Attending to and Co-Shaping the future that wants to emerge

The U Process:

DOWNLOADING:

At the beginning there is a spark of becoming aware that moves us beyond downloading -m beyond extending the patterns of the past. As long as we operate form downloading, the world is frozen by our old mental habits and past experiences;nothing new enters our minds. Same Old,Same Old.

SEEING:

The moment we suspend our habitual judgement we wake up with fresh eyes. We notice what is new and see the world as a set of objects that are exterior to us, the observers.

SENSING:

The moment we redirect our attention from objects to source, our perception widens and deepens. This shift bends the beam of observation back into the observer. The boundary between the observer and observed opens up.

PRESENCING:

Entering a moment of stillness, we let go of the old and connect to the surrounding sphere of future potential. The boundary between observer and observed collapses into a space for the future to emerge.

CRYSTALLIZING:

As we let come and crystallize vision and intention, the relationship between observer and observed starts to invert. Envisioning happens from the field of the future (rather than our ego).

PROTOTYPING:

As we enact prototypes we explore the future by doing. The relationship between observer and observed continues its inversion. Enacting happens from ‘being in dialogue with universe’ (rather than from our ego).

PERFORMING:

As we embody the new by evolving our practices and infrastructures, the relationship between observer and observed completes its inversion. The embodying happens from the context of the larger eco-system (rather than from the small ‘s’ institutional self).

In summary, the first key ideas of Theory U include the 3 movements i.e. observe, retreat, act and the more granular 7 processes of attending to and co-shaping the future that wants to emerge.

This write up is based on Theory U by MIT Prof. Dr. Otto Scharmer

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