In the whole change process, there comes a process that feels like a threshold. If that threshold is not crossed, all the talk about change is hollow and disconnected.
Dr. Otto Scharmer calls that threshold – the eye of the needle, referring to the gate in ancient Jerusalem.
When people go beyond the threshold, there is an immediate impact. People start seeing themselves from a higher vantage point, and they look at the journey as a whole instead of as a series of daily situations. They recognize their habitual problems, their deeper intentions, what matters most to them, their aspirations for themselves and for their community. In short, nothing is the same.
Crossing that threshold means to be willing to let go. To let go of old patterns, assumptions and even our old ‘ego-self’. Only then it is possible to step into our dormant potential, our emerging ‘Self’.
Many of us have had this transformative experiences that have altered the path of our lives.
Re-Integration of Matter and Mind:
When revered Master Nan, the chinese Zen Master was asked by Peter Senge: “Do you think that the industrial age will create such environmental problems that we will destroy ourselves and that we must find a way to change industrial institutions?” His response was:
“There is only one issue in the World. It’s the reintegration of matter and mind.”
Essence of Systems Thinking:
The essence of systems thinking is to help people close the feedback loop between the enactment of systems on a behavioral level and its source on the level of awareness and thought.
The shift at the bottom of the U in the U Process is not a singular event. It is an awareness and presence that is always accessible to us. The journey of the U is a journey to that deeper place and encounter.
The more we can sustain this deepend connection, the more we find that our relationship to the ‘system’ to the social field is shifting.
This write up is based on Theory U by MIT Prof. Dr. Otto Scharmer
MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS 