Asset-V1 MITx+15.671.1x+3T2020+Type@Asset+Block@Ulab 1x Source Book 2020

u.
lab 1x
Leading From the Emerging Future
Source Book
2020
MITx u.lab SOURCE BOOK
Welcome! This workbook was created to complement the edX course u.lab 1x: Leading from the
Emerging Future, which brings together over 9,000 participants from 125 countries for a 13-week
experiential learning journey.
This workbook is designed to give you the essential frameworks and tools presented in u.lab – along with
a few bonus materials that we did not introduce in the online course, but have road-tested in various
contexts around the world for many years.
Why are we offering this course – and this book – now?
The disruptive social, environmental and cultural changes we face confront us with challenges of a new
order of magnitude. These challenges hold the seeds for profound levels of breakthrough innovation while
also holding the possibility of massive disruption and breakdown. Whether it’s one or the other depends
on our capacity to rise to the occasion and to reframe problems into opportunities for system-wide
innovation and renewal. We believe it’s possible to create profound societal renewal in our generation. It
will take all of us. We’re glad you’ve joined for the journey.
Enjoy the u.lab Source Book!
– The u.lab team
September 2020 - Version 4
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Table of Contents
General Resources 4
u.school for Transformation 4
Intention Setting 5
Module 1: Co-Initiating 6
The Iceberg Model 6
Theory U 9
Levels of Listening 10
Tool: Case Clinic 12
Tool: Empathy Walk 14
Tool: Listening Assessment 15
Module 2: Co-Sensing 16
Tool: Sensing Journey 17
Tool: Stakeholder Interviews 21
Social Presencing Theater: 20 Minute Dance 24
Social Presencing Theater: Stuck Exercise 27
Social Presencing Theater: 4D Mapping 29
Module 3: Presencing 32
Presencing 32
Absencing 33
Tool: Mindfulness Practice 34
Tool: Field of the Future Journaling Practice 36
Crystallizing 42
Module 4: Co-Creating 44
Tool: 3D Mapping 45
Module 5: Co-Evolving 48
The Four Distractions 49
Principles for Leading From the Emerging Future 50
3
General Resources
● Scharmer, C. Otto: The Essentials of Theory U. Berrett-Koehler, 2018.
● Scharmer, C. Otto: Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges, 2nd ed. Berrett-Koehler,
2016.
● Scharmer, C. Otto, and K. Kaufer: Leading From the Emerging Future: From Ego-system to Eco-
system Economies. Berrett-Koehler, 2013.
● Bird, Kelvy: Generative Scribing: A Social Art of the 21st Century. PI Press, 2018.
u.school for Transformation

u.lab: Leading From the Emerging Future was created by a team from the Presencing Institute, a network
of practitioners who build social technologies and innovation infrastructures (such as this course) that
enable people to connect (with each other and with their deeper selves), projects to take root and
movements to amplify their impact.
u.lab 1x is one part of an annual innovation cycle called u.school for Transformation that consists of three
interconnected offerings:
1. u.lab 1x: Leading From the Emerging Future: a journey from sensing and connecting to deeper
sources of knowing to generating powerful prototype ideas.
2. u.lab 2x: a journey from prototype intention to real world impact and change on the level of real
world ecosystems.
3. GAIA: connecting change makers across sectors and geographies for sense-making, leaning into
the current moment, and letting this moment move us toward civilizational renewal.
As you progress through u.lab 1x and develop your own prototype initiative (or join and support an
existing one), you'll have the opportunity to join this year-round innovation cycle by applying to participate
in u.lab 2x. More information will be available in October 2020. For now, you can click here to read more
about the whole u.school for Transformation.
4
Intention Setting
I’m joining u.lab because…
My most important challenge right now is…
The level at which I’m focused on creating change is… (personal, organizational, systemic, etc.)
u.lab will be a success for me when…
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Module 1: Co-Initiating
The Iceberg Model
The iceberg model suggests that beneath

the visible level of events and crises, there
are underlying structures, paradigms of
thought, and sources that are responsible
for creating them. If ignored, they will keep
us locked into re-enacting the same old
patterns time and again.
The Iceberg Model: Reflection Questions

What are the deeper systemic forces that keep you, and the stakeholders in this system, re-enacting
results that ultimately nobody wants?
Which of the structural disconnects are most relevant to the challenge, issue, or system you want to
address during u.lab? Share up to three responses.
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The Iceberg Model: Paradigms of Economic Thought

The evolution of modern economy and economic thought mirrors an evolution in human consciousness -
from what we call "ego-system awareness" to "ecosystem awareness". Paradigms of economic thought
and deeper sources of creativity and self give rise to the structures and visible events we see around us.
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Journaling
1. Where do you experience a world that is ending and dying? And in your response you can refer
both to society, to your organizational context or to yourself.
2. Where do you experience a world that is wanting to be born? In society, in your organizational
context, in your personal context?
3. Where have you experienced moments of disruption and what did you notice about your inner
response to these moments?
4. Lastly, how do the ecological, the social-economic and the spiritual divides show up in your
personal experience of work and life?
8
Theory U
Today, it's not enough to create change at the level of symptoms and structures. We need to work even
deeper, to change the underlying paradigms of thought, and to connect with our deeper sources of
creativity and self. Theory U is a framework and method for how to do that. Module 1 covers the whole U
process at a high level, with a particular emphasis on the stage highlighted in orange below:
Most learning methodologies focus on learning from the past. Theory U proposes a framework and
methodology for understanding and practicing another learning cycle – learning from the future as it
emerges.
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Levels of Listening
One of the core ideas of Theory U is that form follows attention or consciousness. We can change reality
by changing the inner place from which we operate. The first step in understanding the impact of attention
on reality is to look at our own individual practice of listening. The image below introduces four levels of
listening, representing four distinct places from where our listening can originate.
Leading through Listening: Reflection

What did you notice?
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Theory U: Six Principles

1. Energy follows attention.
2. We have to go through a process that deals with three main movements, or "inner gestures":
1. Observe, observe, observe; 2: Retreat and reflect, allow the inner knowing to emerge;
3. Act in an instant.
3. This three-stage process only works if we cultivate the inner instruments:

Open Mind, Open Heart, Open Will.
4. At the source of this inner cultivation process are the two root questions of creativity:
Who is my Self? What is my Work?
5. This process is the road less traveled because the moment you begin, you are going to face three
enemies that prevent you from accessing your deeper sources of creativity: Voice of Judgment,
Voice of Cynicism, Voice of Fear.
6. This opening process is not only important to do as an individual; you need to hold the space to
go through the same process on a collective level.
Journaling
Reflect on your experience so far:
● How, if at all, is the core question that you want to explore in u.lab changing after this first
module?
● In these early beginnings of your u.lab journey, what have you noticed about the quality of your
listening?
11
Tool: Case Clinic

Overview
Case Clinics guide a team or a group of peers through a process in which a case giver presents a case,
and a group of 3-4 peers or team members help as consultants based on the principles of the U-Process
and process consultation. Case Clinics take place online or in person (where physical distancing
measures can be respected) and allow participants to generate new ways to approach a challenge or
question.
Purpose
To access the wisdom and experience of peers and to help a peer respond to an important and
immediate leadership challenge in a better and more innovative way.
Principles
● The case should be a leadership challenge that is current and concrete.
● The case giver needs to be a key player in the case.
● The participants in the case clinics are peers, so there is no hierarchical relationship among them.
● Don’t give advice; instead listen deeply.
Uses & Outcomes

● Concrete and innovative ideas for how to respond to a pressing leadership challenge
● High level of trust and positive energy among the peer group
● Use with: Mindfulness and listening practices
An Example
Participants of a master class program form peer learning groups. They do their first case clinic while they
are in the program, and then use the process for monthly phone calls, allowing each participant to present
a case.
Process
Set Up
People & Place
● Groups of 4-5 peers

● This activity can be conducted over videoconference. If social distancing measures allow, groups
will benefit from meeting in person, with sufficient space to work without distractions
Time
● A minimum of 70 minutes is required
Materials
● The handout of the process
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Sequence
Case giver: Share your personal aspiration and leadership challenge that is current, concrete, and
important, and that you happen to be a key player in. You should be able to present the case in 15 min
and the case should stand to benefit from the feedback of your peers. Include your personal learning
threshold (what you need to let-go of and learn).
Coaches: Listen deeply—do not try to “fix” the problem, but listen deeply to the case giver while also
attending to the images, metaphors, feelings and gestures that the story evokes in you.
Timekeeper: One of the coaches manages the time.
Step Time Activity
1 2 min Select case giver and time keeper
2 15 min Intention statement by case giver

Take a moment to reflect on your sense of calling. Then clarify these questions:
1. Current situation: What key challenge or question are you up against?
2. Stakeholders: How might others view this situation?
3. Intention: What future are you trying to create?
4. Threshold: What do you need to let-go of – and what do you need to learn?
5. Help: Where do you need input or help?
Coaches listen deeply and may ask clarifying questions (don’t give advice!)
3 3 min Stillness
1. Listen to your heart: Connect with your heart to what you’re hearing.
2. Listen to what resonates: What images, metaphors, feelings and gestures
come up for you that capture the essence of what you heard?
4 10 min Mirroring: Images (Open Mind), Feelings (Open Heart), Gestures (Open Will)
● Each coach shares the images/metaphors, feelings and gestures that came
up in the silence or while listening to the case story.
● Having listened to all coaches, the case giver reflects back on what they
heard.
5 20 min Generative dialogue

