Customer Reviews

Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I received the book a few days ago. I have ben reading for hours and hours, with just a few necessary breaks for digesting, reflecting, accepting and bringing my own thoughts together. This is one of the few books that is not just interesting when it comes to theory and methods. What makes it special is the mixture of theories and the authors own thoughts, experiences and break through thinking.

It has ben hard to lay the book aside, because it is so intense. And I know this is a book that I will read over and over again - with longer breaks under way - in order to have time for my own thinking. Soon it is time for summer vacation - then I will have lots of time to read the book again - at a lower pace - with the time to let my thougts wander. This is the kind of book that easily trap ones mind up to its own thinking.

To be more precise, what I found so interesting about this book:

- The Blind Spot - our unability to see our own weaknesses, what we do not understand and what we hide from.
- And, what is even more interesting: How to illuminate thr Blind Spot and make it clear to us how it stands in our way of dealing with life in a constructive way. We all have these Blind Spots - and we are unaware about them. Otto Scharmers openness in reveling his own Blind Spots through true life anecdotes made me see some of my own Blind Spots and gave me the will, the commitment and the power to face them. Facing them and seeing how they stand in the way of my True Self gave me the Willpower and Leverage to Confront them without hesitation or fear.
- Behind the Blind Spot lies possibilites to understand what we may be - what kind of a future we can create - in our Full Potential. Otto Scharmer calls this Presencing, which is a good descrption for the process the book led me into.

If you are working with development of organsizations, employees or leaders this book gives you the understanding of the limited outcomes of "Downloading" - which is the most common way of teaching - and what you get out of bringing people through experiences of opening, mind, heart and start to presence the possible future.

This book will probably be a milestone for understanding more of how teaching, laerning happens and that there is more to working with of people, organizations and social systems than we have understood so far.

In his pioneering and brilliant book Theory U, C. Otto Scharmer, senior lecturer at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is taking us on a journey to discover and fully use our sometimes hidden inner sources of generative power, creativity and freedom in order to address the current challenges and emerging complexities in the age of globalization. His book is a synthesis of more than a decade of diligent and in-depth research in the field of management and leadership asking how profound innovation and change comes into our lives, into working teams, organisations and even whole systems.

Scharmer proposes a new model for understanding and conducting profound change and deep learning. Instead of analyzing and referring to old patterns of the past which are often inadequate in addressing the current challenges of our time and which might be even part of the problem itself, his new focus rather is on learning from and bringing into life the best of all future possibilities - a process that he calls presencing.

The leverage and starting point of the journey are less a question of what we do or how we do something - it is much more a question of how we approach or attend to a situation before we actually do something: it is our interior condition, the so-called inner place where any social action is generated and comes into being. This inner place or source is decisive in shaping the quality and result of any social action.
It is exactly that perspective which is missing in our daily perception of the world, in management and leadership literature or even in science in general which is the reason why Scharmer calls it the blind spot of our time. However, becoming aware of our blind spot we at the same time discover an untapped resource and power potential in every one of us that can be used in order to find innovative solutions to current problems and to live up to the best future potential - be it in your personal or professional life, be it in management or even globalization processes.

There are several ways of reading this book. Scharmer`s Theory U can be read as a multi-step process template with the shape of a U in order to fully understand how these innovation and deep learning processes work. Moreover, this book offers a range of principles and practices for individuals, teams and organisations for nurturing our various senses for attending to the world and for bringing the process alive in sensing and implementing the best of all future possibilities. Finally, it might work as an inspiration for your personal and professional journey in sensing what life is calling you to do and in discovering that there might be an even higher and greater future possibility for every one of us that we could not have imagined before.

Scharmer`s Theory U is a treasury full of analytic vigour and empowering inspiration. It is sure to make a great contribution to not only the current discourse on (change) management and leadership theory but also to a growing community of practice committed to collectively create profound change and innovation worldwide.

A clear and concise view about leadership. A scientist who dares to incorporate spirtuality in his findings. It builds bridges between the businese world and the spiritual world. This is the way of the future and gives you the possibilty of really understanding the way to enrich your life in a corporate jungle. Every one, especially leaders should read this book.

I was at a conference where Otto spoke just a few weeks ago and hearing him speak about Theory U and seeing his passion for the field was inspiring. I would say that this was not a book that I read, I studied it. Presence was an extraordinary conversation and this work helped me understand the depth and the power of the U framework in creating our future drawn from insights from the future.

This is not one of those fad books or consumer business books based on here is what I did so you should do it to. Understanding the U process is a journey and not something you read and go "do". I have a lot of learning and trying to do to start to realize the power of this framework. And there in lies the beauty of this work. I can revisit over and over again and I will never stop learning from the nuances contained within the book.

I highly recommend this book and Otto's other works if you are looking to help create sustainable changes in our world.

