generals and guerrillas, civil servants and trade unionists, community activists and United Nations officials, clergy and artists. He is also a best-selling author of six books about this work, is a Member of the Order of Canada, and in 2022, he was named a Schwab Foundation Social Innovation Thought Leader of the Year at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Adam is the author of "Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change," "Transformative Scenario Planning: Working Together to Change the Future," "Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust," and "Facilitating Breakthrough: How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge Differences, and Move Forward Together." These books are available in more than twenty languages. Nelson Mandela said of Adam's book Solving Tough Problems: An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities: “This breakthrough book addresses the central challenge of our time: finding a way to work together to solve the problems we have created.”

In April this year, Adam's latest book was published, Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems: The Catalytic Power of Radical Engagement

Links:

https://reospartners.com/our-people/adam-kahane

kahane@reospartners.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-kahane/