● Reflect together on the remarks of the case giver, and move into a generative
dialogue on how these observations can offer new perspectives on the case.
● Go with the flow of the dialogue. Build on each other’s ideas. Stay in service of
the case giver without pressure to fix or resolve their challenge.
6 8 min Closing remarks

● By coaches
● By case giver: How do I now see my situation and way forward?
● Acknowledgment: An expression of genuine appreciation to each other.
7 2 min Individual journaling to capture the learning points
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Tool: Empathy Walk

Overview
This practice has been adapted from the work of MIT Professor Emeritus Ed Schein. Ed has shaped the
field of organizational culture, learning and leadership over the past 50 years. He is the author of
numerous books including Process Consultation Revisited, Helping and Humble Inquiry.
Purpose
1. To develop empathy for someone very different from yourself.
2. To develop your skill in establishing a relationship across a significant boundary.
Process
1. Spend some time exploring (thinking and researching) what kind of person would hold thoughts,
views and experiences most different from your own. Who would have a very different worldview?
Who would explain and understand things most differently from you?
2. Having decided what kind of person to look for, figure out how you could actually get in touch with
such a person in the next week in your city or neighborhood. Are they connected to you through
your work? Are they somebody you could reach through a family member, or through a friend?
3. Make contact with this person, explain your intentions, and ask if they would be interested in a
conversation with you. Be explicit about giving them a gentle way out: the intention is to create an
experience that holds reciprocal value for you both, not just for you to pull out knowledge from
them.
Note: Be mindful of the difference in perceived power that might exist between you and the
person you are contacting. Our interactions across differences like race and class are often
shaped by a long legacy of injustice and pain, and reaching out across this difference without
deep care and an understanding of that pain risks being hurtful to that person. Be mindful of this
as you consider who it is most appropriate for you to invite on an Empathy Walk.
4. Schedule to meet this person via videoconference (unless social distancing measures where you
are allow for in-person meetings—and even then, check what the other person is comfortable
with). Plan to spend several hours (one hour at the least) getting to know the person and try to
get into that person’s world enough to get a feel for what it would be like to view the world from
that perspective. How you go about this, what you say to the person, what kind of time you
actually spend, etc. is all up to you. There are no rules or guidelines. Be creative. The idea here is
to go out into the world and practice empathy, relationship building and deep listening with
another person.
5. You can do the empathy walk on your own. Or, if you are participating in a hub or taking the u.lab
course with friends or colleagues, you can meet this person together, again with their permission.
When you are finished, write a short reflective journaling entry on what you learned.
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Tool: Listening Assessment

Overview
In u.lab, we offer an online tool (on presencing.org) that helps you to observe changes in your ability to
engage in deep listening over time. Tracking your listening on a daily basis is one of the key tools to help
you increase your capacity to listen at different levels as appropriate to the situation in which you find
yourself.
While the online tool is helpful, you can also track your listening in a journal. In fact, before we ever had
an online tool, Otto had his MIT Sloan students track their listening in their personal journals. In case
you’re unable to use the online tool - or if there are some days where you are unable to track your
listening online - just use a journal. The power of the practice comes from reflecting on your listening on a
regular basis, regardless of how you track it.
Process
Step One
Once a day, at the end of the day, take some time to reflect on your quality of listening during the day.
Estimate what percentage of your time each day you spent in each level of listening. As a reminder, here
are the descriptions of each level:
● Level 1: Downloading - Listening from your habits, from what you already know; the result is you
re-confirm what you already knew.
● Level 2: Factual - Noticing something new, something that differs from what you already knew or
expected to hear.
● Level 3: Empathetic - Listening from the place from which the other person is speaking,
experiencing/sensing an emotional connection.
● Level 4: Generative - Connecting to the emerging future - to a future possibility that links to your
emerging self; to who you really are.
Step Two
Share a story about a moment today when you experienced a shift from one level of listening to another.
Then select the tag below that indicates which shift you experienced.
In your description, simply describe what you noticed about the moment - paying particular attention to
your mental state, emotions that were present, any felt sense in your body, and shifts in your perception
of time and space. You may write as much or as little as you would like. Also note which level you shifted
from, and which level you shifted to (example: shift from level 2 to 3).
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Module 2: Co-Sensing
Principles
In Module 2, we begin gathering data by suspending our habitual ways of seeing, going to the edges of
the system we’re interested in learning about and changing, and listening with our minds and hearts wide
open. We introduce the principles of co-sensing and fields of conversation: how the four levels of listening
manifest in groups and teams.
Fields of Conversation
16
Tool: Sensing Journey

Overview
Sensing Journeys pull participants out of their daily routine and allow them to experience the
organization, challenge, or system through the lens of different stakeholders. Sensing journeys bring
participants to places, people, and experiences that are most relevant for the respective question they are
working on.
These Learning Journeys allow participants to:
● Move into unfamiliar environments

● Immerse themselves in different contexts
● Step into relevant experiences
During social distancing, Sensing Journeys will be a more complex tool to adapt to the web. Be creative
about the kinds of conversations that you’re able to structure through videoconferencing, and what in-
person observation is safe to arrange, (if any) given local distancing guidelines. Can you prepare a
journey that is entirely outdoors, with activities that permit distancing? Can you prepare a combination of
in-person and online conversations? You’ll find examples of learning journeys conducted online in the
Global Forum 2020 archive (below Signs and Seeds of the Future, Block Three).
Stakeholder interviews and other tools listed in this Sourcebook may be less complicated to host online,
but if you feel ready, we invite you to get creative with this powerful, multifaceted experience.
Purpose
To allow participants to break-through patterns of seeing and listening by stepping into a different and
relevant perspective and experience. Sensing Journeys can also help build relationships with key
stakeholders, and gain a system perspective.
Principles
A deep-dive sensing journey requires engaging in three types of listening:
1. Listening to others: to what the people you meet are offering to you.
2. Listening to yourself: to what you feel emerging from within.
3. Listening to the emerging whole: to what emerges from the collective and community settings that
you have connected with.
Go to the places of most potential. Meet your interviewees in their context: in their workplace or where
they live, not in a hotel or conference room. This is made natural when meeting people through Zoom;
make sure to gently ask them to keep their webcam on, if they feel comfortable. When you meet people in
their own context you learn a lot by simply observing what is going on. Take whatever you observe as a
starting point to improvise questions that allow you to learn more about the real-life context of your
interviewee.
Observe, observe, observe: Suspend your voices of judgment (VOJ) and cynicism (VOC) and connect
with your sense of appreciation and wonder.
Without the capacity to suspend judgment and cynicism, all efforts to conduct an effective inquiry process
will be in vain. Suspending your VOJ means shutting down the habit of judging and opening up a new
space of exploration, inquiry, and wonder.
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Uses & Outcomes

● Increased awareness of the different aspects of a system and their relationships
● Enhanced awareness of the different perspectives of the stakeholders and participants in the
system
● Connections between stakeholders and participants
● Ideas for prototypes
● Use with… Listening tools
Example
An automobile manufacturing firm’s product development team decided to use Sensing Journeys to
broaden their thinking and to generate new ideas. Their task was to build the self-repair capacity of their
cars’ engines. The team visited a broad selection of other companies, research centers, and even experts
in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). As it turned out, the visits with TCM experts generated the most
innovative ideas for this project (including the idea to design self-repair functions for the “dream state” of
the car--that is, for those periods when the car is not in use).
Process
Set Up
People & Place
The group splits up into sub-teams of about 5 participants. The group composition matters because a mix
of perspectives enhances the impact of the sensing journeys.
Define places of high potential for the sensing journeys. The whole group of participants should go to
several places (through virtual ‘meetings’ or in person) that can provide insights into:
● The different perspectives of the system’s key stakeholders

● The different aspects of that system
● The ‘voiceless’: people in the system, those who usually are not heard or seen.
A good way to get a sense of the system is to take the perspective of its “extreme users”: these can be
people with a strong or specific need for the work or products of the organization, who may be at a
particular disadvantage or on the margins - for instance, a person living in a remote area needing access
to a health system.
Time
The length of a sensing journey depends on the size of the geographic area being covered, or the
number of conversations being had. It is recommended to allocate at least 1 day to sensing journeys in a
workshop context and several days or weeks (sometimes spread over a period of months) in a larger
project setting.
Materials
If the hosts agree, it is advised to take pictures and/or videos during the journey, or to record portions of
the online conversation. These can be useful during reviews with the other groups and as a reminder for
the participants.
If in person, other materials may be collected as well, after seeking permission from the hosts. A pen and
journal are required for taking notes during and after the journey.
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Sequence
Step 1
Identify Learning Journeys: find places, individuals, organizations that provide you and the group with
new perspectives.
Step 2
Prepare as a group by discussing:
● What is the context that we will experience?