Having completed my own reading of "Theory U" by Easter '08, I gladly lent it to my boss 'three floors' above myself. I now understand why a professor of management in DK last year claimed this book the most important book of leadership in this decade.

To a non-professional like myself, the completeness of the social theory of the U field seems to be somewhat comparable to Darwin's theory of Evolution, Maxwell's equations of electrodynamics, or Einstein's theory of general relativity just to mention some well know (by name :). The common characteristics that I have in mind is the connection of studies by different scientists, explaining all earlier observations in one whole theory and bringing our understanding to a higher level.

Once having understood Scharmer's numerous new ideas of social technology, I realized that for many modern (Western?) companies, mastering the difficulties of empathy is one important next step towards true innovation. That is innovation comprehended as creating what is needed, which is not necessarily what is wanted.

This book applies to managers, but not being a manager myself I still had more benefit from this treasury of thaughts than from many other books that I've ever read.

Leading is not just a question of management. It is also a question of leading your life in the direction, which is meant for you. You find that direction by listening to and acting from the source of your true self that needs to develop. Your motivation to do so is the wonderful idea that what is truly good for you is good for your local environment, for your society, and for the world.

I whish you a pleasant journey through the U field.

If you like clear exposition and model-building, you'll want to pass on this book.

Core terms are never defined, but are just used over and over in a web of confusing claims.

There is probably a good core of practical advice for clearing away noise and tuning into future possibilties, but it's difficult to boil out the practical lessons from all the guru speak.

Sorry I don't have more specific criticisms, but I couldn't get through the whole thing. As terms weren't defined, I struggled to get any bearing for a while and then gave up.

When I wrote this review there were 15 reviews with 5 stars, and I got sucked into spending my $25 based on this unanimity, and on Scharmer's status as a senior fellow at MIT (shame on me). Anyway, I just wanted to warn others that it's not nearly as good as the other reviewers claim -- unless you're into vague new age gobbledygook.

Theory U is the seminal work on the clarification of how the U Model is used for organizational transformation. Its purpose is:
* To delineate a social technology of transformational change that will allow leaders in all segments of our society, including in our individual lives, to meet their existing challenges. In order to rise to the occasion, leaders often have to learn how to operate from the highest possible future, rather than being stuck in the patterns of our past experiences. (pg 5)
* The book sets out to do three things. It provides a social grammar of the social field that illuminates the blind spot. Second, it exemplifies this grammar by revealing four fundamental metaprocesses that underlie the collective process of social reality creation, moment to moment. . . It outlines a social technology of freedom that puts this approach onto its feet and into practice through a set of principles and practices of presencing. (pg 18)
* Theory U addresses the core question that underlies this book: What is required in order to learn and act from the future as it emerges? (56)

Obviously the work is focused on the need to change:
* When we realize that our habitual way of seeing and acting is not getting us anywhere, we have to redirect and bend our beam of our (individual and collective) attention and redirect the edges of perception back upon its source, back upon the one who is performing the activity. (pg 113)
* People resist change only if they are asked to make difficult changes and sacrifices without being able to see the bigger picture and understanding the context that makes change necessary. (pg 135)
* It is becoming one with the phenomenon you study. It is not studying your customer. It is not creating dialogue with your customer. It is becoming, being your patient or customer. (pg 148)
* At the moment we switch from the state of seeing (viewing from outside) to sensing (viewing from within), we emerge from the boundaries of the cave to the world outside. . . .First, we have to immerse ourselves in the concrete particulars (dive in). We cannot leave the cave by continuing to habitually download abstract thought. We cannot leave the cave on someone else's back. The only way out is to activate our own senses. Second, we redirect our attention and begin to grasp reality by sensing inside the formative field. And third, as we deepen this movement, we deploy a different cognitive capacity: a knowing that emerges from the intelligence of the heart. We grasp reality not only from the perspective of the individual observer but also from the perspective of life and its source, the sun. The result is seeing with the heart. . . . Every object, well contemplated, opens up a new organ within us. (pg 161)

This is a field book on how to build trust and openness by demonstrating the need and ways to create an open mind and open heart for the agents of change. Scharmer spends time on "leadership" and its role of leading change.
* Leadership is about being better able to listen to the whole than anyone else can. (pg 20)
* While management is about "getting things done," leadership is about creating and cultivating the larger context - the fertile common ground and soil - in which things can happen. (pg 73)
* The primary job of leadership . . . is to enhance the individual and systemic capacity to see, to deeply attend to the reality that people face and enact. Thus the leader's real work is to help people discover the power of seeing and seeing together. (pg 136)
* . . . the essence of leadership - that is to our capacity to shift the place from which we operate. The place of presencing is our deepest source of knowing and being, from which we navigate our way forward in situations when all other navigation instruments have failed. (pg 362)
* (Leaders) must also have egoless selves by "channeling their ego needs away from themselves toward building a great company - often by sacrificing their own gain for the gain of the company" (Collins) (pg 76)
* That the root meaning (of leadership), which suggest that the experience of letting go and then going forth into another world that begins to take shape only once we overcome the fear of stepping into the unknown, is at the very heart and essence of leadership. (pg 467)

