two worlds
I am just returning from another week in Indonesia where I had the great opportunity to work with the same group of young leaders across all sectors in society that I mentioned before. Again, it was a powerful and deepening experience. I feel as if we are living in two worlds: one is the world of the dying institutions around us—the old stuff that no longer works. That’s the world that is decaying, crumbling, collapsing and yet holding on to its old resources of power. That world solves social problems by manipulating people from outside (sticks, carrots, ideology).
But then there is another world that opens up a whole other universe of deepened connection. In that world we are part of a holding space that gives birth to a new universe of connections and creativity that we can discover among and within our Selves. It’s that OTHER world that gives us energy, inspiration, presence, and hope. That world solves problems, not by manipulation from outside, but by accessing a deeper level of awareness from within through collective sensing of a current situation with one’s mind and heart wide open.
The funny thing is that we as human beings participate in both of these worlds. The one that dies and the one that is being born. Every single day. That’s how it feels anyway. So how are we linking the tension between these two worlds? In Indonesia, the answer to that question is LAUGHTER. In this group we laugh a lot. That’s how it started early this year and ever since we seem to do it more and more. So humor is one way to create the link. What other forms have you seen? Do you also experience this funny situation that you find yourself participating in two very different universes or worlds? How do you cope with that? And how do you sustain YOUR Source of reconnecting with the presence of that OTHER (emerging) world?
13 Bankers
i have been travelling outside the US for the past seven weeks. although the challenges in Africa, Asia, and Europe are by no means small, its feels as if the mood in the US particularly… gloomy. Oil spill. Dollar spill (mega bank bailout followed by enormous mega bank profits). Deficit spill (money printing until the global community one day will loose its trust in $). Spill of negativity (absence of real dialogue in the political process)… you name it. But the biggest issue probably is that most of these issues are only discussed on a surface not a root level.
A notable exception to this rule is the recently published book: 13 Bankers, The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown by Simon Johnson and James Kwak.
here are a few key excerpts:
Six Megabanks (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley) together control assets amounting to more than 60% of the countries GDP, continue to hold the global economy hostage with their excessive risk taking toxic business practices.
Hedge funds: in 2007, five fund managers earned at least $1billion each for themselves, led by John Paulson, who made 3.7 billion successfully betting against the housing market and the mortage backed securities built on top of it.
The financial sector was getting bigger between 1980 and 2000 and the financial sector profits grew faster: from an average of 13% of all domestic corporate profits to an average of 30 % from 1998-07 (85)
The three main mechanisms that Wall Street used to influence Washington:
–traditional capital: money: campaign contributions and lobbying
–human capital: revolving door
–cultural capital: “what is good for Wallstreet is good for America”
Three steps in responding to a financial crisis: ending the panic, preventing economic activity from collapsing, laying the groundwork for economic sustainable recovery. The US did well on no one and two, but not on no three.
Summing up: “the megabanks used used political power to obtain their license to gamble with other peoples money; taking that license away requires confronting that power head-on. It requires a decision that the economic and political power of the new financial oligarchy is dangerous both to economic prosperity and to the democracy that is supposed to ensure that government policies serve the greater good of society.” (p. 221)
Its that lack of common will of confronting that political power that drags not only the US down, but also all the rest of us. 13 Bankers is essential reading!
uncovering common will
I just returned from a two week trip to Brazil for the occasion of launching the Brazilian edition of Theory U. I was able to stay on a bit to learn about the current changes in this amazing country of 190 million people. It’s the world’s fifth largest—in terms of population and size. Brazil has been much better and faster in coming out of the global economic crisis of the past two years. Why did Brazil manage so much better? Instead of giving the billions to bankers, they gave it to the poor, to the most marginalized. They linked economic development with reducing inequality. They invested it in education for all. They invested in better infrastructures for entrepreneurs and small business (example: boosting micro-credit for micro entrepreneurs). And they regulated the banking sector.
I was impressed to see how much was accomplished in just about a decade: reducing the social divide, eradicating hunger, responding to HIV/AIDS in a manner that is a role model for countries all over the place, and so on.
So why is it that in Brazil, after Lula got into power, the grassroots movement that got him there kept creating changes throughout society, while here in the US, after Obama got into power, the movement that got him there seems to have disappeared?