● Who are the key players that we will talk to?
● What questions do we want to explore?
● What assumptions do I bring with me? What do I expect?
● Share your most eye-opening sensing experience to date
Start by developing a short questionnaire (7-10 questions) that guides your inquiry process. Keep
updating your questionnaire as your inquiry process unfolds.
Prepare the host: Share the purpose and intent of the visit. Communicate that it would be most helpful for
the group to gain some insight into their ”normal” daily operations, rather than a staged presentation. Try
to avoid “show and tell” situations.
Step 3
Small groups travel to the host’s location, or meet with the host virtually.
While meeting: Trust your intuition and ask authentic questions raised by the conversation. Asking simple
and authentic questions is an important leverage point in shifting or refocusing the attention to some of
the deeper systemic forces at play.
Use deep listening as a tool to hold the space of conversation. When your interviewee has finished
responding to one of your questions, don’t jump in automatically with the next question. Attend to what is
emerging from the now.
Example questions for sensing journeys:
● What personal experience or journey brought you into your current role?
● What issues or challenges are you confronted with?
● Why do these challenges exist?
● What challenges exist in the larger system?
● What are the blockages?
● What are your most important sources of success and change?
● What would a better system look like for you?
● What initiative, if implemented, would have the greatest impact for you? For the system as a
whole?
● If you could change just a few elements of the system, what would you change?
● Who else do we need to talk to?
Step 4
After the visit, reflect and debrief: To capture and leverage the findings of your inquiry process, conduct a
disciplined debriefing process right after each visit. (Remain focused on the activity: don’t switch on cell
phones until the debriefing is complete.)
19
Here are a few sample questions for the debriefing:
● What was most surprising or unexpected?

● What touched me? What connected with me personally?
● If the social field (or the living system) of the visited organization or community were a living
being, what would it look and feel like?
● If that being could talk: what would it say (to us)?
● If that being could develop—what would it want to morph into next?
● What is the generative source that allows this social field to develop and thrive?
● What limiting factors prevent this field/system from developing further?
● Moving in and out of this field, what did you notice about yourself?
● What ideas does this experience spark for possible prototyping initiatives you may want to take
on?
Step 5
Close the feedback loop with your hosts: Send an email (or other follow-up note) expressing a key insight
you took away from the meeting (one or two sentences), and your appreciation.
Step 6
Debrief as a whole group: After a one-day learning journey this debriefing would take place in the next
meeting with the whole group. In the case of a multi-days learning journey you plan to meet between the
individual days if logistics allow.
Structure of the whole group debrief meeting:
● Get everyone on the same page by sharing concrete information about the Journeys: Where did
you go, who did you talk to, what did you do?
● Talk about your findings and generate new ideas.
20
Tool: Stakeholder Interviews

Overview
Stakeholder Interviews are conducted by practitioners with their key stakeholders; depending on the eco-
system this could include community members, decision-makers, service beneficiaries, peers, or
customers both within and outside the organization/community. The interviews allow you to step into the
shoes of your interviewees and see your role through the eyes of these stakeholders.
Purpose
The purpose of a stakeholder interview is to see your work from the perspective of your stakeholders. It
answers the questions: What do my stakeholders want from me? What do they need me for?
Stakeholder Interviews can be used in all phases of the U-process. Most common use is during the
preparation phase of a project.
Principles
● Create transparency and trust about the purpose and the process of the interview; establish a
personal connection early on.
● Suspend your voice of judgment (VOJ) to see the situation through the eyes of your interviewee.
What matters at this point is not whether you agree with what your interviewee is telling you.
What matters now is that you learn to see the situation through the eyes of the stakeholder.
● Access your ignorance (access your open mind): As the conversation unfolds, pay attention to
and trust the questions that occur to you, Don’t be afraid to ask simple questions or questions you
think may reveal a lack of some basic knowledge.
● Access your appreciative listening (access your open heart): Connect to your interviewee with
your mind and heart wide open. Thoroughly appreciate and enjoy the story that you hear
unfolding and put yourself in your interviewee’s shoes.
● Access your listening from the future field (access your open will): Try to focus on the best future
possibility for your interviewee that you feel is wanting to emerge. What might that best possible
future look like?
● Leverage the power of presence and silence: One of the most effective interventions as an
interviewer is to be fully present with the interviewee and the current situation—and not to
interrupt a brief moment of silence. Moments of silence can serve as important trigger points for
deepening the reflective level of a conversation. More often than not, these opportunities go
unused because the interviewer feels compelled to jump in and ask the next question. Be
courageous. Stay with the opening of the NOW.
Uses & Outcomes

Stakeholder interviews offer:
● Enhanced clarity about how your work matters from the viewpoint of your stakeholders
● An understanding of how your stakeholders assess the value you create for them
● The identification of barriers and roadblocks that need to be removed
● A better and deeper personal relationship with your key stakeholders
21
Example
One participant in a leadership capacity-building workshop:
“As a newcomer, I sensed that there wasn’t a lot of trust in the organization. With many questions in mind,
I was asked to do ‘stakeholder’ interviews as a preparation for a leadership seminar. The first thing I
realized was that stakeholder interviews are 180 degrees different from normal conversations - no
checking out and bargaining over my pre-prepared plans and trying to convince the other person. On the
contrary, I had to shift my perspective and put myself into the stakeholders’ shoes: ‘How does she or he
look at my job?’ I had to find out how I could serve my stakeholders so that they could be successful…
But then it was amazing: The interviews were incredibly helpful. They saved me months of work and
communication! I learned things from the perspective of my stakeholders that I would never have heard in
‘normal communications’. Shortly after the interviews, people I didn’t know came and said, ‘We’ve heard
about these open communications you’ve had. We must tell you that they’ve created a lot of trust. How
did you do that?”
Process
Set Up
People & Place
Stakeholder interviews work best face-to-face but if you are practicing social distancing, or in-person
interviews are not possible, conduct them by video conference or phone.
Time
Both figures are estimates and need to be adjusted to the specific context:
● 30-45 minutes for a phone interview.

● 30-90 minutes for a face-to-face interview.
Allocate an additional 30 min. before the interview to prepare and 30 min after for review.
Materials
Use the interview guidelines (questionnaire), but feel free to deviate when necessary. Paper and pen to
take notes.
Sequence
Step 1
● Identify the stakeholders who are relevant to your current situation or challenge/opportunity.
● Define/revise questions to adjust to the specific context. Schedule appointments.
● Decide whether to send the questions to the interviewee in advance.
Step 2
● Before you meet the interviewee, allow for some quiet preparation or silence.
● For example, take 20-30 minutes prior to an interview to relax and anticipate the conversation
with an open mind and heart.
22
Step 3
● During the interview, listen with your mind and heart wide open, take notes, follow the principles
below.
● Ask questions spontaneously: Feel free to deviate from your questionnaire if important questions
occur to you. The questionnaire is designed to serve you and your work—not the other way
around.
● Sample questionnaire:
● What is your most important objective, and how can I help you realize it? (What do you need me
for?)
● What criteria do you use to assess whether my contribution to your work has been successful?
● If I were able to change two things in my area of responsibility within the next six months, what
two things would create the most value and benefit for you?
Step 4
Right after the interview, take time to reflect on key insights, capture your key thoughts in writing.
Step 5
Close the feedback loop: Right after each interview, send a thank-you note to your interviewee (within 12
hours).
23
Social Presencing Theater: 20 Minute Dance

Overview
Mindfulness of body is a foundational skill for Social Presencing Theater. And like any skill, we learn it
through practice. The 20-minute Dance is a practice in which we pay attention to the feeling of the body,
without thinking about it or judging it. We are not trying to fix or change or accomplish anything. We
welcome every moment.
Purpose
The invitation is to become more present and grounded in our bodies. To support fully being present in
the moment by resting our attention (mind) on the feeling of the body. When body and mind are
synchronized, we have access to a holistic intelligence.
Principles
● This is a practice to restore the natural synchronicity of the body and the mind.
● When we become lost in thoughts of the past or future or we fixate on our opinions and
judgments we lose touch with the present moment.
● Throughout the practice, the attention is on the feeling of the body; the sensations involved in
movement and stillness. (It doesn't matter at all what it looks like.)
Uses & Outcomes

● Slowing down and becoming more grounded, appreciating the moment to moment experience
● Body, mind and heart become more open and aligned, resulting in greater emotional intelligence
and heartfelt listening
● Increase in confidence, clarity, and creativity
● Preparation for Stuck and 4D Mapping
An Example
This can be used as a personal mindfulness of body practice (as one might use yoga). Participants in
leadership programs engage in this practice to transition from the speed and pressures of work life into a
more grounded and receptive state of mind.
Process
Set Up
People & Place

