we can lead from the future…and other ideas
Image by Artur Matosyan
This month I am absorbing books such as Theory U Leading from the Future as It Emerges by C. Ottto Scharmer and Lead from the Future How To Turn Visionary Thinking into Breakthrough Growth by Mark W. Johnson and Josh Suskewicz. As I read I am reminded of Dr. Jean Houston’s many workshops where she offers us exercises that step us into our future selves. My favourite exercise she gifts us is making friends with our Entelechy. Here is quote that Jean wrote in 2014, very relevant to our discussion today:
Entelechy is a word that Aristotle used to describe higher guidance and purpose. It is the entelechy of an acorn to be an oak, of a baby to be a grown up human being. Contact entelechy and all circuits are "go." Tune to it and another order of perspective is at hand, one that comprehends the spatial and the temporal, that lifts the Earth of one's seeing into another domain where love rules and the patterns of higher governance are known. Words can not really describe it. Metaphors fritter and fry in the fires of analogy. Entelechy is known in its experience. It is being in the flow. It is cooking on more burners. It is making the highest use of skills one has acquired. It is putting old capacities to work in new ways and discovering capabilities we never knew we had. It is growing the evolutionary organs of our future, transcendent selves. When we live in service to our entelechy, we comprehend the genius of Leonardo, the compassion of Buddha, the social consciousness of Martin Luther King, the word craft of Emily Dickinson. We become actors on the stage of a new story, our personal play a scene in the sacred drama of all times and places. We experience profound joy, a sense of blissful felicity. We enter the domains of the mythic and come face to face with the fullness of what we are. JEAN HOUSTON, 2014
The fact that we have the ability to access our own wisdom in such a simple yet profound way opens up avenues for us to create a life that resonates with passion and is also relevant to the growing needs of our communities. We listen to the intelligence of our bodies and perhaps choose to live within nature. I think this is a first step. One way of achieving this union with our bodies and with nature is through yoga, a complex yet accessible process that incorporates breathwork (pranayama), meditation, and movement (asanas). These three interweave creating a practice that stills the mind so that we can create the life we will be proud of. And we need to step up and be part of the change that we dream of. The world needs courageous and forward-thinking people, aware of the threats that shake the very foundation of our earth. We need to nurture what we have been given. The very first step is to align ourselves with Nature so that we can tune in to what is required. Nature inspires, it motivates, it re-aligns us.
In her book Wild Yoga: A Practice of Initiation, Veneration & Advocacy for the Earth, Rebecca Wildbear suggests that
Nature can inspire our movements, align us with our instincts, initiate us into living our soul’s purpose, and guide us in tending the well-being of all life…Wild Yoga catalyzes our curiosity to explore our dreams and the mysteries of life and to grow our capacities to live in reciprocity with the Earth REBECCA WILDBEAR, 2023
There is a call to turn to Nature in our journey towards healing, not only for ourselves but importantly for the Earth. The purpose of yoga is to become more fully ourselves, and when we combine it with love and understanding of Nature, we begin to change, gently, perhaps slowly at first. We begin to see differently, with open eyes, to hear differently, to feel differently. To then combine this way of being in the world with a deep dive into U Theory, we seek the wisdom of the future, allowing our inner knowing to emerge through suspending belief and letting go, connecting with our heart, and inviting our eye to seek the highest future possibility for the future of the world.
U Theory is used by many researchers and facilitators to create change. It is a creative process that incorporates several steps in its move toward evolution. Rather than creating a future from our past selves, U Theory offers processes whereby we can learn from our future selves.
Here is a straightforward explanation, ‘dreamed-on’ from Re-Imaginary Website (U Theory). I have adapted U Theory and Re-Imaginary’s frame to incorporate 4change’s Rituals of Practice, our creative framework that emerged from my Master of Creative Research and Ph.D and refined through decades of practice:
1. BRIDGING IN: We begin by engaging the group so that we get to know each other and the theme of the workshop. I like to hear everyone’s voice, acknowledge where they are at, and their dreams and expectations. A confidential space, a place of risk and acceptance.
2. OPENING UP THE THEME THAT WE ARE DEALING WITH BY SHIFTING OUR CONSCIOUSNESS: At 4change, we share concepts and ideas from leaders across the world and allow the chosen theme to gently emerge. But first, we shift our level of consciousness, to soften the mind as it moves from everyday chatter to a more resonant zone of openess, curiosity and acceptance. Clear and simple meditation ideas are offered by PositivePsychology website (accessed here Meditation practices).
