CoachingOurselves is excited to announce our newest topic by authors Otto Scharmer and Eva Pomeroy titled Awareness-Based Systems Change: Planting Seeds for Change.
The key leadership challenge of our times is to cultivate creativity, innovation, and leadership capacity at all levels of our systems. But what makes the difference between an organization where people regularly take new action and step into new territory and one where people prefer to ‘keep their heads down’ and play it safe? It likely has much to do with the quality of the social field.
The social field in organizations, as defined by Scharmer, is the quality of relationships that give rise to patterns of thinking, communicating, and organizing which in turn produce practical results. Transformational change comes through cultivating this deeper “soil”, not by trying to force the visible outcomes. This module invites you to dive into the generative field of your organization to see and sense behavioural patterns which may be giving rise to unwanted results.
When we can attend to what we see, say, and do (what is visible) while simultaneously attending to the inner source of attention and intention from which we operate (what is invisible), we can break free of patterns rooted in past experiences to create powerful breakthrough ideas.
Reflective exercises and dialogue guide participants through this exploration. It is an opportunity to move beyond simply reacting to the forces around you and into your potential to shape and influence these forces. When we do this as individuals we contribute to an upgrade of the entire system. When we can do this as a group, we step into a field of vast possibilities.
Otto Scharmer is an author and action researcher who co-creates pathways of transformation for individuals, institutions, and larger systems. He delivers these innovations in learning and leadership infrastructures through classes at MIT, MITx u.lab, the Presencing Institute, and through innovation projects with organizations in business, government and civil society around the world.
Eva Pomeroy is Research Lead at the Presencing Institute and core faculty at U.Lab. She is Co-founder and Managing Editor of the Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change and co-founded the ConcordiaU.lab Social Innovation Hub at Concordia University, Montreal. She researches in the areas of transformative learning, systems change, social field change, and eco-system activation.
