Human Abilities UNPLUGGED:THEORY U

Dr. Carole Gothelf – March 2012The College of New Jersey

• Change is the pivot point of innovation.• Conversation leads to agreement.• Agreement leads to common action.• Action leads to relationship.• Relationship maintained over time leads

to trust.• Trust provides fertile ground for change.• Change requires new language.• New language requires conversations.

Dr. Paul Pangaro

Close collaboration between friends

THEORY U: C. Otto Scharmer

PRESENCING

Present Sensing the Future

Future

“THE BLIND SPOT”

Being blind to the deeper dimensions of leadership.

The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the

intervener.William O’Brien

Former CEOHanover Insurance Company

We know very little about the invisible dimension of leadership

That is why: 2 leaders, same situation, different results.

Successful leadership depends on the quality of attention that the leader brings to a situation.

SOURCE (Invisible Dimension)

PROCESS (How)

RESULTS (What)

HELPING US SEE EACH OTHER IN A BRIGHTER LIGHT AND REVEALING ITS TRUE DEPTH.

OPEN MIND

OPEN HEART

OPEN WILL

OPEN HEART

OPEN WILL

OPEN MIND

OPEN HEART

OPEN WILL

THEORY U

LEADERSHIPLeadership is about shaping and shifting how individuals

and groups attend to and respond to a situation.

4 TYPES OF LISTENING

DOWNLOADINGFACTUAL

EMPATHICGENERATIVE

4 TYPES OF LISTENING

DOWNLOADING: “Yeah, I already know that”

FACTUAL: Paying attention to facts and novel data. You ask questions and pay careful attention to the response.

EMPATHIC: “Oh yes, I know exactly how you feel.” We forget about our own agenda and begin to see the world through other’s eyes. To really know how someone feels we need to open our hearts.

GENERATIVE: Moves beyond our current self (the present) and connects us to something deeper. Listening from the emerging field of future possibility. Access our hearts and our will.

Stories are the closest thing we have to the truth.

4 TYPES OF LISTENING

DOWNLOADING: Reconfirm what you already know. Reconfirm your habits of thought: “Here she goes again.”

FACTUAL: Dis-confirm what you already know and notice what is new. “Boy, this looks different today.”

EMPATHIC: Your perspective is redirected to seeing the situation through another’s eyes. “Boy, yes, now I really understand how you feel. I can sense it now, too.”

GENERATIVE: You realize that by the end of the conversation, you are no longer the same person. New possibilities emerge.

SOCIAL CHANGE TECHNOLOGY

DOWNLOADINGPatterns of the past

SUSPENDINGSeeing with fresh eyes

THE DEEP DIVESeeing from the field

LETTING GO

PRESENCINGConnecting to the source

OPEN MIND

OPEN HEART

OPEN WILL

ACCESS YOUR

The Single Most Important Challenge

The shift from the quick fix on a symptomatic level to generative responses that address the systemic root issue.

“You can’t solve problems using the same consciousness that you used when you created them.” – Albert Einstein

What Do People Want More Of In Their Lives

PERSON

CHOOSING

CONTRIBUTING SHARING PLACES

BEING RESPECTED

BELONGING

Causal Loop DiagramConsultant staff develop trainings

Staff attends a workshopRespond to RFS

Pressure to move to a Person Centered Practice

Develop capacity to ‘Hold a space open’, for innovative practice,

i.e. pilot project at each program, staff training with follow-up, staff evaluation.

Short term symptomatic fixesEasier, Faster

Fundamental solutionsHarder, Take Time

4 Levels of Responding to Change

ACTION

PROCESS/STRUCTURE

THINKING

OPEN HEARTOPEN WILLOPEN MIND

2. REDESIGNING: Policies

3. REFRAMING: Values, Beliefs

4. REGENERATING: Sources of energy and commitment

1. REACTING: Quick Fixes

3 Movements of the “U”

Dowloading past patterns

See with fresh eyes

1. OBSERVEOBSERVEOBSERVE

LETTING GO

Suspend VoJ, C&F

OPEN MIND

OPEN HEART

OPEN WILL

2. PRESENCING: Retreat and reflect. Allow the inner knowledge to emerge

LETTING COME

Crystallize Vision and intention

3. Prototyping the new

Performing by operating from the whole

An after-school job.

Relationship – Conversation – Action – Change

5 Stages of the “U”

1. CO-INITIATE: Uncover common intent, stop and listen to others and to what life calls you to do.

3. PRESENCING: Connect with the source of inspiration and will. Go to a place of silence and allow inner knowledge to emerge

5. CO-EVOLVING

4. PROTOTYPING: Co-creating the new

2. CO-SENSING: Observe, Observe, Observe: Connect with people and places.

THEORY U

An open heart allows us to see a situation from the whole.

An open mind enables us to see one’s best future possibility.

An open will empowers us to act from an emerging whole.

PROTOTYPINGIntegrating HEAD, HEART and HAND.

Seek it with your hands – don’t think about it, feel it. The wisdom in your hands is greater than the wisdom in

your head will ever be.”

“The Legend of Bagger Vance”

7 Leadership Capacities

1. HOLDING A SPACE OPEN: Listen to what life calls you to do.

4. PRESENCING

6. PROTOTYPING: Integrate Mind, Heart and Will.

5. CRYSTALLIZE: Access the power of intention.

2. OBSERVE: Attend with your mind wide open.

Suspend

Redirect

3. SENSING: Connect with your heart.

Letting Go Letting Come

7. PERFORMING

The faces of a new reality: The Melissa Reggio Higher Education Program - Kingsborough Community College and The College of Staten Island

PERFORMING

Requires 2 essentials

1. Convening the right set of players: Pomegranate seeds

2. Social Technology that allows a multi stake-holder gathering to shift from debating to co-creating the new.

PRESENCING-IN-ACTION LABFor TCNJ Change MakersCo-Initiating and building relationships

-How do you co-create and sustain helping relationships?

-How do you co-initiate multi-stakeholder projects?

Co-Sensing and Prototyping

-How do you create learning journeys and processes that allow for effective co-sensing of groups?

-How do you return from a co-sensing process and make sense of the experience?

-How do you move from sense-making and brainstorming to prototyping?

-How to do you prototype in a multi-stakeholder environment?

PRESENCING-IN-ACTION LABFor TCNJ Change Makers

Co-Inspiring and Presencing

-How can we connect to the SOURCE in the context of organizational complexity and downloading?

-How can we integrate mindfulness in everyday team and management practices?

-How can we connect the paths of our professional (and personal) journey(s) both individually and collectively?

PRESENCING-IN-ACTION LABFor TCNJ Change Makers

Co-Evolving

-How do we envision, inspire, and nudge along the birth of a new system while still operating in the midst of the old?

-How do you scale up from prototyping and piloting?

-How do we sustain the transformation?

-How do we ensure a supporting infrastructure for collaboration and innovation across boundaries?

LEARNING CIRCLES

Learning Circles function to develop adaptive and innovative responses to complex issues.

Learning Circles engage the people who live with the problem and have the greatest stake in creating new options.

Members of Learning Circles are exploring the frontier of possibility and innovation, and in doing so they try things and

invent new solutions.

The Learning Circle is at the heart of innovative work.

 A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within

him the image of a cathedral.

(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)