● Room with a clean wooden or carpeted floor
● Sufficient space to lie down on the floor, in front of your webcam if practicing via videoconference.
If social distancing guidelines allow you to practice jointly with others, you will need sufficient
space to do so together without feeling crowded.
Time
● Everyone begins the practice together. Use a gong or bell to indicate the beginning time.
● Ideally the practice is 20 minutes long. It is fine to practice for 10 minutes.
● Allow time for a short reflection.
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Materials
● Encourage people to dress comfortably
● Bell or gong to indicate beginning and end of practice
Sequence
Lying down
● Begin by resting on the floor with the eyes closed. Feel the body resting on the big body of the
earth. Bring some attention to abdominal breathing. Experience your body, simply, without
judgment or a goal.
● Let a movement begin. Do whatever the body feels like doing without planning anything. For
example, the body might feel like stretching, rolling over, or wiggling its fingers. Keep the
movement close to the ground. Any movement is good. Pay attention to the sensations, the
feeling of the body, as it is moving.
● Then, pause and feel the body as it is resting in a shape or a posture.
● Then begin to move again, paying attention to the feeling of the body moving.
● Continue in this way, alternating resting and moving, paying attention to the feeling of the body.
As we move or rest, our attention can be on part of the body (we feel our lower back or knee or
shoulder) or on a sense of the whole body.
● When you notice that you are thinking, labeling, or judging the experience, let those thoughts go.
Simply rest your attention on the feeling of the body.
Sitting
● After several minutes, let the body rise to a sitting position. Continue alternating stillness and
movement, allowing the eyes to remain closed.
Standing
● Again, later in the practice time, come to a standing position. Continue to alternate moving and
stillness. You might include bending or twisting, maintaining a sense of standing on one spot.
Moving through space
● Open your eyes and begin to move around the room. Keep your eyes downcast with a soft gaze
so that your attention remains in your body and is not drawn outward into what others are doing.
Finding an ending
● At the end of the 20 (or 10) minutes, stop and hold the still shape. Wait in the still shape until the
others have found their ending shape and place in the room. Feel the back of the body. Feel the
full three-dimensional shape of the body. Then become aware of the space above and below and
around the body.
Reflection
● Whether in person or on a webcam, reflect briefly in pairs, or in trios. Allow each person one or
two minutes to speak. The others listen with their full attention. What did you notice? What did
you learn about yourself?
● Speak from the first person voice about what you noticed, felt or did. Remember, there is no ideal
dance or particular “better or right” experience. Experience is not the same as interpretation or
thoughts about the experience. Each person’s experience is the perfect dance for them at that
time.
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Continue the practice
● As you go about the rest of your day, sitting in a chair or standing in line or walking to your car,
remember to be aware of the body. Feel the whole body – the feet on the floor, the upright
posture, the top of the head.
● Notice that once you feel embodied, there is a natural sense of being and of presence.
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Social Presencing Theater: Stuck Exercise

Overview
This is the main technique of Social Presencing Theater. The other forms (such as 4D Mapping) are
variations on this practice. It is a process by which one experiences going through the whole U journey by
moving from Sculpture 1 (current reality) to Sculpture 2 (emerging future). We do not know what the
movements will be or where they will stop, but we can follow the movement and then reflect on our
experience. Surprising insights can arise.
Purpose
The invitation here is to notice the inclination of individual people and groups of people to move toward a
saner, freer, healthier, more creative situation; to sense more deeply into the current reality, rather than
trying to “fix” the situation from the same mind-set or frame of reference that created the stuck situation.
Instead, we feel deeply into the situation, suspending our problem-solving habit. By paying attention to
our “body-knowing” and to the social field, we discover new directions or fresh insights that were not
accessible just by thinking.
Principles
● Let the body be the guide. Do not plan, act, mime, pretend, manipulate or represent.
Simply BE and DO.
● Lean into the “stuck” situation. The wisdom is there already. Notice what is emerging – what in
Theory U language is sometimes called the “crack”.
● Trust the moment-to-moment experience.
Uses & Outcomes

● Become more sensitive to and honest about the feeling-quality of their current situation
● Suspend concepts; build trust in body knowing.
● Feel ourselves as part of a co-creative system.
● Feel what is emerging, a future that we want to create.
An Example
This exercise can be used by individuals or teams as a practice for letting the intelligence of the body
guide us in decisions and actions. Fully embodying our situations gives us direct feedback that informs
our decisions. Noticing the interdependence of many factors and influences in every situation gives us a
broader perspective.
Process
Set Up
People & Place

● Groups of 4-6 people, practicing together in person or via videoconference. If the latter, adjust
your camera so your whole body is visible.
● Sufficient space to ensure you have enough room around you to freely move, and so that groups
can work without distraction.
Time
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● Step 1 is 10 minutes. Each person shares a gesture and a few minutes of reflection at the end
● Step 2 is 5 minutes. All participants practice together.
● Step 3 is 10-15 minutes per person. Each person sets up Sculpture #1, moves to Sculpture #2,
and there is time for reflection after each person’s “stuck”.
Sequence
Show Sculpture 1
(Corresponds to the u.lab video, “Stuck Part 2”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVeU1fTuSZc)
1. Sit together in groups of five.
2. Reflect on a place where you feel stuck, where there is a breakdown or an area of life or work
that feels stuck.
3. Let that feeling of being stuck in this particular situation come into your body as a shape or a
gesture.
4. Embody your feeling of stuck. Make it concrete and visible in the space.
5. One by one share this with the others in your group. Allow space between each person.
6. Brief reflection on what you saw or felt as a witness.
Show movement from Sculpture 1 to Sculpture 2

(Corresponds to the u.lab video, “Stuck Part 4”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcxcGrqNRfQ)
1. In parallel each person embodies their stuck shape (sculpture 1) and then allows that shape to
move. When the movement comes to an end, stop (sculpture 2).
2. After all have shared their movement, briefly reflect together on what each person experienced
doing the exercise and witnessing the others.
Group Stuck
(Corresponds to the u.lab video, “Stuck Part 6”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvgVt-JBpO8)
1. Take 2 minutes to sit with the group in silence and feel the social body of the group.
2. One person invites the others to replicate their stuck sculpture to emphasize, augment, or clarify
their feeling of stuck.
3. As a collective, stay with the feeling of stuck, deepening into it.
4. Pay close attention to the collective or social body as it begins to move, shift, or change. Don’t
talk during this phase.
5. When the movement stops, rest in this Sculpture 2.
6. Remaining in the Sculpture 2, each person says one sentence from the “I voice”
7. Reflect as a group on what you noticed, saw, and felt.
8. Gap of silence
9. Next person does their Stuck Exercise, same as above.
Reflection
1. The reflection is built into each part of the exercise. Participants can reflect through several
lenses.
2. What is the difference between the stuck shape and sculpture 2? How are they different? What
was the movement from sculpture 1 to sculpture 2?
3. Where did the movement begin in the body? Where in the social body?
4. In the group stuck, each person holds or expresses a different aspect of the system, but also
embodies the whole system. Reflect on what literally happened, on the quality of experience and
on the feeling.
5. What insights or questions arose?
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Social Presencing Theater: 4D Mapping

Overview
In Social Presencing Theater, the word theater is used in connection to its root meaning – a place where
something significant becomes visible, or where a community of people can see a shared experience. 4D
mapping makes visible the current reality in a social system, such as a school system, health care
system, or government.
Purpose
We use 4D Mapping with groups who are looking to gain new insights about their own system, and with
clients who have a case they want to explore using this method.
Principles
● 4D mapping explores how the highest aspiration in a system might come forward. We assume
there is an underlying wisdom – in spite of the diverse values or goals of stakeholders in a system
– that could come to the surface and be visible as we move from Sculpture 1 to 2.
● Participants apply mindfulness of the body and awareness of the surrounding space. 4D mapping
is not about acting out preconceived ideas or concepts we have about a system.
● 4D mapping is about surfacing and noticing what shifts in a system might be significant in going
from a current reality to an emerging future reality.
● Movement is based on what is actually emerging, not based on manipulation or what we think
something should be.
Process
Set Up
Roles & Space

● There are two basic types of roles in 4D mapping: players and space-holders. There is also a
facilitator and a scribe (the scribe writes down the sentences that people speak from their
shapes).
● If you are practicing 4D mapping in person, those who hold the space typically sit in a circle, and
players embody roles in the center of the circle. If social distancing measures where you live
mandate physical distance, consider practicing this via videoconference.
● There are typically 10-12 players, and everyone else remains in their seats in a circle (once the
movement from Sculpture 1 to 2 begins, space holders can move around the periphery of the
circle).
● 4D mapping is a co-created event that depends on the quality of everyone’s attention; so both
types of roles are equally important.
● The roles in the system should be predetermined. Whether you are working with a group looking
to gain new insights about their own system, or with a client, determine the roles together with the
group or client prior to beginning 4D mapping.
● Important: Always include roles that represent the 3 divides: the earth/environment, marginalized
groups or individuals, and the highest future possibility of the system.
● Write the name of each role on a card and use labels with tape on the back to help everyone
remember the roles - or, if using videoconferencing software, ask participants to change the way
their name appears to include their role. It’s helpful to be specific with roles. See the u.lab 4D
mapping Part 3 video for examples.
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● Decide the order in which the facilitator will call out the roles. We find it helpful to begin with the
more powerful roles in the system.
Sequence
Co-Initiating
1. If working with a client, invite them to describe their case to the group, just as they would in the
case clinic method, so everyone can sense into the current reality. This should take ten minutes
or less.
2. Pause for a moment, and practice mindfulness of the body. Connect to the feeling of the body,
especially the back of the body - this is particularly important if connecting through virtual space,
with video conferencing software.
3. The facilitator may remind everyone: When we step into the space, we let go of concepts of ‘how
it should be,’ or ‘how it should transform’ – we don’t know the answers. We step into an open
space with an open mind, and we embody our element of the system. We make a shape with our
body that we feel expresses some quality of the role we’re playing.
Co-Sensing
1. Facilitator says the name of the role and holds up the first card, with a pre-determined role written
on it.
2. One-by-one, a person from the circle will stand up (or raise their hand on the video call) and
volunteer to embody that role. The only guideline here is not to choose the role you actually play
in your daily life.
3. The player takes the card with the name of the role and affixes it to his/her shirt so it is visible to
others, or else changes their name’s appearance on camera.
4. If practicing in physical space with other people, that player finds a place in the room and a shape
that embodies the experience of that role in the system. Each player comes in, finds a place in
relationship to the center, the edge, and the other players. They may find it helpful to ask
themselves, “Am I bigger, smaller, in the center, to the side; do I feel powerful, weak and
vulnerable?” Whatever it is, they embody it in the space so that others can see it. Remember not
to act, but to empathize, identify with the role, and embody it. If practicing on video, stand
sufficiently far from your camera, so others can see your whole body.
5. Once in the shape, the player says one sentence from the experience of that shape, in the first
person “I” voice. The scribe writes these down.
6. Then, the facilitator calls the next role, and the process is repeated until all roles have been
embodied.
7. Once all players have entered the space, the facilitator invites anyone who feels they need to
adjust their place, level, or direction in the space to make it more accurately embody the current
reality to do so.
8. The space-holders in the circle are very important because they hold the space without judgment.
9. Once everyone has found a place and shape, that is Sculpture 1. Sculpture 1 represents a feeling
of the current reality of the system.
Presencing
1. The players let go of any idea of the outcome and stay with the stillness for a few moments.
2. Somewhere in this sculpture, movement will arise.
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Crystallizing
1. Then the sculpture begins to move and continues moving, until the social body comes to a stop in
Sculpture 2. This whole process could take about five minutes.
2. From Sculpture 2, each player says the name of their role and one sentence about their
experience. The scribe can record what is said.
3. The facilitator can invite people from the circle to also offer one sentence
Generative Dialogue
As a whole group, reflect on what you experienced. Describe your Sculpture 1 to Sculpture 2 journey.
Emphasize real data. What did you notice, see, or do? The following reflection questions have proved to
be helpful:
● Where did movement begin in Sculpture 1?

