Reaching The Deeper Territory of Leadership
“Like astronauts, we shoot for the stars in our careers and our lives. In the middle of the way we pause and look back. And think not only on planet EARTH, but also on planet SELF, and we ask ourselves:
-What is it that really matters to me?
-Who am I, and what is my real work to do?
-What’s the story that I want to be part of?
-That I want to be a contributor to?
It is these profound questions that mark the headway into the deeper territory of leadership”
Otto Scharmer. Senior Lecturer at MIT. Fragment of his words at the opening session of “u.lab. Leading from the Emerging Future”. Sept. 15/2015.
Reaching The Deeper Territory of Leadership
I remember many things about u.lab, but when Otto Scharmer pronounced those words, I felt that he was speaking to me. That moment has remained frozen in my memory because I instantly knew two things: firstly, that I had found what I had been looking for, and secondly, that I was at the right place, at the right time. Today, I am about to begin my fifth #ulab journey, and you may ask what makes a person take a MOOC like u.lab again and again. There are thousands of answers because there are thousands of changemakers feeling the same as I do, and every person’s experience with the Theory U process is different and profound.
U.lab takes you through the five movements that compose the Theory U process, which is a journey of inner as well as outer change. The U process begins when you learn to listen from a generative space, not a reactive one. That capability allows you to “Observe” reality as it is, suspending judgments, and enabling you to act accordingly. Next, you learn to develop empathy, but not by reading books and watching videos, you do it by confronting your own shadows. You experience a deep transformation when you have the opportunity to take an “Empathy Walk” with someone very different than you. That is how you get out of your own bubble and open yourself to a wider world. Afterward, you are not as “safe” as before, because you will feel more vulnerable, which in Theory U is a strength. Nevertheless, your awareness expands, giving you richer, and more diverse experiences.
Through the practice of “State of the Art Systems Thinking”, you develop new “Sensing” capabilities that help you perceive, not only what is going on inside yourself, but also outside. Then, you use those capacities together with a community of change-makers, to make social systems “see and sense themselves”. Once you let go of old habits of thinking and acting, you are opening the doors of “Presencing”, which is how “Your Best Future Possibility” emerges from “Source”. Once you have that spark of inspiration, you “Crystallize” it, “acting in an instant” and “Prototype” it by “failing early” and by iterating, so that you learn from negative feedback.
We Band of Brothers…
After you finish the program, you realize that you are developing a new way of thinking, sensing, and acting, not only at work but also in your personal life, and you understand that you are not prototyping a simple project, but your own life. Consequently, deciding to come back into the program sounds like a good idea, because in that environment you have a safe place to prototype, iterate, make mistakes, obtain negative feedback, mentor, help, associate with others, and continue evolving with the help of a worldwide community of change-makers that act like a band of brothers.
During all these years, about 200,000 change makers from all over the world have been inspired by Otto’s work. Most of us have changed and evolved because the “U” has become a way of life where we not only have learned to live with change, but we also, as Gandhi said, are becoming the change that we want to see in the world.
In “normal” times, answering Otto’s questions was important; today, in times of worldwide disruptions it is fundamental. One practitioner answered them with a line that resonated with the whole u.lab community, “this is the moment I was born for”. If you think that this is the moment you were born for, you are invited to register in the life-changing program, “u.lab. Leading from the Emerging Future”, it is free and self-paced.
If you are interested in deepening and enriching the u.lab learning and growth experience for yourself or for your team, please contact me at helio.borges.consulting@gmail.com to have a generative conversation.
Thanks to Adam Yukelson, Kelvy Bird, Arawana Hayashi, Julie Arts, Rachel Hentsch, Antoinette Klatzky, Antonio Moya, Eva Pomeroy, Jayce Pei Yu Lee, Sarina Ruiter-Bouwhuis, and the rest of the amazing #ULAB team for your inspiration and hard work.