I don’t think I really know the answer to this question. But I have seen three relevant pieces of data: (1) I saw great companies like Natura that do business by routinely working and collaborating across all social, economic, and ecological divides; (2) I saw greatly innovative sustainable cities like Curitiba in which government, business, and the community have been collaborating across fairly open boundaries for about four decades; and (3) I saw the Economic and Social Development Council (CDES) that regularly convenes about a hundred leaders from civil society, business, academia, and government to dialogue and co-create an agenda of the future. What do these three examples (Natura, Curitiba, CDES) have in common? Their common element is that they are based on uncovering common will (which then in turn creates the required political will): a shared understanding of the current situation, of who we are, and where we want to go. That’s exactly what’s missing here in the US. Here we have an ever-widening vicious cultural and political divide that rips the country apart…
Where do YOU find yourself and your country in terms of the deeper common ground? Does that common ground exist–can y o u feel it? What helping infrastructures support the cultivation of the deeper common ground? What’s working (or not) in your country? Where do YOU FEEL the future in your country right now?
otto
igniting fields of inspired connection
I just spent an amazing week here at MIT with a group of 30 young leaders from all sectors of Indonesian society: deputy ministers and top civil servants of several ministries, mayors, governors of small regions, CEOs of medium-sized companies, editors of major newspapers and TV news programs, deans of three major universities, members of the national and regional parliaments, leaders of environmental and human rights NGOs, and so on. An amazing group.
With 230 million people, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country and has the world’s largest population of Muslims. Spread over 17,000 islands, it takes 10 hours of flying time to from one end of the country to the other. Indonesia is a bit like our whole planet wrapped into a single country: it has every type of conflict that you can imagine (religious, gender, class, ethnic, colonial –you name it). A real microcosm of our planet. Given this complexity, no wonder the leadership challenges are daunting. The challenge is to transform the relationships between the three sectors (government, business, civic sector) from mistrust to trust, from blaming and blocking to system-wide cooperation, innovation, and change.
What was so amazing about this week was watching how the group (and the relationships between sectors) progressed on that journey of transformation. This week was the beginning of a ten-month (U process) innovation journey with this group that will involve deep sensing, connecting to source (presencing), and exploring the future through prototyping new forms of collaboration.
I have guided two other tri-sector groups through a similar ten-month transformative leadership journey. What has struck me most is that, even years later, the inspired field of connection and collaboration among them is still as alive and vibrant as ever. We have seen some major innovations from these groups already. More innovations will follow. To me it feels as if we are touching the deeper power of human evolution and creativity. Once they touch that deeper place, there is NOTHING on earth that such a group can’t do. That’s how it feels, anyway. Since we are now in the process of co-creating similar platforms and programs for China, Brazil, and some other places, I wonder where all this will lead us. Will these new fields of connection be able to generate new forms of global collaboration and governance? Have you seen similar developments anywhere? Have you experienced fields of inspired connection that change how we relate to each other, to our context, and to ourselves?
seven sacred teachings
last week i had the great opportunity to visit an indigenous community in northern manitoba, canada (the O-Pipon-Na-Piwin- Cree Nation). i was (and still am) blown away by their positive leadership spirit in spite of an incredible uphill battle against four forms of violence that they (and other First Nations) had to suffer and endure:
1. direct physical violence: white man simply killing them (particularly rampant in the 19th century US after the civil war)
2. structural political violence: taking away their self determination (government dependent reserves)
3. structural economic violence: taking away their economic self reliance (government driven welfare economy)
4. spiritual/cultural violence: taking away the land, language and loved ones (forced residential schooling: taking kids away from their parents, putting them into residential schools, beating them when they use their mother tongue, abusing and often killing them afterwards). as one of them told me: “i got my PHD” in a residential school.” PhD?? “yes,” he said. “Physically Hurt and Damaged.”
So given that backdrop, its NOT surprising to see 90% of the parent generation being victimized by alcohol and drugs. but what IS surprising is that these communities still find some inspired leaders that try to take them to the next level…
the focus of this project is on developing multi-sector opportunities for indigenous people, particularly for young people…
returning from this very inspiring and somewhat transformative week i cant not think back: three weeks ago i was in namibia–and saw again first hand the damage and pain that germans and other europeans inflicted upon the people of the African continent. then the aboriginal people in canada and the US — again white men acting out as unbelievable cruel killing machines. closed heart. closed mind. closed will. the worst form of fundamentalism you can imagine. who are we as human beings that we do that to each other?