● When did the Sculpture shift? Where did the process of transformation originate?
● What did you notice about how your attention evolved over time?
● How did your sense of Space, Time, Self, and Other shift over time?
● If the journey from Sculpture 1 to 2 were a film, what would you call it? Give it a title or name.
You might also reflect on the following questions:
● What was your experience as a “player” or as a holder of the space? What surprised you?
● What are the key differences between Sculpture 1 (current reality) and Sculpture 2 (emerging
reality)? What are the top three features that changed?
● What next steps will you take as a result of this experience?
Step out of roles
Before ending 4D mapping, invite everyone to step out of his or her roles. We’ve found it helpful if
everyone briefly says (to themselves) that they appreciate the opportunity to embody this particular role,
and that they will take the lessons to be learned and leave all else behind.
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Module 3: Presencing
Presencing
Presencing, the blending of presence and sensing, means to connect with the source of our highest
future possibility – individually, and also as teams, organizations, and larger social systems – and to bring
it into reality now. The videos in this module introduces the principles of presencing, the principles of
absencing (the inverse of presencing), and eight ways of shifting the current economic model to one that
generates well-being for all.
Presencing requires us to let go of the old and open ourselves completely to something that we can
sense but that we cannot fully know before we see it emerging. This moment can feel like jumping across
an abyss. At the moment we leap, we have no idea whether we will make it across.
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Absencing
In our everyday reality however, we often experience the tension between two different social fields: the
field of presencing (sensing and actualizing the highest future possibilities) and the field of absencing
(disconnecting from our sources of the emerging self). Whenever we find ourselves getting stuck in old
patterns of downloading that put us into the collective space of absencing, our job is to bring ourselves
back on track by realigning our attention with our intention. There are many mindfulness and other
practices that strengthen that capacity.
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Tool: Mindfulness Practice

This practice can be read aloud for another person or a group, or you can reference it for yourself:
First, be comfortable in your seat. Sit upright and comfortably in your chair, planting your feet right in front
of you. Take a deep breath and relax. You may want to close your eyes. But if you're more comfortable
with your eyes open that's also fine.
Attend Downwards
● Move your attention slowly downwards, down your legs to your feet to the lower part of your feet.
And as you begin to attend to your feet, the feeling of your feet, attend to the connection
downwards.
● Imagine if we were trees, we would have roots going downwards. As human beings, we don't
have these physical roots, but we still can feel the connection downwards.
● Attend to your feet and attend to the connection downwards. Imagine this connection would go all
the way down to the middle of the earth. Feel that connection.
Attend Upwards
● And now slowly move your attention upwards, up the legs, up the spine to the head, to the upper
part of your head.
● Attend to the upper part of your head, and attend to the connection that is extending upwards.
● As you attend to that connection, notice how the sphere, the globe of your head is a small
microcosm of the macrocosm that is surrounding us.
● Attend to that connection. Attend to the connection upwards.
Attend to the Micro-Macro Connection.
● And now slowly move your attention downwards to the middle sphere of your body to your heart.
Not just to your physical heart, but to the whole energy field of your heart, to the whole middle
sphere of your body.
● Notice how it is this part of our body, this part of our being that allows us to connect horizontally to
all the beings that are surrounding us.
● Attend to your heart and attend to the connections that are emanating from your heart.
Attend to a Loved One
● And now as we explore that space of connection, picture a person that you truly love, and notice
how focusing your attention on that person is opening up your heart. It's allowing you to connect
with a different level of energy, to connect with deep appreciation and love.
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Attend to the Global Body
● And now extend that quality of connection to the global community (to all u.lab participants) to
connect to a larger whole that shares a common journey of relating more deeply with the sources
of who we really are.
● Extend your heart, and the quality of your heart, to our entire community.
● And now even extend the quality of your heart even more, to all of us, to all 7 billion human
beings on this planet right now.
● Try to embrace a whole community, the whole, the entire social field in that deep quality of your
heart, which includes all our friends, people we know, people we don't know, and even people we
may have problems with, we may disagree with, we may be in conflict with. Try to create a space
in your heart that's broad and deep enough for all of us.
Attend to the Present Moment
● And now slowly let go of that. Come back to the here and now. Relax for a brief moment. Open
your eyes and continue your day from this place of strength and connection.
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Tool: Field of the Future Journaling Practice

Overview
Guided journaling leads participants through a self-reflective process following the different phases of the
U. This practice allows participants to access deeper levels of self-knowledge, and to connect this
knowledge to concrete actions.
Purpose
Guided journaling leads practitioners through a process of self-reflection that moves through the U-
process. This process allows participants to step into a deeper level of reflection than in an un-guided
journaling process, and identify concrete action steps. Journaling practices can be used in all phases of
the U-process especially during the sensing and presencing steps.
Principles
● Journaling is a personal process. If you’re facilitating this for others, it’s important that you never
require participants to share their journaling notes in public.
● For facilitators: after completing a journaling practice you may create an opportunity to reflect on
the experience of journaling. Again: emphasize that participants decide what they want to share.
● Journaling means that you write to find out what you think, rather than thinking, reflecting and
then writing. As a facilitator, emphasize that participants should just start writing and see what
emerges.
Uses & Outcomes

● Access deeper levels of self-reflection & knowledge
● Learn how to use Journaling as a reflective tool
● Connect self-reflection to concrete action steps
Process
Set Up
People & Place

● Journaling Practice can be used in groups of any size. The exercise follows the co-sensing phase
meaning that participants have already moved through the left side of the U-Process.
● It is important that the room is quiet and no noises or other distractions in the environment
interrupt the participants.
Time
● A minimum of 45 minutes is required. Depending on the context this process can take up to 60-90
min.
Materials
● Pen and paper for each participant
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Sequence
Step 1: Preparation
Prepare a quiet space that allows each participant to enter into a process of self-reflection without
distractions.
Step 2: Guided Journaling Questions

Read one question after the other; invite the participants to journal, guided by the respective question. Go
one by one through the questions. Move to the next question when you sense that the majority of the
group is ready. Don’t give participants too much time. It is important to get into a flow and not to think too
much.
A 16-step Journaling Practice For Stepping Into The Field Of The Future
1. Over the past days and weeks, what did you notice about your emerging self and what is wanting to
be born?
2. What did you notice about what is wanting to be born in your context or community?
3. Frustration: What about your current work and/or personal life frustrates you the most?
4. Happiness: What about your current work and life inspires and energizes you the most?
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5. Helicopter I: Watch yourself from above (as if in a helicopter). What are you doing? What are you
trying to do in this stage of your professional and personal journey?
6. Helicopter II: Watch your collective journey from above: what are you trying to do collectively in the
present stage of your collective journey?
7. Your younger self: Look at your current situation from the viewpoint of you as a young person, at the
beginning of your journey: What does that young person have to say to you?
8. Footprint: Imagine you could fast-forward to the very last moments of your life, when it is time for you to
pass on. Now look back on your life’s journey as a whole. What would you want to see at that
moment? What footprint do you want to leave behind on the planet?
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9. From that future point of view: What advice have you given to your current self?
10. Now return again to the present and crystallize what it is that you want to create: your vision and
intention for the next 3-5 years. What vision and intention do you have for yourself and your work?
What are some essential core elements of the future that you want to create in your personal,
professional, and social life? Describe or draw as concretely as possible the images and elements
that occur to you.
11. Feel the connection of our global u.lab community that is present across the planet in this moment:
What is our collective highest future possibility? What could we be an instrument for? What could we
collectively create within the next 3-5 years?
12. Letting-go: What would you have to let go of in order to bring your vision into reality? What is the old
stuff that must die? What is the old skin (behaviors, assumptions, etc.) that you need to shed?
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13. Letting-come: Where do you find the seeds of tomorrow in your context and environment NOW?
14. Prototyping: Over the next three months, if you were to prototype a microcosm of the future in which
you could discover “the new” by doing something, what would that prototype look like?
15. People: Who can help you make your highest future possibilities a reality? Who might be your core
helpers and partners?
16. Action: If you were to take on the project of bringing your intention into reality, what practical first
steps would you take over the next 3 days?
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Self to Self Letter

Take a moment and contemplate the following questions.
What is it that is wanting to be born:
● Within yourself?
● Within your relationships?
● Within your community?
Re-visit what you experienced during the Stepping Into the Field of the Future exercise.
● What advice did you give yourself?

