In their book Leading From the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economics, Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer from the Presencing Institute suggest: “The goal must be to co-sense, co-inspire, and co-create an emerging future for systems that value the well being of all rather than just a few.” Their stated goal is to develop a framework for deep systemic change “focusing on the emerging transformation of capitalism”.
In their book I found this information about the World Wildlife Fund:
When the World Wildlife Fund began, their mission was about conserving the environment through environmental protection strategies. At some point they realized this wasn’t going to happen by fighting against the local communities in those areas. They also began to see that what was happening in the local communities was affected by the forces of global markets. It took a leap of understanding to realize they needed to work with this interconnected web to accomplish their goals.
This is one example Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer use to illustrate what they describe as an emerging awareness based on moving from a view of caring only about myself (or my own group) to a view that cares about the whole system.
The authors maintain it is an evolutionary process that is already happening. They give multiple examples across many sectors (eg. government, health, education, business, and banking). In their conceptualization, this process is a natural outgrowth of the fact that the needs of large numbers of people are not being met by our current systems. They explain how systemic change has happened in the past for similar reasons and propose that we are in a period where emergence of new systems is inevitable.
Fight Against vs. Lean Into
At the same time it will take concerted effort. The key, they say, is to shift from a fight against the old system, to sensing, encouraging and strengthening what is already trying to emerge. It’s about an ability to sense from an intuitive place what’s emerging, while learning how to engage with that to create different results. From their perspective, what we need to do is create the space for it to happen, including the structure, framework, and necessary tools while supporting, encouraging, and making visible what is already happening, all of which they are deeply involved in doing worldwide.
Here’s another example. When Judy Wicks started the White Dog Café in Philadelphia, she used business practices in line with her values. She partnered with local farmers, paid a living wage to employees, and sourced energy from renewable sources. Then she realized she wanted to do more. She says: “It was a transformational moment when I realized that there is no such thing as one sustainable business. No matter how good the practices were within my company…it was a drop in the bucket. I had to go outside of my own company and start working in cooperation with others, particularly with my competitors, to build a whole system based on those values.” She began materially assisting competitors, (such as buying a refrigerated truck for one competitor) and started a foundation with the purpose of providing free consulting for her competitors.
For me it’s an open question whether we’ll annihilate ourselves first before this type of change can be fully realized on a large scale. Nonetheless, learning about the Presencing Institute has helped me start to erase the demoralizing image that often resides in my head of individuals and small groups fighting against an immense and immovable status quo.
Presencing
The specific method they use is called Theory U and Presencing. (See diagram) Presencing, refers to the ability to sense and bring into the present one’s highest future potential—as an individual and as a group.
They write: “The gist of this framework is simple: The quality of results produced by any system depends on the quality of awareness from which people in the system operate.” What interests me in particular is the way that social change efforts go hand in hand with intuitive awareness practices including mindfulness. The authors state: “mindfulness cultivates our capacity for paying attention to our attention. And that capacity is at the ground of everything, of all advanced human capacities.” Among other things, they find that mindfulness helps individuals become better listeners and more effective in holding the space for dialogue.
The Theory U framework is both theoretical and very practical. It is about a co-creative process of understanding the system and developing innovative new prototypes while being inspired and supported by a willingness to go inward, to touch the deepest part of ourselves, and to see what emerges. In this way both personal and societal transformation happen together.
Creating Conditions for Change
They write: “You cannot engineer [change] in the old way which is by controlling it. You can create conditions that help leaders in a system to broaden and deepen their view of the system….” For instance they might take groups of stakeholders on what they call learning journeys for a day or two. Remember the system is not only those working within a given company but might also include a much larger, interconnected web of stakeholders. They take individuals from far flung parts of this system and immerse them together in edges of the system that they might not be aware of. Out of this comes insight and deeper interaction which broadens the possibilities for co-creation.
The authors note, however, “Higher level conversation like dialogue and collective creativity requires higher quality containers and holding spaces. Transforming the quality of conversation in a system means transforming the quality of relationship and thought.”
So it’s not an easy or simple process. Nontheless they write, “the future is not just about tinkering with the surface of structural change. It’s not about replacing one mindset that no longer serves us with another. It’s a future that requires us to tap into a deep level of our humanity, of who we really are and who we want to be as a society. It is a future that we can sense, feel, and actualize by shifting the inner place from which we operate. It’s a future that in those moments of disruption begins to presence itself through us.”
I take a deep breath to really feel the hope, the optimism, of this quote. I hear also the call for each of us to be the vehicle through which what is trying to emerge comes into the world.
Related Links
The Presencing Institute Website
Their programs have graduated about 2,500 participants in the last 10 years. They also have online programs attended by thousands (see below) plus they are supporting projects all over the world.
2014 Global Presencing Forum
(250 leaders and change makers from 28 countries attended plus it was streamed live to 800 to 1000 more)
written information from the forum
forum recordings
speaker videos
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