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(pg 73)*The primary job of leadership. Second, we redirect our attention and begin to grasp reality by sensing inside the formative field. And third, as we deepen this movement, we deploy a different cognitive capacity: a knowing that emerges from the intelligence of the heart. We cannot leave the cave on someone else's back. (pg 362)*(Leaders) must also have egoless selves by "channeling their ego needs away from themselves toward building a great company - often by sacrificing their own gain for the gain of the company" (Collins) (pg 76)*That the root meaning (of leadership), which suggest that the experience of letting go and then going forth into another world that begins to take shape only once we overcome the fear of stepping into the unknown, is at the very heart and essence of leadership.
In the 1990's 70% of business reengineering efforts failed due to the lack of personal change on the part of its leaders. Presencing blends the works "presence" and "sensing" and works through "seeing from our deepest source." At the bottom of the U Model where "presencing" takes place - the letting go and letting come - is like going through the eye of a needle. It is not creating dialogue with your customer. (pg 148)*At the moment we switch from the state of seeing (viewing from outside) to sensing (viewing from within), we emerge from the boundaries of the cave to the world outside.First, we have to immerse ourselves in the concrete particulars (dive in).
It provides a social grammar of the social field that illuminates the blind spot. It is becoming, being your patient or customer. (pg 135)*It is becoming one with the phenomenon you study. It outlines a social technology of freedom that puts this approach onto its feet and into practice through a set of principles and practices of presencing.
These principles are guidelines to bringing "presencing" to a reality. Theory U is the seminal work on the clarification of how the U Model is used for organizational transformation. is to enhance the individual and systemic capacity to see, to deeply attend to the reality that people face and enact. It is a difficult, but critical process prior to being able to move up the right side of the U. A core question is: "What would be required in order to learn and act from the future as it emerges." (pg 16)He cites clearly the prohibitors of change.
(pg 20)*While management is about "getting things done," leadership is about creating and cultivating the larger context - the fertile common ground and soil - in which things can happen. He cites three enemies of change:*Voice of Judgment (VOJ)*Voice of Cynicism (VOC)*Voice of Fear (VOF) (pg 42)He spends time on dealing with our blind spots to change and suggest the process of dialoguing to identify the blind spot and move beyond the current state into a more open mind. Scharmer defines "presencing": to sense, tune in. Second, it exemplifies this grammar by revealing four fundamental metaprocesses that underlie the collective process of social reality creation, moment to moment. The stages are: Downloading (speaking from what they want to hear, talking nice); Debate (speaking from what I think, talking tough); Dialogue (speaking from seeing myself as part of the whole, reflective inquiry); Presencing (speaking from what is moving through, generative flow). The only way out is to activate our own senses.
Thus the leader's real work is to help people discover the power of seeing and seeing together. (pg 161)This is a field book on how to build trust and openness by demonstrating the need and ways to create an open mind and open heart for the agents of change. the essence of leadership - that is to our capacity to shift the place from which we operate. We cannot leave the cave by continuing to habitually download abstract thought. Why is this critical. The globalization issues of the economy, ecology, and spirituality are key drivers for his vision of change.
(56)Obviously the work is focused on the need to change:*When we realize that our habitual way of seeing and acting is not getting us anywhere, we have to redirect and bend our beam of our (individual and collective) attention and redirect the edges of perception back upon its source, back upon the one who is performing the activity. Its purpose is:*To delineate a social technology of transformational change that will allow leaders in all segments of our society, including in our individual lives, to meet their existing challenges. It is not studying your customer. (O'Brian) (pg 27)*You cannot understand the system unless you change it. and act from one's highest future potential - the future that depends on us to bring it into being.
Although these issues I find important, his explanation I found to be pedantic, difficult to understand and read.I found Schamer's book to be most interesting, but I am still left with the haunting question: Can one truly find their true Self and commitment to transformation work via an academic conversation, or does a deeper experience drive personal transformation. The result is seeing with the heart. Can we merely will the true Self, or does commitment come from a deeper place in our soul stimulated through a "moving" experience. We grasp reality not only from the perspective of the individual observer but also from the perspective of life and its source, the sun. (pg 18)*Theory U addresses the core question that underlies this book: What is required in order to learn and act from the future as it emerges. (pg 296)The issue of "presencing" is a continual and central focus. (pg 5)*The book sets out to do three things.
(Lewin)He continues to come back to the theme of: "Who is my true Self." He provides a guide to shift from the inner place from which we operate and the need to do more than merely change our old mental models but to truly move our authentic Self to a new place of commitment to transformation. Every object, well contemplated, opens up a new organ within us. His U Model is in most chapters as he continues to embellish its application. If leaders of the transformation resist finding their true Self, can change take place, or are we merely moving the deck chairs around a good ship.
In order to rise to the occasion, leaders often have to learn how to operate from the highest possible future, rather than being stuck in the patterns of our past experiences. Presencing and personal transformation is the "root of the root" of change. To quote Gandhi: "You must be the change you seek to create."One of the most impressive parts of the book is Schamer's "Principles and Practices of Presencing for Leading Profound Innovation and Change." (Chapter 21) He lists twenty-four principles around the issues of co-initiating, co-sensing, co-presencing, co-creating, and co-evolving. (pg 467)Two of the guiding quotes for the book are:*The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener. He uses his German farm roots as a medifore for working the "field" and cultivating the soil of change by tilling the soil deeply. The place of presencing is our deepest source of knowing and being, from which we navigate our way forward in situations when all other navigation instruments have failed. (pg 113)*People resist change only if they are asked to make difficult changes and sacrifices without being able to see the bigger picture and understanding the context that makes change necessary. He spends significant space in looking at the world problems that need to be addressed and change models that need to be developed.
Scharmer spends time on "leadership" and its role of leading change.*Leadership is about being better able to listen to the whole than anyone else can. (pg 136)*. There is ample scientific evidence presented in the book to once again demonstrate that the social science of organizational and personal change is not some mombo jumbo, psychobabble but is founded on scientific fact of how whole systems work and the relationship all of the parts have to have to make it work.He cites practical examples of positive change initiative and gives the reader "practice" models to experiences the points being made. Can we truly move through the "eye of the needle" of transformation without giving up current mental models for new ones that challenge our personal and organizational transformation.
Totally advisable not only for leaders or managemente staff. It's for every person who wants to know about the next coming future. Wonderful.
If you like clear exposition and model-building, you'll want to pass on this book.Core terms are never defined, but are just used over and over in a web of confusing claims.There is probably a good core of practical advice for clearing away noise and tuning into future possibilties, but it's difficult to boil out the practical lessons from all the guru speak.Sorry I don't have more specific criticisms, but I couldn't get through the whole thing. As terms weren't defined, I struggled to get any bearing for a while and then gave up.When I wrote this review there were 15 reviews with 5 stars, and I got sucked into spending my $25 based on this unanimity, and on Scharmer's status as a senior fellow at MIT (shame on me). Anyway, I just wanted to warn others that it's not nearly as good as the other reviewers claim -- unless you're into vague new age gobbledygook.
As a coach, corporate change consultant and Zen practitioner, Theory U aligns a number of disciplines to describe what is a bleeding edge approach to individual, team, organizational and global transformation.
Most people have read Einstein's quote (loosely recalled) that we can't solve problems from within the paradigm in which they were created. Look around - our world and too many of our leaders are stuck in old paradigms of thinking. It's vital that we learn how to access a right-brain space where something new can emerge. This brilliant book addresses what Scharmer calls "the blind spot of our time."
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