● What footprint do you want to leave behind?
● What practical steps could take you into this direction and allow you to learn by doing now?
● Who are your key partners in this?
● What is it that you could do every single day that could re-align your attention with the deeper
intention that you are holding for your journey forward?
Now, write a Self to self letter (from your emerging future Self to your current self) that captures the
essence of your responses to these questions. What small next step would you like to commit to now?
Empathy Walk at Home

Sometimes the presencing experience (letting go, letting come) can leave you feeling groundless. One
way to shift your attention from what's happening inside to what's happening around you is to return to the
practice of listening. The Empathy Walk at Home is the same exercise you did in Module 1, only this time
your empathy walk will be with a significant other, family member, or someone else who is close to you. If
you are practicing social distancing, see if you can go on a walk with somebody you live with; otherwise,
practice caution and keep an appropriate distance or, if it's necessary, simply practice the Empathy Walk
with a video call.
The point of the Empathy Walk at Home is to apply the same type of empathic (Level 3) and generative
(Level 4) listening that you practiced with a complete stranger - someone very different from you - only
now, with someone who you know very well. If you're thinking: well that sounds even harder! You're right.
It usually is.
When you do your Empathy Walk at home, you may want to start by watching one of these clips together
with your partner before beginning the conversation.
● Watch the Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech (2005)

● Watch Brene Brown's TED Talk on the Power of Vulnerability (2010)
If you can, plan to spend several hours together. If you don't have that kind of time, just spend as much
time as you can. Try to listen to this person with the same quality of open mind and open heart that you
accessed last week, when you met a stranger (or someone you didn't know well). Notice how often you
find yourself listening at Level 1.
Try to suspend your assumptions and judgments and get into this person’s world enough to get a feel for
what it would be like to be them. How you go about this, what you say , what kind of time you actually
spend, etc. is all up to you. There are no rules or guidelines. Be creative. The idea here is to get away
from your computer, go out into the world, and practice empathy, relationship building and your deep
listening skills.
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Crystallizing
Principles
Oftentimes, the first thing that happens after a presencing experience is: nothing. No-thing. It’s just a
connection. But, when we succeed in keeping alive that connection to our deeper source of knowing, we
begin to better tune into emerging future possibilities. Acting now, from a different place or sphere, we are
able to begin to operate from a different source. We envision, prototype, and embody the new.
The term presencing can be used as either a noun or a verb and designates the connection to the deeper
source of self and knowing. But because we keep that connection alive across the whole right-hand side
of the U, we can say that we keep presencing (connecting and operating from source) throughout our
entire journey. The term crystallizing designates the first stage of that process. What's important in this
stage is:
1. You actively maintain the connection to source.

2. You take small, concrete actions to operate from that source and learn what it wants you to do.
3. You notice whether you're reverting back to downloading. You might experience judgment,
cynicism or fear around this new connection. That's normal. Just stay with it.
Resources
Dialogue on Leadership: A Conversation with Otto and Ken Wilber: To help explain the often-
misunderstood transition from presencing to crystallizing, we would like to share an interview Otto did in
2003 with the writer and philosopher Ken Wilber. You can download the PDF here. Pay particular
attention to the description, on page 5, of how Ken articulates the process of "calling forth the future and
embodying it."
Moving From Sensing to Presencing to Crystallizing: The following excerpt comes from Presence (Senge,
Scharmer, Jaworski, Flowers, 2004). The full book is available on Amazon.
Not all visions are equal. Some never get beyond the "motherhood and apple pie" stage - good
ideas that unleash no energy for change. Others transform the world. "There is nothing more
powerful than an idea whose time has come," said Victor Hugo one hundred and fifty years ago.
Yet, the power Hugo refers to remains elusive, carefully guarded by a paradox: there's nothing
more personal than a vision, yet the visions that ultimately prove transformative have nothing to
do with us as individuals.
The resolution of this paradox comes from the transformation of will that starts as we move
through the bottom of the U. The seeds for this transformation lie in seeing our reality more
clearly, without preconceptions and judgments. When we learn to see our part in creating things
that we don't like but that are likely to continue, we can begin to develop a different relationship
with our "problems." We're no longer victims. When we move further, from sensing to presencing,
we become open to what might be possible, and we're inevitably led to the question "So what do
we want to create?" But the "we" in this statement is the larger "we." The visions that arise out of
genuine presencing come from "the field knowing itself," a spontaneous expression of discovering
the power to shape our reality and our responsibility to an emerging future. As we begin to move
up from the bottom of the U, this larger intention becomes accessible to us.
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By contrast, many visions are doomed from the outset because those who articulate them,
whether consciously or not, are coming from a place of powerlessness. If we believe that
someone else has created our present reality, what is the basis for believing that we can create a
different reality in the future? In terms of the theory of the U, the problem with most attempts to
formulate visions is that they occur "too far up the left side of the U." When this happens, people
formulate visions that are disconnected from a shared understanding of present reality and a
sense of shared responsibility for that reality. If people are still externalizing their problems, they
create, in a sense, "externalized visions," which amount to a kind of change strategy for fixing
problems which they have not yet seen their part in creating. Only when people begin to see from
within the forces that shape their reality and to see their part in how those forces might evolve
does vision become powerful. Everything else is just a vague hope.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on Crystallizing

Below, we offer answers to questions people commonly have about crystallizing.
How is crystallizing different from a normal visioning process?
Crystallizing means clarifying vision and intention from our highest future possibility. The difference
between crystallizing and the normal visioning process is this: crystallizing happens from the deeper
place of knowing and self, while visioning can happen from just about any place, even from the place of
downloading. In our definition, if your will or action comes out of yesterday's habits, you're not moving
from presencing into crystallizing. But when you begin to connect with and act from a bigger sense of self
- a sense of what's emerging - you know you're on the right path.
My group went through the presencing process together. How do we know if we're ready to move to
crystallizing?
After a moment of stillness or presencing, in groups, you can notice a subtle shift in identity and a
different foundation for working together and moving forward. Up to this point, we have only felt the
possibility of a future. After a presencing moment or encounter, people are now poised to bring this
individual and collective potential into reality. “We can’t not do it.” The first step in this journey is to
crystallize the vision and intention more clearly. We put into specific language what it is that we want to
create.
What is the connection between crystallizing and prototyping?
Crystallizing means to stay connected to Source and to slowly clarify the vision and intention going
forward. As we do this, our image of the future keeps evolving. Then we need to take this process of
bringing the new into reality to its next level by enacting living examples or prototypes of the future that
we want to create.
43
Module 4: Co-Creating
Prototyping Principles
Having established a connection to the source (presencing) and having clarified a sense of the future that
wants to emerge (crystallizing), the next stage in the U process is to explore the future by doing
(prototyping). Prototyping is the first step in exploring the future by doing and experimenting.
Chapter 13 (free download) of Theory U offers an important theoretical underpinning for the type of
prototyping process we teach in u.lab. This chapter will help you make connections between examples
we presented in Module 2, the emphasis in presencing and crystallizing on stillness and connecting to
source, and the action-oriented principles of prototyping.
The single most important thing to do in the prototyping phase of the U is to develop, create, and test your
prototype in whatever format you choose to do so. A plan is not a prototype. A prototype is something you
do that generates feedback from others that then helps you to evolve your idea. So long as it's an action
that generates feedback, no prototype is too small.
In this module, you'll go through a three-step prototyping process: you'll start by watching the prototyping
principle videos and answering a few reflecting questions. You'll then use the 3D mapping practice to
construct a physical model of your idea, initiative or systems change project. You'll then return to the
reflection questions and consider how your answers have evolved. The whole process is relatively quick
and can be completed in 1-2 hours.
44
Tool: 3D Mapping
Overview
3D Mapping is a tool we use to bring multiple dimensions and perspectives to understanding how an idea,
initiative or system might evolve.
The power of the practice lies in working with your hands, rather than only thinking about your current
situation and how it might evolve. Trusting the knowledge of your hands, you're less likely revert back to
habitual ways of thinking about the present and imagining the future and more likely to discover new ways
forward.
Process
Set Up
People & Place
3D Mapping can be done individually or with a team. When working collectively, team size ideally consists
of 5-8 people. To respect social distancing guidelines, a team can do the 3D Mapping exercise online.
Time
Individually, the process will take about an hour. As a team, allow 2 hours for the process and debrief.
You will also need time to obtain materials and for set-up.
Supplies
See 3D Mapping Workshop Materials (below)
Roles
● If you are doing this individually, skip ahead to the next section. If you are working as a team:
● One Facilitator/Scribe from the core team
● 5-8 people max per-group (including facilitator). Multiple groups of 5-8 can do 3D modeling at the
same time.
Sequence
Step I: Reflect on Vision, Intention and Core Team
Before you begin mapping current reality, spend a few minutes to reflect on the following questions which
build upon the first two prototyping principles. Record your reflections in a journal or on a piece of paper:
Crystallize vision and intention:
● What is wanting to be born in my life and work right now?

