U.Lab

Discussion

Otto Scharmer:

"The Presencing Institute was always intended as a temporary infrastructure that could develop the social technology outlined in this book, and support projects around the globe. With the launch of the u.lab MOOC in 2015, we are now ready to take this work to a larger scale. As part of that effort, the Presencing Institute is in the process of evolving into “u.lab”—the name for the global ecosystem of initiatives, research, and capacity building programs that work in service of shifting society from ego to eco-system economies. Maybe take another look at image 6 (social fields) at this point. On the left side are the three divides; in the middle is the inner cultivation work that we need to engage in to improve the quality of the social soil; and on the right are the enabling infrastructures that we need to put into place in order for the emerging future “to land.” The enabling infrastructure is depicted in the form of a tree. The tree depicts what we intend the u.school, as this enabling infrastructure, to be.

In the upper part of the tree you see the three core activities that define us as a community of practice:

• convening innovation labs across sectors (business, government, civil society) • building collective capacity across intelligences (open mind, open heart, open will) and • creating action research as the vehicle for linking science, consciousness and social change

In the lower part, the root system of the tree at the source level, is an emerging global movement of shifting consciousness from ego-system to eco-system awareness. Even though much of it is still dormant, we see and sense the awakening of that movement in many places across the world. But what about the middle part—the “trunk”? What could catalyze the awakening of this dormant movement and bring this ecology to scale? What are these enabling conditions that, if in place, could help us to create the inner and outer conditions to bring about profound personal and civilizational renewal?

We believe that there are five enabling conditions that, if in place, could make that happen:

They are:

1. Places: A global eco-system of hubs. Profound innovation happens in places. Hubs cultivate these places by focusing on emerging opportunities and providing tools for bringing those opportunities to fruition. Hubs will look different in different places, but they will share several features:

(a) a physical space that evokes the mindful simplicity of a Buddhist temple,

(b) the hands-on creativity of an artistic community,

(c) hightech equipment that connects a global web of co-sensing partners,

(d) the clarity of a well-organized think tank, and (e) the functionality of avant-garde social presencing theater, which blends performance, mindfulness, and the social sciences. Innovation Hubs could be replicated in urban and rural communities everywhere.

2. Partners: A global network of institutional living examples. All u.school prototype work is guided by a global network of mentors and changemakers affiliated with different types of organizations that implement institutional innovations through practical experimentation. We envision to evolve this network to a global eco-system of partnering hubs that in each world region focus on innovations in eight institutional acupuncture points for transforming the economy.

They are:

i. Nature and Place: from depleting resources to cultivating eco-systems

ii. Labor and Work: from jobs to passionate entrepreneurship

iii. Money and Capital: from extractive to intentional

iv. Technologies: from system-centric to human- and eco-centric

v. Leadership and Collaboration: from top-down to coshaping the future

vi. Consumption and People-Power: from consumerism to well-being for all

vii. Health and Education: from outcome-centric to peopleand awareness-driven

viii. Coordination and Governance: from hierarchy and competition to ABC (awareness-based collective action).

3. Platforms: Blended learning architectures. Platform building that links online and offline (o2o) practical tools, personal reflection, and local living examples with global movement building.

4. People: A strong core team. A team that can hold the space, build the curriculum and create blueprints for a vibrant and rapidly evolving and expanding global innovation eco-system.

5. Practices: Presencing and mindfulness-based practices. Economic and social transformation requires a shift in awareness and new qualities of communication. The u.lab methods and tools facilitate this shift and are broadly accessible to a global audience.

While the u.school is still in its early phase of development, some key elements are already in place. These include:

• A global network of over 75,000 change makers who have formed over 500 hubs, and are engaged in countless change ventures and initiatives • A community of 2,000 graduates of introductory and advanced programs offered through the Presencing Institute over the past fifteen years • A global eco-system of master practitioners, co-facilitators, and living example partners that demonstrate the practical results of U process prototypes • Tested and refined methods and tools that support deep innovation processes (see https://www.presencing.com/tools) • A global ecology of large multi-stakeholder change efforts that u.school practitioners support or co-convene.

These include: the Global Wellbeing Lab (with prototypes in seven countries), Novos Urbanos (Brazil), agricultural transformation in Ethiopia, maternal health system improvement in Namibia, the Sustainable Food Lab (in the Americas and Europe), creating an innovation ecology in Shanghai, strengthening education and civil society in China, UID China, UID Indonesia, the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) in Indonesia, leadership for attaining Universal Health Coverage in Africa (in collaboration with the World Bank and GIZ), supporting the effort to shift Nigeria’s over-dependence on oil by (in collaboration with Synergos), and applying Theory U to attain gender equality in Zambia’s Public Service (in collaboration with the UN Development Program), as well as projects in the area of reinventing banking and finance in various countries." (https://www.ottoscharmer.com/sites/default/files/TU2_epilogue.pdf)