Theory U

Leading from the Future as It Emerges

by C. Otto Scharmer

Number of pages: 533

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

BBB Library: Technology and Globalization

ISBN: 9781576757635



About the Author

Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and founding chair of the Presencing Institute. He chairs the MIT IDEAS program, and co-founded the Global Wellbeing and Gross National Happiness (GNH) Lab.

Read More...

Editorial Review

It is said that the greatest of all human inventions is the creative process, how we bring forth new realities. Understanding the creative process is the foundation of genuine mastery in all fields. This knowledge is deeply embedded in the creative arts and, though rarely spoken of, defines those moments where there is magic in crystallization of its dream. It plays no lesser role in science; as the economist W. Brian Arthur states: all great discoveries come from a deep inner journey against this backdrop of deeply shared, but largely esoteric knowledge. The key to addressing the multiple unfolding crises of our time - and the future course of human development—lies in learning how to access this source of mastery collectively.

Book Reviews

"The U, Scharmer tells us, depicts a flow from our current, habitual self to our future ‘Self’. And what takes place at the heart—the lowest point—of the U is the profound, yet overlooked, process of ‘Presencing’, which he describes as 'a blend of the words “presence” and “sensing”, [which] signifies a heightened state of attention that allows individuals and groups to shift the inner place from which they function.'" Integral Leadership Review

"This new book does not lend itself to being easily described except that it introduces the concept of presencing (presence + sensing), that is, operating from the future as it emerges. Part I shows us that we have a blind spot, that invisible dimension from which all our actions originate. In Part II, Scharmer develops his U process, forming the left part of the U with co-initiating, descending to co-sensing, and bottoming out with co-presencing. The U is completed by rising to co-creating and rising again to co-evolving. Many examples of how the U process can be used are presented in subsequent chapters. Part III introduces us to presencing." Graziadio Business Review

Books on Related Topics

Winning from Within combines insights from Western psychology and Eastern philosophy with practical applications from real business situations and everyday life. Fox shows that the ability to achieve mastery over how we interact with each other comes from within, from the center where desires, thoughts, feelings, and impulses to take action
Winning from Within

by Erica Ariel Fox

Winning from Within combines insights from Western psychology and Eastern philosophy with practical applications from real business situations and everyday life. Fox shows that the ability to achieve mastery over how we interact with each other comes from within, from the center where desires, thoughts, feelings, and impulses to take action

More...
The Future of Work explores the new behaviors, new technologies, and the new people entering the workforce, focusing on: how the traditional command and control leadership model is dead; working with and for Millennials, who expect to be doing meaningful work, share their voice, and want rapid feedback; how to adapt
The Future of Work

by Jacob Morgan

The Future of Work explores the new behaviors, new technologies, and the new people entering the workforce, focusing on: how the traditional command and control leadership model is dead; working with and for Millennials, who expect to be doing meaningful work, share their voice, and want rapid feedback; how to adapt

More...
Everyone uses some foresight; most people think about the future at some time and try to make sense of it in their day-to-day lives. Take present-buying: you are using foresight to think ahead to what each person would like to receive (decision-making); to think about where you will find/buy/make each gift
Strategic Foresight

by Patricia Lustig

Everyone uses some foresight; most people think about the future at some time and try to make sense of it in their day-to-day lives. Take present-buying: you are using foresight to think ahead to what each person would like to receive (decision-making); to think about where you will find/buy/make each gift

More...
If you had the opportunity to probe the future, make strategic choices, and view their consequences before making expensive and irretrievable decisions, wouldn't you take advantage of it? Of course you would. And in a world of asymmetrical conflict, security threats, intense global competition, and economic uncertainty, there is an even
Wargaming for Leaders

by Mark L. Herman , Mark Frost

If you had the opportunity to probe the future, make strategic choices, and view their consequences before making expensive and irretrievable decisions, wouldn't you take advantage of it? Of course you would. And in a world of asymmetrical conflict, security threats, intense global competition, and economic uncertainty, there is an even

More...
Leadership is easy to intellectualize, but elusive to actualize. Leadership is part strategy, but mostly judgment. Always it is about grace, confidence, and touch. There are no half measures when it comes to leading others. You must be fully engaged and fully committed, but you must never personalize what is happening
The Twelve Absolutes of Leadership

by Gary Burnison

Leadership is easy to intellectualize, but elusive to actualize. Leadership is part strategy, but mostly judgment. Always it is about grace, confidence, and touch. There are no half measures when it comes to leading others. You must be fully engaged and fully committed, but you must never personalize what is happening

More...
Most people living normal lives are unaware of what’s coming – how extreme changes and trends may disrupt every aspect of our world and lives. Most people are not prepared for the drastic changes on the horizon that will change work, business, health, or population. They have not run the scenarios,
Future Smart

by James Canton

Most people living normal lives are unaware of what’s coming – how extreme changes and trends may disrupt every aspect of our world and lives. Most people are not prepared for the drastic changes on the horizon that will change work, business, health, or population. They have not run the scenarios,

More...

Wisdom to Share

We cannot continue to concentrate wealth in a world of growing interdependence.

The blind spot is the place within or around us where our attention and intention originate. It's the place from where we operate when we do something.

We cannot continue to expand the "take, make, waste" industrial model in a world where there is, increasingly, no "away" to throw our waste and toxins to.

This invisible dimension of the social field concerns the sources from which a given social field arises and manifests.

Going down the U moves us through the cognitive spaces of downloading, seeing, sensing and presencing.

The real battle in the world today is not among civilizations or cultures but among the different evolutionary futures that are possible for us and our species right now.

Often we see how people in the face of the utmost destruction have the ability to wake up to a higher level of awareness and consciousness.