● What future stands in need of me to come into reality?
● What questions have energy for me now?
● What questions is my prototype seeking to explore?
45
Form a core team:
● Who could help me most to bring my intention into reality?

● Starting small and then broadening the circle, who could be my
○ Core team?
○ Core holding group?
○ Supporting network?
Step II: Map Current Reality
As a team (or individually), use the materials you’ve obtained to form a model that represents current
reality and includes a seed of the emerging future possibility you want to be in service of. Each object in
the model will represent a different element, quality (inner or outer) or stakeholder of the system. Let your
hands create the model (don’t overthink it). Create your model in about 10-15 minutes if working
individually or in pairs.
For teams: if working online, designate one team member (who has a good camera setup) as the team’s
map holder. As the map holder places objects onto the table, they can discuss with the other team
members what the object represents. Other team members can then take turns instructing the map holder
to move objects into place. If working in person, team members can instead each name and add
elements to the model. Either way, add and move elements one person at a time to get into a co-creative
flow as the process unfolds. Include: inner and outer realities, internal and external stakeholders, and
your own roles. The process should take 25-30 minutes if working as a team.
Step III: Reflection from Different Directions
Walk around the model and reflect on it from different directions. If you’re working in a team, the
facilitator/scribe reads aloud the following questions and captures key data points on a flipchart for the
group. If you’re working alone, keep this worksheet with you and read the following questions to yourself.
“0.8”: The Seed Idea For My Prototype
● What do I love about this model?

● Where do I see the seeds of future possibility around which I could quickly create a prototype that
allows me to explore the future by doing?
● How might others feel about this situation?
Platforms And Spaces (Soil)
● What are the essential relationships (connections or separations) between the parts and what
feelings do these relationships generate?
● How can I / we create collaborative platforms and generative holding spaces that provide a fertile
‘soil’ for my ‘seed’ idea to grow and evolve?
Listen To The Universe
● What are the key messages I / we’re hearing from the various stakeholders?
● What is the real need my prototype is aiming to address?
● What are the most important barriers or bottlenecks that, if removed, could help the current
system to evolve?
Integrating Head, Heart And Hand
● Where do the different sources of power lie in this system?

● What do you sense as the highest future potential that is being called for in this situation?
● For the highest future potential to land, what is mine / ours to do?
46
Step IV: Sense and Co-Shape The Emerging Future
● Now change the model so that it better represents the emerging future you want to be in service
of. If you’re working with a team, do this together.
● Begin with a moment of intentional stillness. For a minute or two, just gaze at the model in light of
this question: What highest future possibility is trying to manifest / is trying to be born?
● Then, after a couple of minutes, silently move into a process of modifying the model so that it
better represents the future that you want to co-shape. Teams can do this collectively.
Step V: Harvest and Capture Key Insights
(For teams: a scribe can capture the essential points on the flipchart)
Reflect on the Key Differences between Model 1 and 2
● What are the most important structural differences between model 1 and 2?
● What key intervention shifted the old structure (model 1) into the new (model 2)?
● What did you do first? What was the first significant change that you undertook?
Step VI: Vision, Intention and Core Team
Reflect on how the modeling experience is further crystallizing or modifying your vision and intention, and
also your definition of the core team. Refer back to what you wrote in your journal before beginning the
3D mapping practice. Update your entries as needed.
Crystallize vision and intention:
● What is wanting to be born in my life and work right now?

● What future stands in need of me /us to come into reality?
● What questions have energy for me now?
● How can I / we clarify and evolve the questions that my prototype seeks to explore?
Form a core team:
● Who could help me most to bring my intention into reality?

● Starting small and then broadening the circle, who could be my
○ Core team?
○ Core holding group?
○ Supporting network?
Step VII: Actions
What actions can I plan in the next 3-5 days to explore the future by doing? For ideas, refer back to what
you did first (Step V).
47
Module 5: Co-Evolving
In this module, you will continue iterating and begin co-evolving your prototype.
We all know about many episodes and stories of great transformational change and breakthrough. But at
the end of the day they remain merely that: episodes. Sooner or later the larger system snaps back into
the old way of operating. It's less common for transformational episodes to spread like wildfire across the
remaining system. Why is that? That is the question we will explore in this module.
Imagine your prototype as a seed of the emerging future. For it to develop and evolve, you need to attend
to the quality of the soil in the social field. The core content in Module 5 will cover the principles and
practices that have proven helpful in creating conditions to co-evolve a prototype, as well as "four
distractions" that can interfere with your most essential practice - which is being present now.
The Quality of the Soil

For those interested in going deeper into the phenomena of social fields, Otto’s HuffPost article “The
Blind Spot: Uncovering the Grammar of the Social Field” is a good starting point.
48
The Four Distractions
Distraction #1: The past
When our attention and thinking is

trapped in regrets of what
happened yesterday, replaying
conflicts, thinking about “what I
could have said or should have
said”, or what others could have
said, we get stuck in the past. We
are drawn away from the sources
of what’s wanting to emerge. When
this happens, it’s important to
cultivate the capacity to lean in to
the past; to attend to the past in a
way that keeps sight of our own
sources, of our own role in what
happened yesterday.
Distraction #2: The future
When we worry about tomorrow, we lose our connection to the present moment - which is the only
opportunity we have to connect with reality. The past is gone. The future is not here yet. The only way to
shift how reality unfolds is to connect with the present moment. The antidote here is to cultivate the
capacity for sensing and leaning into the unknown, the space of possibility around us that is wanting to
emerge, or that could happen.
Distraction #3: Them
When we get caught in a mindset that sees other people as the source of all our problems, we locate the
source of all issues outside ourselves. In doing so, we lose our agency to create change. The antidote
here is deep listening and deep dialogue. That is what in u.lab we call the third and fourth level of
listening. These ways of listening allows us to connect to others in a way that dissolves the boundary
separating us (or me) from them.
Distraction #4: Me
The opposite of #3 is the mindset that it’s all about me: being overly consumed and absorbed by what
may happen to me in this situation or that situation. To overcome this distraction, we apply the same kind
of connection described above, to ourselves. What do we call this quality of connection? That's what we
call mindfulness or paying attention to our attention. That really is, in a nutshell, the u.lab curriculum. The
case clinics, empathy walks, journaling practices and all other tools are designed to help you connect
more directly to the present moment, to not be overly distracted by the past or present, by others or
yourself, and to instead stay connected to what’s wanting to emerge around you, and through you.
49
Principles for Leading From the Emerging Future
1. Practice don’t preach

Use the listening assessment tool daily and/or spend four minutes each
evening reviewing when during the day you engaged in listening 3 (open
mind and heart) and listening 4 (open mind, heart, and will). If you cannot
identify a single instance of deep listening, take note of that too. If you do
this exercise for a month, your effectiveness as a listener will rise
dramatically – without a single dollar spent on further training or coaching.
All it takes is the discipline to focus on that four-minute review process
every single day.
2. Be a black belt observer and listener

Take four minutes each evening and review the day as if you are looking
at yourself from outside. Pay attention to how you interacted with others
and what other people wanted you to do or suggested that you do. Do
this non-judgmentally. Just observe. Over time, you will develop an
internal observer that allows you to look at yourself from someone else’s
point of view.
3. Connect to intention, operate as an instrument

Peter Senge and Robert Fritz, composer, filmmaker and organizational
consultant, devised this practice, which is called the Creative Tension
Exercise. In its classical form, it works as a guided meditation in three
steps:
1. Ask: “What do I want to create?”

2. Then ask: “What does the current reality look like by contrast?
3. Then picture both images together (e.g., as a split screen) and
note the creative tension between the responses.
We have found it useful to modify this exercise slightly in the U context in

this way: during the first step, focus on the future state of your journey—
and on what the emerging future is calling you to do. During the second
step, do not only concentrate on how the current reality differs from your
desired future, but try to also figure out where in today’s reality you find
the seed elements of the future. Then, in the third step, picture the
creative tension in a three-dimensional space. Move between the poles.
Go into the seed elements (with your mind and heart), attend to the
cultivation of their soil and evolve with them toward the desired future
state, and return from there to current reality, and so forth.
50
4. Be fully present when reality (the crack) opens

The most important practice at this stage is listening. Listening not only to
your inner voice but also to what other people around you really tell you.
Once you sense the invitation to your calling – once a “messenger“

shows up with an invitation to something you can’t not do – respond with
“yes“ first and only later figure out how to do it (follow your feeling first,
then bring in your rational mind).
5. Do what you love, love what you do

The road to accessing one’s creativity includes the stages of:
1. Nothing much happening

2. Boredom
3. Noticing an impulse that emerges from around or within yourself
4. Staying with it
5. Moving with it to bring it into reality “as it desires“ (Buber)
It is difficult to learn how to do these things when you are managed by a

tight system of exterior activities, rewards, and controls. The same goes
for companies: much of the corporate motivational and reward system is
more dysfunctional than helpful because it imposes a culture of reward-
driven behavior rather than a culture of doing the right things because
they are right.
So the practice here is about creating environments that allow people to

do what they love and love what they do. Both things are important. Love
what you do; fully appreciate what life offers you. Do what you do with
love – and you will be amazed what life gives back.
6. Dialogue with the Universe

