Theory U: Presencing, Crossing the Threshold into the Field of the Future
“When leaders function by getting into the gap, and are confronted with disruption, they stand a good chance of picking something that the future needs in order to create future possibilities”. John Carlin
Presencing
According to Otto Scharmer, creator of Theory U, “Presencing, the blending of sensing and presence, means to connect from the Source of the highest future possibility and to bring it into the now. Presencing happens when our perception begins to happen from the source of our emerging future. The boundaries between three types of presence collapse: the presence of the past (current field), the presence of the future (the emerging field of the future), and the presence of one’s authentic Self. When this co-presence, or merging of the three types of presence, begins to resonate, we experience a profound shift, a change of the place from which we operate”. Chapter 11, Theory U.
The Presencing stage of the U process happens when you connect with your highest future possibility in the now. When practitioners reach this stage of the process, they have already gone through a series of learning experiences that allowed them to open their eyes, hearts, and minds. Specifically, they have developed the capacity to “see with new eyes” their surrounding reality, experiencing it with an “open mind”. Above all, they have learned to turn the object of their observation back to themselves, attending to their reactions to what happens to them, suspending them, and redirecting their attention not so much to what happens, but to what they are going to do with what happens to them. Furthermore, they have also learned to feel empathy for others, “opening their hearts” to people who are and think differently from them. Moreover, they have stepped out of their own bubbles, going to the places of the most potential, often located at the margins of the system. Likewise, they have acquired new “State of the Arts System Sensing” capacities, to use the intelligence of their bodies to sense the “Social Field”. With these new capabilities, practitioners “open their wills”, which gives them the “Action Confidence” to step into the “Field of the Future”.
The Eye of the Needle
Now they are ready to experience going through “The Eye of the Needle”. The origin of that expression goes back in time to the old city of Jerusalem, which closed its doors at dusk, leaving only a small door big enough to let one person in at the time, it was called the “Eye of the Needle”. The caravans that arrived in the city after that time, to get their camels inside, had to unload them of their cargo and make them kneel and crawl to cross to the other side of the gate. In Mathew 19:24 Jesus Christ said, “I’ll say it again-it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”
He used the eye of the needle as a metaphoric message to rich people so that they, like the camels at Jerusalem, let go of their need to accumulate earthly goods, and be humble, in order to enter the Kingdom of God.
Presencing: a Threshold, and a Gap
The Presencing stage of the U journey is a threshold. Theory U practitioners, to cross it, have to quiet down their Voices of Judgment, Cinicysm, and Fear, let go of old patterns of behavior and be humble enough to ask two fundamental questions to themselves, “Who is my Self?” and “What is my work?”
In the same way, Presencing is also a “Gap” that separates the descending and the ascending arrows of the U process. It is a place of profound reflection and insights, where the “Emerging Future” breaks up the soil above it and finds the light.
When you deep dive into the Gap and cohabitate a space of Presence with a group of people, the whole group gets a new perspective of life. After that experience, nothing around you has really changed, when you walk out of that experience, you are a different person altogether, and that makes all the difference because, at that moment, you are the personification of Presence.
Invictus
John Carlin, author of the book that inspired the film Invictus, best describes that Gap when he narrated to Martin Kalungu-Banda his experience with Nelson Mandela. He said that he had been in the same room with Mr. Mandela when he received the news that Chris Hani, his great friend, and political son, had been assassinated.
“When the news broke, Mr. Mandela became like a statue, it was like he was not breathing, and he just stood there, motionless, sphinxlike for about five minutes. Then he said, “I need to address the African people”. On that occasion, he gave the six minutes speech that saved South Africa from self-destruction”. Carling also said to Martin:
“When leaders function by getting into the gap, and are confronted with disruption, they stand a good chance of picking something that the future needs in order to create future possibilities”.
The Rest of the U Journey
Up to Presencing, the U process has been a journey down the left arrow, embodying the newly acquired capacities and sensing the best future possibilities. After Presencing, when practitioners cross the threshold, the journey is going up the right arrow to Crystallize and to Prototype in rapid cycles their Emerging Future, learning from negative feedback in order to evolve.
You are invited to register in the life-changing program, “u.lab. Leading from the Emerging Future”, it is free and self-paced. Otto Scharmer will host the second live session of the present u.lab journey on Oct 22. In this opportunity, as he has done during the last five years, he will guide the people attending it through “A Journey to the Field of the Future”. It is an unforgettable experience.
If you are interested in deepening and enriching the u.lab learning and growth experience for yourself or your team, please contact me at hborgesg@gmail.com to have a generative conversation.
