234 Prototype Teams Are Pursuing Profound Systems Transformation
u-lab 2x 2023 is now underway with an inspiring cohort of teams from around the world.
article co-authored by Emma Paine & Stefan Day
On February 16th, over 460 participants from the u-lab 2x 2023 cohort logged in from locations around the world to participate in the first global live session of this year’s 2x journey. For some it was early morning and they had set their alarms the night before, for others it was the middle of their work day and somehow they had negotiated to be able to pull away to join us on zoom. For others it was the middle of the night — their families asleep in other rooms of the house as the glow of the zoom room lit up their faces.
u-lab 2x is a free, four-month, online and offline innovation journey that leverages the best of Presencing Institute’s methods, tools, and practices to support teams bringing to life their prototypes for systems transformation globally and in their own local contexts.
For the past several years, this first live session of the u-lab 2x journey has held a similar energy of expectant excitement: here we go — this is it. 234 teams from around the world have been accepted into this year’s cohort. About one fourth of them are returning to the 2x journey, continuing the evolution of their project from a previous year, and 175 or three quarters of these teams enter the 2x journey for the first time.
These are not casual projects. If you’re able to watch some of the application videos, or meet some of the participants in a breakout room, one gets the sense very quickly that for many, their prototype idea is carrying a profound depth of intention, sincerity, and commitment. As disruption, systems collapse, and uncertainty continue globally — across economies, and through communities — these teams arrive with their ideas of what might support the brighter future that is wanting to emerge. For some, their project is the product of decades of concern, sense-making, frustration, insight, and now — action. For others, their prototype idea sits as a hunch, a question, a “what if this were possible?”; they’ve entered 2x with a team of friends, collaborators, and colleagues willing to see what might unlock in their system if they carried it through.
When they apply, u-lab 2x prototype teams are asked to declare the main focus area their project aims to impact. The graph below shows the breakdown of categories where teams are focusing this year — from Health and Well-being; Governance and Democracy; Planetary Healing; Racial Justice; Soil, Food and Climate justice, and many more.
A multitude of experiences shines through this year’s cohort: these 234 teams stretch across 66 countries, 363 cities, and are operating in at least 22 different languages.
After the opening moments of the live session, where the participants were introduced to one another through data and short videos about who they are as a cohort, where they are joining from, and some of the powerful intentions, initiatives, and experience they are carrying together into 2x 2023 — Otto Scharmer took up the mic to welcome this year’s teams. In his welcome, Otto shared his depth of gratitude that they are stepping forward together into this journey of discovery, transformation and innovation.
“We know what the problems are, we know what the solutions are, but is it really happening?” asked Otto. The answer is, well only to small degrees. “The only way this is going to work is when it starts everywhere. And everywhere means: here and now, in each of us. And also we, together. And that’s how the new is born in nature. How does the new emerge in nature? Through a seed. In this seed, the entire future is already present.”
Otto noted that it is critical to create the right conditions around that seed. “And that is what we are trying to do here. Each of us, in our intentions, in our initiatives, in our hearts, in our relationships. And what we try to do is create the right conditions to support each other and find out ways that these new collaborative forms can be developed.”
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