Some processes we at 4change studios engage in include:
1. Breathwork: (Box Breath, Viloma, Alternate Nostril Breathing)
2. Relaxation prompts (surrending into the floor, relaxing the eyes, jaw, belly, letting go).
3. Guided Imagery and Visualization (I often adapt Dr. Jean Houston’s powerful visualisations to suit the theme we are working on)
4. Loving-kindness Meditation (one of my favourites. simple and profound. More can be found at this link: Headspace meditation)
For a detailed guide to loving kindness meditation please go to Jon Kabat-Zinn and loving meditation
Here is a simple metta meditation:
May I be happy
May I be well
May I be safe
May I be peaceful and at ease
May you be happy
May you be well
May you be safe
May you be peaceful and at ease
May we be happy
May we be well
may we be safe
may we be peaceful and at ease
Once we have stilled the mind, we begin to observe ‘what we don’t know we know’.
This observation phase of U Theory looks at how the individual and the collective sit together. At 4change we begin by sharing the themes of the workshop, including what sits around the chosen theme, for example we take into consideration the impact of social/economic pressures, spiritual beliefs, political landscapes, and cultural influences etc. Once we expand and define our landscape of exploration, we create an art depiction using a selection of art materials By so doing, we are inviting our ‘unknown’ or ‘what we don’t know we know’ to rise to the surface. The art depiction is followed by enthusiastic and strengths-based conversations amongst the group, where we widen our understanding and expand our awareness of multiple persectives, differences, and expectations that surround the theme. We listen with curiosity and enormous interest as we talk about our creative process and what it means. We invite deep listening, bracketing out our own internal dialogue, judgements and criticism and hearing what the group member is expressing through their chosen words, their body language and way of delivery. We look at the depiction, and how it sits on the page, taking into account the textures, shapes, tones, size, colours etc, all contributing to a deeper understanding of the study. We ask questions more than statements, we offer curiosity more than knowing.
3. REFLECTIVE PRACTICE
This is an important component of understanding and ‘dreaming-on’ what is to come: we create a safe, nurturing and non judgemental space where we can be bold in our thinking and sharing as we not only unpack what we have created, but at the same time consider our future self, and what that future self requires in orde to make an impact. We need to connect with a generative awareness which allows even the most outlandish idea a place to be sit for a while. The process that 4change engages in here invariably includes stream of consciousnes writing, where we invite our unknown, or ‘what we don’t know we know’ to usurp our pen, and expand/unfold ideas stirred up by our depiction and conversations. These ideas are resonant with possibility and potential. In the Theory U literature, this phase is called Presencing, where we invite our inner knowledge to emerge through our writing.This inner knowlege is impacted by who we are with in the workshop, as well as things that we have read, heard, watched, experienced and dreamed. Presencing brings our senses alive.
A very clear explanation of this step can be found here: Presencing. The article begins with an explanation from the creator of U Theory, Otto Scharmer:
“Presencing, the blending of sensing and presence, means to connect from the Source of the highest future possibility and to bring it into the now. Presencing happens when our perception begins to happen from the source of our emerging future. The boundaries between three types of presence collapse: the presence of the past (current field), the presence of the future (the emerging field of the future), and the presence of one’s authentic Self. When this co-presence, or merging of the three types of presence, begins to resonate, we experience a profound shift, a change of the place from which we operate”. Chapter 11, Theory U.
I love the distinction he makes between the three types of presence: the presence of the past, the presence of the future and the presence of our authentic selves. When these three presences merge, we then experience a deep awakening to the potential and transformational power of the now.
4. FUTURE ACTION:
The action phase is comprised of creating our new vision, our new intention, with open heart, open mind and open will. This action phase begins to emerge in the conversations that happen after each participant shares their creative writing. We adapt and respond to new information and ideas offered by the group, and this is when we often experience an ‘ah-ha’ moment. A moment of realisation and excitement. We give each other permission (with grace), to ‘steal’ and dream-on’ each others’ ideas.adapting and responding to new information and provocations as they emerge. What are the concrete steps we will take? How will we incorporate this into our present moment?
5. EMBRACING OUR NEW IDEAS (HARVESTING WHAT WE HAVE GROWN) AND BRIDGING OUT:
We must now commit to action. We offer each other a ‘take-away’ moment, where we crystallise what we are growing, and what we wish to harvest. We share our insights and understandings, with the knowledge that the work doesn’t stop at the end of the session. In fact it is just the beginning. Visual journalling and stream of consciousness writing, meditation and yoga are encouraged, so that we grow in our ability to be present, and we also create a library of images and writings, that offer us new perspectives. Presencing doesn’t stop. We are flexing our inner knowing muscles so that we are contantly “touched by the beauty and poetry and mystery that fill our world” (Tara Brach).