A new book by Prem Kumar · World Scientific
What does it truly mean to emerge stronger?
How learning, risk and sustainability create better futures.
About the book
That connection is learning.
We live in an age of dissolving certainties. Beliefs we relied on change faster than we can adapt, and the instinct is to hold tighter to what we already know. Certainty can feel like strength. It can also blind us to what is changing.
How individuals, organisations and nations respond depends on what they count as strength. Power and control can define success while narrowing what we see and how we learn. Risk can hide quietly within strength, leaving us weaker than we appear.
The book traces a hidden connection between two forces usually considered separately. Risk reveals where change is overdue. Sustainability asks us to weigh today's choices against the future they create. Both call for a willingness to look beyond the immediate and recognise what may be emerging.
We tend to believe we already know how to learn. Learning here is a way of living with paradox, of understanding how we learn, the process of becoming and of doing. The chapters examine learning from failure, how filters, mental models and artificial intelligence shape what we see, and acting with limited control. They follow this thread through climate, food, pandemics and nuclear risk.
To emerge stronger is to keep learning as the ground moves, and to find a way forward with others.
Inside the book
Seven chapters
- Where Our Future Begins
- Learning in the Shadows of Risk
- Climate Impact
- Reimagining Water and Food
- Waking Up to Pandemics
- Learning Before Midnight
- A Future Worth Learning For
- Emerging Stronger: A Guide for Applying LRS
Interactive tools
Put the ideas into practice
The purpose of these tools is not to tell you what to think. It is to help you examine how you think, what you might be overlooking and what you could learn.
LRS Explorer
Examine an issue through Learning, Risk and Sustainability. Rate 15 statements about one issue you face and see the shape of how you are approaching it.
Believability Check
Question what you believe. Before you rely on or pass on a claim, ask five simple questions.
Try it now →TAP Grid
Compare competing tensions and decide where limited attention should go. Designed for teams to apply and adapt to their own context.
Place a tension →Reflect
Make sense of what you have discovered. Reconsider assumptions, examine risk, consider sustainability and decide what to do differently, on your own or with others, about a chapter or a situation in your life or work.
Interested in applying these ideas with your team or organisation? Get in touch.
No names or contact details needed. Your answers stay on your device. Privacy
About the author
Dr Prem Kumar
Dr Prem Kumar grew up in a household where learning had to be earned, watching his parents stretch what little they had. He became a lifelong learner long before learning became his life's work. His career has spanned the private and public sectors, including community development, where he has helped individuals, teams and institutions build the capabilities to face change, uncertainty and difficult choices. One question has remained at the heart of his work. How do people and institutions learn, adapt and emerge stronger when their expectations meet an uncertain future?
His research grows out of that practice and explores how individuals, organisations and nations learn and develop. His interests include sustainable development, lifelong learning, systems thinking, leadership, and human and organisational development. He has published on organisational and lifelong learning, governance and sustainability, and his work has appeared in the International Journal of Lifelong Education and in handbooks on adult learning and education published by Routledge and Palgrave. He is the author of The Learning Marketplace: East Meets West in Singapore and co-editor of Learning and Performance Matter, both published by World Scientific, and editor of Organisational Learning for All Seasons, the first anthology on organisational learning published in Singapore.
He is currently Chief Executive of The Global School of Systems Thinking and an Adjunct Faculty member at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). His contributions to teaching and public service have been recognised through several awards, including the SUSS Outstanding Teaching Award and the Exemplary SkillsFuture @ Public Service Award.
He holds a doctorate from the University of Surrey and master's degrees from the University of Hull and The Fletcher School at Tufts University. His professional development includes diplomas in adult education from the University of British Columbia and Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ), and a certificate from the International Program in a Gestalt Approach to Organization and System Development, offered jointly by the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and the Institute for Gestalt-Oriented Organisational Consulting (IGOR) in Frankfurt.
Interested in applying these ideas with your team or organisation? Get in touch.
Previous publications
Also by Prem Kumar
The Learning Marketplace: East Meets West in Singapore
As the balance of global influence shifts towards Asia, Singapore sits at a crossroads between East and West. Though often seen as Asia's most westernised country, it remains a multicultural Asian society, and one of the world's most open economies, plugged into the global marketplace of education and learning.
The book examines how a small, resource-scarce city-state uses learning and human capital as strategic drivers to stay ahead. Going beyond education to the economic, socio-cultural, political and technological forces that shape Singapore, it explores where Eastern and Western cultures, values, beliefs and knowledge systems converge, clash and at times diverge.