Here is a practice that may help you connect to a larger perspective:
1. Take three minutes at the end of each day to write down the
suggestions the world has made to you during the day without
judging them as good or bad.
2. Write one or two core questions that follow from these
observations and that relate to current challenges in your work.
3. The next morning, take five or ten minutes to write down the
ideas that come to mind regarding the core questions (and
observations) you put on paper the night before. Go with the flow
of writing when a stream of ideas comes through.
4. Complete the journaling by exploring the possible next steps:
What would it take to further investigate/test/prototype these
possibilities?
51
7. Create a Level 4 holding space

Many years often lie between forming an initial idea and finally moving it
into action, bringing it into reality.
So what does it take to survive that period? It takes a handful of people

who know and support you and who hold similar intentions.
The practice here has to do with forming and maintaining your initial
holding space, the handful of people who connect with your intention and
provide you with the staying power to keep going.
8. Balance talking and doing

Morning Practices:
Rise early (before others do), go to a place of silence that works for you
(a place in nature is great, but you also may find other places that work
for you), and allow your inner knowing to emerge.
Use a ritual that connects you with your source: this can be a meditation,
prayer, or simply an intentional silence that you enter into with an open
heart and open mind.
Remember what it is that has brought you to the place in life where you
are right now: Who is your Self? What is your Work? What are you here
for?
Make a commitment to what it is that you want to be in service of. Focus

on the outcome that you want to serve (the larger whole). Focus on what
you want to accomplish (or be in service of) on this day that you are
beginning right now.
Feel the appreciation that you are given the opportunity to live the life that
you have right now. Empathize with all of those who have never had all of
the opportunities that led you to the place you are now. Feel the
responsibility that comes with those opportunities, the responsibility that
you have to others, to all other beings, to all of nature—even to the
universe.
Ask for help so that you don’t lose your way or get sidetracked. Your way
forward is a journey that only you can discover. The essence of that
journey is a gift that can come into the world only through you, your
presence, your best future self. But you can’t do it alone. That’s why you
ask for help.
52
9. Identify the crack

Go on a learning journey to explore the crack—the opening to the
future—where the current system hits a wall that requires profound new
ways of operating.
In exploring that institutional or systemic crack, look for individuals that on
the one hand are relevant problem owners of the challenge and on the
other hand bring the quality of heart for exploring emerging possibilities.
10. Use different language with different stakeholders

This really starts with your own context. Pick your various key
stakeholders and have a dialogue conversation in which you put yourself
into their shoes and look at your own role from their point of view.
Before each interview, take your moment of stillness and intention-setting
to open up. Here is a set of four questions that people who come into new
organizational leadership roles have used to sense their context (modify
questions as needed):
● What is your most important objective, and how can I help you
realize it? (What do you need me for?)
● What criteria will you use to assess whether my contribution to
your work has been successful?
● If I were able to change two things in my area of responsibility
within the next six months, what two things would create the most
value and benefit for you?
● What, if any, historical tensions and/or systemic barriers have
made it difficult for people in my role or function to fulfill your
requirements and expectations? What is it that is getting into our
way?
11. Be open to being changed first

Without the capacity to suspend your Voice of Judgment, all efforts to get
inside the place of most potential will be in vain.
Suspending your VOJ means shutting down (or embracing and changing)
the habit of judging based on the experiences and patterns of the past, in
order to open up a new space of exploration, inquiry, and wonder.
Take an object (such as a seed) or a situation and observe with undivided
attention for at least five minutes.
When you notice your mind wandering to other ideas or thoughts, correct
your course and return to the task of pure observation.
53
12. Co-initiate through local leadership from the heart

Checklist for co-initiating or sparking common intention among diverse
core players:
● An intention to serve the evolution of the whole.

● Trust your “heart’s intelligence“ when connecting with people or
exploring possibilities that may seem unrelated to the strategic
issue at hand. Be open-minded to other ways of framing the real
issue or opportunity (different key stakeholders will emphasize
different aspects and variables).
● Connect with people professionally and personally: try to connect
with their highest future sense of purpose (Self and Work), not
just with their institutional role and responsibility.
● Include, when convening a core group meeting, executive
sponsors and key decision makers who have a deep professional
and personal interest in exploring and shaping the opportunity.
● Include inspired activists in the core group: people who would
give life and soul to make it work. Without this personal passion
and commitment, nothing radically new will ever come into being.
● Include people with little or no voice in the current system.
● Include a competent support team (to the degree necessary) to
build an enabling infrastructure
● Shape place, and context to convene this constellation of people
for co-inspiring the way forward.
13. Use sensing journeys to help see system from the edges, and
collective sensing mechanisms to see system from the whole
Ask yourself: Given the sense of the future that you want to create, what
are the people and places of most potential that could teach you most
about that future and how to make it work?
Deep-dive journeys are usually best when conducted one-on-one or in

small groups of up to about five people. They work through the practices
of shadowing, dialogue conversations, and if possible, in ongoing
activities.
The preparation and debriefing are done in a disciplined, structured, and

timely fashion. Each team member of a deep-dive journey keeps a
journal, and each team has a camera and web space for real-time
documentation and cross-team sharing. To speed up the process, the
teams should also receive both strategic and operational support in
setting up their learning journeys.
54
14. Hold spaces that support the leadership team at the top and
emerging leaders
Here is a checklist for a foundation workshop, the kickoff event that for
the first time convenes all the prototyping team members and connects
them with the core group of champions that initiated and is sponsoring
the project initiative. As always, there is more than one possible design
that can make the foundation workshop a success. But this checklist of
desired outcomes may be useful for testing the design you come up with.
To create focus and commitment, clarify:
● What: what you want to create

● Why: why it matters
● How: the process that will get you there
● Who: the roles and responsibilities of the players involved
● When, where: the road map forward
Additional goals:
● Uncover common ground by sharing the context and story that

brought us here.
● Spark inspiration for the future that the team wants to create.
● Use “Mini-training“ in dialogue interviews and deep-dive best
practices.
● Plan the action for deep-dive journeys: by identifying core people,
organizations, and contexts that need to be explored and visited
(a target list of the places with the most potential).
● Give people an experience that embodies a first feel of the future
that the project wants to create.
55
15. Prototype the new by acting from the now

Just as the inner enemies on the way down the U deal with the VOJ
(Voice of Judgment), VOC (Voice of Cynicism), and VOF (Voice of Fear),
the enemies on the way up the U are the three old ways of operating:
● Executing without improvisation and mindfulness

(blind action-ism)
● Endless reflection without a will to act
(analysis paralysis) and
● Talking, talking without a connection to Source and action (blah-
blah-blah)
The three enemies share the same structural feature: instead of

balancing the intelligence of the head, heart, and hand, one of the three
dominates (the head in endless reflection, the heart in endless
networking, the will in mindless action). A practice that accesses this
deeper source of intelligence would integrate four activities:
1. Focusing (clarifying intention)

2. Total immersion in the task at hand
3. Breaking the flow, switching context, relaxing, and paying
attention to what emerges (shifting the locus of attention)
4. Noticing, staying with, and following the spark that begins to
emerge – and then prototyping it quickly (iterate, iterate, iterate).
16. Co-evolve the system by using prototypes as seeds, linking

micro and macro…
The process of prototyping strategic microcosms is itself a mini U that
starts with: clarifying intention; forming a task team; taking deep dives to
connect to and engage with other practitioners, partners, and places that
matter; returning and sharing everything that has been learned; reflecting
and listening to the inner sources of inspiration and knowing; jointly
crystallizing the immediate next step; and then going back to involve
other players in the practical next steps forward. The trick is to move
through the U not once, but many times, maybe even daily.
17. Never give up - you are not alone

Share your questions and connect with others who are on a similar
journey of transforming institutions, society, and self.
56

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u.

Why are we offering this course – and this book – now?

Enjoy the u.lab Source Book!

– The u.lab team

September 2020 - Version 4

u.school for Transformation

My most important challenge right now is…

u.lab will be a success for me when…

The iceberg model suggests that beneath

The Iceberg Model: Reflection Questions

The Iceberg Model: Paradigms of Economic Thought

Leading through Listening: Reflection

Theory U: Six Principles

3. This three-stage process only works if we cultivate the inner instruments:

Tool: Case Clinic

Uses & Outcomes

● Groups of 4-5 peers

● A minimum of 70 minutes is required

● The handout of the process

Timekeeper: One of the coaches manages the time.

Step Time Activity

1 2 min Select case giver and time keeper

2 15 min Intention statement by case giver

5 20 min Generative dialogue

6 8 min Closing remarks

7 2 min Individual journaling to capture the learning points

Tool: Empathy Walk

Tool: Listening Assessment

Tool: Sensing Journey

These Learning Journeys allow participants to:

● Move into unfamiliar environments

Uses & Outcomes

● The different perspectives of the system’s key stakeholders

Prepare as a group by discussing:

● What is the context that we will experience?

Example questions for sensing journeys:

Here are a few sample questions for the debriefing:

● What was most surprising or unexpected?

Structure of the whole group debrief meeting:

Tool: Stakeholder Interviews

Uses & Outcomes

● 30-45 minutes for a phone interview.

Social Presencing Theater: 20 Minute Dance

Uses & Outcomes

People & Place

Moving through space

Continue the practice

Social Presencing Theater: Stuck Exercise

Uses & Outcomes

People & Place

Show movement from Sculpture 1 to Sculpture 2

Social Presencing Theater: 4D Mapping

Roles & Space

● Where did movement begin in Sculpture 1?

You might also reflect on the following questions:

Step out of roles

Tool: Mindfulness Practice

Attend to the Micro-Macro Connection.