Two of the guiding quotes for the book are:
* The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervener. (O'Brian) (pg 27)
* You cannot understand the system unless you change it. (Lewin)

He continues to come back to the theme of: "Who is my true Self?" He provides a guide to shift from the inner place from which we operate and the need to do more than merely change our old mental models but to truly move our authentic Self to a new place of commitment to transformation. A core question is: "What would be required in order to learn and act from the future as it emerges?" (pg 16)

He cites clearly the prohibitors of change. He cites three enemies of change:
* Voice of Judgment (VOJ)
* Voice of Cynicism (VOC)
* Voice of Fear (VOF) (pg 42)

He spends time on dealing with our blind spots to change and suggest the process of dialoguing to identify the blind spot and move beyond the current state into a more open mind. The stages are: Downloading (speaking from what they want to hear, talking nice); Debate (speaking from what I think, talking tough); Dialogue (speaking from seeing myself as part of the whole, reflective inquiry); Presencing (speaking from what is moving through, generative flow). (pg 296)

The issue of "presencing" is a continual and central focus. Scharmer defines "presencing": to sense, tune in. and act from one's highest future potential - the future that depends on us to bring it into being. Presencing blends the works "presence" and "sensing" and works through "seeing from our deepest source." At the bottom of the U Model where "presencing" takes place - the letting go and letting come - is like going through the eye of a needle. It is a difficult, but critical process prior to being able to move up the right side of the U. Why is this critical? In the 1990's 70% of business reengineering efforts failed due to the lack of personal change on the part of its leaders. Presencing and personal transformation is the "root of the root" of change. To quote Gandhi: "You must be the change you seek to create."

One of the most impressive parts of the book is Schamer's "Principles and Practices of Presencing for Leading Profound Innovation and Change." (Chapter 21) He lists twenty-four principles around the issues of co-initiating, co-sensing, co-presencing, co-creating, and co-evolving. These principles are guidelines to bringing "presencing" to a reality.

There is ample scientific evidence presented in the book to once again demonstrate that the social science of organizational and personal change is not some mombo jumbo, psychobabble but is founded on scientific fact of how whole systems work and the relationship all of the parts have to have to make it work.

He cites practical examples of positive change initiative and gives the reader "practice" models to experiences the points being made. His U Model is in most chapters as he continues to embellish its application. He uses his German farm roots as a medifore for working the "field" and cultivating the soil of change by tilling the soil deeply. He spends significant space in looking at the world problems that need to be addressed and change models that need to be developed. The globalization issues of the economy, ecology, and spirituality are key drivers for his vision of change. Although these issues I find important, his explanation I found to be pedantic, difficult to understand and read.

I found Schamer's book to be most interesting, but I am still left with the haunting question: Can one truly find their true Self and commitment to transformation work via an academic conversation, or does a deeper experience drive personal transformation? Can we merely will the true Self, or does commitment come from a deeper place in our soul stimulated through a "moving" experience? Can we truly move through the "eye of the needle" of transformation without giving up current mental models for new ones that challenge our personal and organizational transformation? If leaders of the transformation resist finding their true Self, can change take place, or are we merely moving the deck chairs around a good ship?

This book is an essential read for anyone who works in a management or leadership role. The framework for rethinking approaches to change, problem solving, leadership, at a personal, organisational, community, and global scale, presents a real hope for the future. Whilst some of the 'theory' is heavy going, there are good anecdotes and practical guides for embarking on a whole rethink of what we do, why we do it, and what we are going to do in the future to effect change. The first chapter can be found on the web, just search for Theory U. Look out for the DVD as well, that is also worth a look to get a better understanding of this theory system.I've read a lot of this genre of text, and this is one of the best. Highly recommended.

If you are considering whether or not to buy this book- just do it!!! Its easy to read. It presents ideas using multiple methods- tables, visual maps, stories, interviews, explanations and so on. A nice blend of practical and theoretical. Always thought provoking- a good book to continually go back to re-read sections as the need arises. Very very well researched.

This is an ambitious book. Leadership consultant and lecturer C. Otto Scharmer provides a theoretical framework for understanding the changes society faces and provides suggestions for institutional and personal transformation. Scharmer explains his process and its goals obsessively, even repetitively, walking you through multidisciplinary examples from his own experience, history and economics. He provides diagrams and breaks down his theories into numbered steps and rules. Still, you may find the book challenging, mainly because Scharmer is dealing with such large issues, but also because his ideas and vocabulary can get mystical. This book requires time and patience aplenty, but if you are open to such reflections, it could be for you. getAbstract recommends it to managers interested in personal change, organizational culture and futurism.