how is that continued today? direct violence still continues to be reproduced. as is structural violence. as is attentional violence.
i was struck by the seven sacred teachings that i found in the aboriginal community we saw:
1. wisdom, 2. love, 3. respect, 4. bravery, 5. honesty, 6. humility, 7. truth. if you mapp them onto the U process you could say that
–humility, honesty, and truth deal with opening the Mind (getting beyond the Voice of Judgment),
–respect and love deal with opening the Heart (getting beyond the Voice of Cynicism and anger), and
–bravery/courage deals with opening the Will (getting beyond the Voice of Fear)
all of which results into acting with the mind of wisdom…
i saw time and again how social violence (direct and structural) reproduces into attentional/spiritual violence (loosing the connection to your deeper source) which then results into increasing ecological violence (compensating inner void through external consumption and environmental destruction). could it be that the seeds of breaking this deadly cycle lies in the seven sacred teachings? could they help us to open the mind, heart and will?
where have you seen the deep shadow of who we are as humans (Xtreme fundamentalism) and where have you seen it transforming?
convening capitalism 3.0 constellations
just returning from amsterdam and berlin. in amsterdam i met a whole bunch of Presencing Institute Community members at the occasion of launching the Dutch edition of “Theory U” and Arthur Zajonc’s book “Meditation”. we had a great event attended by 450 people. We were joined by our friend and violinist Miha Pogacnik (see picture below) at that occasion (and also at a smaller follow on workshop).
What i really loved was the microcosm of society that both events convened: all sectors and systems of society were represented and linked through a generative dialogue.
the next day i had a small group workshop in berlin on capitalism 3.0 with a small group of thought leaders from the Green party, social entrepreneurs, companies, and governmental agencies. again a very interesting microcosm of society. and again a very stimulating discussion about our current situation (2.0) and where we should go (3.0).
i return from these conversations and dialogues somewhat inspired and elevated. i see the response to these events (the organizers of the public event in amsterdam had to turn away hundreds of people who couldn’t get in) as a living proof that there is HUGE untapped potential in society currently for co-sensing and co-creating positive change. how can we better link ourselves to this huge potential? how can this potential better guide our actions? in amsterdam we closed the follow on session (that was attended by 90 people) with a simple exercise: we put everyone in a circle. standing. each of us in the circle represented the currently existing initiatives and projects. then we invited everyone who had formed a NEW idea or initiative to step forward and share that idea. an hour or so later 85 of the 90 had stepped into the circle and shared their emerging idea or future initiative. people then formed small groups with others that had shared related ideas–and we closed the session with some highlights from each of these groups. pretty powerful stuff.
i think there is a real lack of sessions today convening real microcosms of the whole society (that share the practice of effecting social change by shifting the inner place from which people operate). have you seen similar examples lately? what did you notice? how can we design and improve a really good process for doing this–interweaving and deepening the connections of these emerging fields?
Protect the Flame
searching some beuys material for a good friend, i just found his last speech that, when i heard it during my student days, went straight into my heart. i translated the key section of the speech into English (with the help of Janet Mowery). here it is. it deeply influenced how i think about the social field:
PROTECT THE FLAME
“…I found the passing on of the FLAME to a movement that… is a foundational idea for renewing the social whole, and leading to the uncovering of the SOCIAL SCULPTURE.
…I want to say that, reflecting the peak of modern sculpture in the work of Wilhelm Lehmbruck, there will be a time when the concepts of TIME and WARMTH will extend the concept of SPACE. This passing on of the PRINCIPLE of PLASTICITY to an IMPULSE that uses the character of WARMTH and TIME as a SCULPTURAL PRINCIPLE to transform society… is meant for all of us. Lehmbruck passed on the FLAME to us… I have seen it… I have seen that he passed it on to all human beings…
That’s what I have to say. I believe that the deepening of the PRINCIPLE OF PLASTICITY is essentially a principle of TIME. The essence of PLASTICITY is a concept of the FUTURE par excellence. And woe to those concepts that are ignorant of this knowing.
I want to put myself on that side where Lehmbruck lived and died, and where he passed on this inner message to every single human being:
PROTECT THE FLAME.
For, if you don’t protect the flame,
Alas, before you become aware
The wind can easily put out the light that it ignited
Then you will break, very pitiable heart, silenced in pain.
I do not want to take the tragic away from Lehmbruck’s work.”
