Leading Societal Transformation in Capital, Technology and Land
Three u.lab-S teams take on big questions about capital, technology, and land in Wales, Canada, and Scotland.
In June, the Presencing Institute concluded its first annual delivery of u.lab-S: Societal Transformation, a global initiative in which 300 teams from 35 countries are simultaneously tackling social challenges using collective systems mapping and design processes.
This week, we feature three teams working under the acupuncture point of Capital, Technology and Land.
Team Folk Land
Scotland
Team Folk Land is a 15 person initiative involved with the local Centre for Stewardship. They participated as one of the u.lab-S teams with the idea to transform an old estate into a centre for land and people. This work was, and is, being done within the context of Scotland’s people call for land reform, a fairer society and action on climate change. Taking part in the u.lab-S journey generated a sharpened and clarified purpose for the Team Folk Land. They were able to rethink how they operated in order to put the land, and the marginalized people, at the heart of their work.
Some of the emerging impacts include:
- Hosting a learning journey by Scotland’s Land Commission who commended their generosity and openness about what they knew and what they did not know — as they prototyped new ways of owning, stewarding & using land;
- Co-hosting a week-long Art of Mentoring summer camp with over 250 people from over 20 countries as a prototype of the way to run summer schools sustainably.
Welsh Government
Wales
Members of the u.lab Wales confronted a range of issues from access to finance for small businesses to climate emergency action. One team prototyped co-creation of a community-led adult learning curriculum in Blaenau Festiniog, Rondda Cynon Taff and Ely, Cardiff. Another group redesigned the National Health Service staff survey in order to sustain better conversations.
For this group, one of the biggest outcomes was how the teams were working together. Having every voice heard, for example through check-in rounds, provided space for pausing, listening, and asking good questions. These teams found that listening deeply allowed for more effective collaboration. They found that when people take the time to listen to each other, the result ends up aligning with the intention. To listen deeply and to make space for all voices to be heard leads to effective collaboration and more efficient work.
MindEQuity
Canada
The ET Group (ETG), a Toronto based technology company seeking to connect people to collaborate effectively. Through the u.lab-S journey, ETG applied Theory U co-sensing methods and systems thinking analysis to their initiative. They uncovered symptoms and the root issues at play, as well as alternative perspectives on challenges which they were facing. Taking these new ideas one step forward, into an action plan, ETG began prototyping in an open and playful manner. Key to prototyping is collaboration, experimentation, and learning.
One prototype which ETG produced was the Personal Connection prototype. Essential to the Personal Connection prototype story was the notion that, as digitalization separates people from one another, humans desire and need communities and social connections. With this thought, the prototype aimed to reach non-participants, ETG members, and everyone in between. Keeping in mind the question of how collaboration, connection, and technology may weave together, ETG now has a new Teamwork and Relationships circle. Three main areas seem to have come into focus for the ETG:
- The container: how the team is able to hold the space for individual change, team change, and organizational change;
- Learning: an amplified sense of what it means to learn from the emerging future;
- The social soil: connecting to the quality of connection and relationships as a key to how the team is able to move into concrete action.
We invite you to join us in this capacity-building program through the Societal Transformation Lab. Together, we’re designing and building a global eco-system for profound societal and civilizational transformation. Consider joining u.lab 1x, a massive open online course (MOOC) that runs from September to December 2019 and takes participants on a journey from sensing and connecting to deeper sources of knowing to generate powerful prototype ideas.
Read more about the innovation lab here and consider joining us for u.lab 2x, which will run from February to May of 2020.