“This is a book that should be in every education library …”Peter Jarvis, Emeritus Professor
Learning and Performance Matter
Learning and performing shape our results and actions, yet getting the balance right is a challenge for individuals and organisations. Performing is about meeting the demands placed upon us. Learning expands our ability to meet future demands. This anthology brings together leading thinkers on how organisations can strike that balance, and on the values around which organisational cultures form.
The volume includes Prem Kumar's chapter, “Singapore: Moving Ahead of Change”.
“This excellent anthology by leading thinkers in organisations offers thoughtful insights on lessons about learning … The lessons from these essays will help managers manage change and leaders learn … This volume is a good push along the learning journey.”Professor Dave Ulrich, University of Michigan and Partner, The RBL Group (extract from the Foreword)
Contributors: Peter Blyde, John Seely Brown, Marilyn J. Darling, Amy C. Edmondson, David C. Flanigan, Estee Solomon Gray, Peter Jarvis, Aneel Karnani, D. Christopher Kayes, Art Kleiner, Prem Kumar, Robyn Mason, Andrea Needham, Deb Ramsey, Phil Ramsey, Myron Rogers, Sara J. Singer, Beth Tootell and Margaret Wheatley.
Organisational Learning for All Seasons: Building Internal Capabilities for Competitive Advantage
How can organisations build their learning capabilities amid global uncertainty and competition? What people, processes, structures and systems do they need to stay competitive? The first book of its kind published in Singapore, this anthology brings together local and international contributors on the meaning and practice of organisational learning.
Alongside concepts and tools for building learning organisations, it features case studies of organisational learning efforts from Singapore's private and public sectors, offered as a resource for practice and future research. With a foreword by Yong Ying-I, the volume includes Prem Kumar's chapter, “Organisational Learning with a Purpose”.
“This is an indispensable treasure trove of not only principles and insights on learning organisations but also actual practices and case studies. I find the use of Singaporean applications especially refreshing as they make this book immediately relevant to local organisations and situations.”Dr Christopher Chia, Chief Executive, National Library Board, Singapore
More endorsements
“The learning journey for SPF begun in 1996 has been a challenging and rewarding one. Not only have we achieved good results, we have grown a great deal in terms of organisational capacity, capacity not just to remake ourselves but, more importantly, to contribute to our nation's success. I am happy that this book also includes case studies and stories through which many fresh and interesting insights on Organisational Learning in Singapore can be shared.”Khoo Boon Hui, Commissioner of Police, Singapore
“How to maximally draw on and mine the knowledge that accumulates in an organisation, how to translate this into effective strategies to deal with the changing environment as well as practical approaches to deal with day-to-day issues: we all want the answers to these questions. To address the important subject of organisational learning, this book documents observations and analyses from both our own local experience as well as international commentators.”Dr Jennifer Lee, Chief Executive Officer, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore
“There is a world of difference between individuals, however intelligent and capable, and a team which is able to continually share, learn, build capability and achieve results. Much of it is related to openness to others. This collection of work provides ideas, experience and reflection, drawing on different communities and academic, public and private sectors. I hope we may learn from each other.”Lee Tzu Yang, Chairman, Shell Companies in Singapore
“I see Organisational Learning (OL) as a continuous process of applying lessons learnt, from one's own experience or the experiences of others. Simply put, it is the practical application of good management practices. When all's said and done, it is what's done, the results, that matter. I am glad that this anthology, with local and international case studies, puts OL into practical perspective.”Tan Boon Huat, Chief Executive Director, People's Association, Singapore
“Original and insightful anthology on Organisational Learning of organisations in Singapore. Valuable reading for leaders who want to achieve transformational change and reinvent themselves and their organisations for the challenges of the future.”BG (NS) Yam Ah Mee, Chief Executive Officer and Dean, Civil Service College, Singapore
Titles as at the time of publication.
Contributors include: Ang Hak Seng, Tan Hung Hooi, Art Kleiner, B. Kim Barnes, Christopher Mills, Daisie Yip, Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee, Daniel Kim, Edwin C. Nevis, Anthony J. DiBella, Janet M. Gould, Francis Teo, George L. Roth, Jay Ogilvy, John M. Peters, W. Don Creekmore, David T. Duncan, Lily Seah, Loh Yong Chye, Marc Tan, Christopher Pragasam, Loretta Chong, Ngiam Su Wei, Tina Tan, Margaret Tang, Margaret Wheatley, Marvin Weisbord, Sandra Janoff, Ng Pak Tee, Joy Chew, Low Guat Tin, Peter Jarvis, Peter David Stroh, Phil Ramsey, Prem Kumar, Robert Fritz, Sandra Seagal, David Horne, Todd Siler and Yin Hui Siang.