Joseph Beuys
From: Protect The Flame. His last speech (1986).
Original source:
http://www.tc.presencing.com/posts/schütze-die-flamme-joseph-beuys
Translation: otto scharmer, janet mowery
social warmth sculpture: THINKING TOGETHER
This week I facilitated a green mobility summit for a global company in Europe. Seeing how this company, which operates in a very old and traditional industry, is beginning to change really inspires me:
it is
-moving from denial to putting green center-stage
–moving from green technology to green mobility
–and realizing, that green mobility requires new ways of working and thinking together.
When we (about 80 people across all divisions and regions) left the meeting, we all felt somehow elevated—not just because we had dealt with the right topic (green) at the right time (now), but because we had moved during our meeting from individual statements (debate) to a process of THINKING TOGETHER (dialogue). When such a process starts to happen, when a group of people starts the process of thinking together, they achieve a whole new level of collective energy that elevates and uplifts them. Everyone feels present and warm.
The feeling reminds me of a word coined by the late 20th-century avant garde artist Joseph Beuys: SOZIALE WAERMEPLASTIK–social warmth sculpture. If you connect to the deeper levels of the social field you connect to the social warmth sculpture, to a malleable medium and a sense of connection that emerges from the inner energy of people. THINKING TOGETHER, and for that matter the U process, is a movement (and a state of attention) that connects us with that deeper field of awareness…
otto
P.S.: I am not sure that the term WAERMEPLASTIK is translated well here. Even in German most people do not understand this term (which refers to a level 3-4 experience of reality; see Theory U). And whenever I try to translate an abstract concept like that into English I often see blank stares… Can anyone help here? What do you think? Do you know the experience I’m talking about above?
through the eye of the needle
today i had to write a paragraph on leadership for the MIT Leadership Center site. find that paragraph below. what do you think? what is your take on the essence of leadership today?
The key leadership challenge of our time is to shift the inner place from which we operate. As individuals, as teams, as institutions, and as societies we all face the same issue: that doing ‘more of the same’ won’t fix flawed and failed systems. We have to leave behind our old tools and behaviors, and immerse ourselves in the places of most potential. We have to listen with our minds and hearts wide open, and then connect with our deep sources of knowing and self. It’s only when we pass through this eye of the needle–letting go of the old and letting come the emerging self–that we can begin to step into our real power: the power to collectively sense and create the world anew. Theory U describes a social grammar and practical methods for such a transformative leadership journey.
the fourth miracle: transforming attentional violence
i just posted a video that talks about three major miracles that happened in my lifetime: (1) the collapse of the berlin wall (ending the cold war system), (2) the collapse of the apartheid system (marking thepeaceful transition into the post-apartheid era), and (3) Barack Obama taking office in the White House in January 2009. Three miracles. Three defining moments in my generation. And yet, the most important one may still be ahead of us: (4) the current transformation of capitalism from the current 1.0 and 2.0 system to a possible 3.0 form of economy and society. Check out our new website on this.
What struck me is that for the fourth miracle we have to transform all three forms of violence that currently defines the relational space in society: direct violence (terrorism and war), structural violence (misery and poverty), and what in my first blog entry i started calling attentional violence. Attentional violence is to not to be seen and recognized in terms of who you really are–in terms of your highest future possibility. Instead you are only seen in terms of your journey of the past, that is, in terms of the circumstances of the past, in terms of who you happen to be today. Attentional violence is hitting hardest those of us, who live in marginalized groups.
just as the battle of the 20the century geopolitics–the cold war system–was a battle between system and system (capitalism vs. communism), we now move into a new era in which the major battlefield extends into a different theater–the theater of our inner SELF, that is, the battle between self and Self. the battle between (current) self and (emerging future or originating) Self is the central conflict of our time. unless we are waking up to that deeper (and largely invisible) battlefield, chances are that all the political fights between left and right, between progressive and conservative and so forth, will lead us pretty much nowhere–will lead us into a dead end. its the connection of the deeper personal and yet collective playing field with our everyday life and public collective action where the real power of the next transformation is coming from.
The power for pulling off the fourth miracle stems from the capacity to linking all three spheres: the battlefield of our SELF SPACE (relinking self with Self), of our SOCIAL SPACE (relinking “us” with “them”), and of our ECO SPACE (relinking human beings with our planet). its only when we succeed in linking these three spheres we wake up to our real power–our power of bringing forth the world anew.
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