Theory U by Otto Scharmer

It's about how groups and organizations can develop leadership capacities to enable the leaders to meet the challenges they will be facing in an increasingly complex and unpredictable future. The journey through the U develops seven essential leadership capacities-

1. Holding the space of listening

The foundational capacity of the U is listening. Listening to others. Listening to oneself. And listening to what emerges from the collective. Effective listening requires the creation of open space in which others can contribute to the whole.

2. Observing

The capacity to suspend the voice of judgment is key to moving from projection to true observation.

3. Sensing

The preparation for the experience at the bottom of the U presencing requires the tuning of three instruments: the open mind, the open heart, and the open will. This opening process is not passive but an active sensing together as a group. While an open heart allows us to see a situation from the whole, the open will enables us to begin to act from the emerging whole.

4. Presencing

The capacity to connect to the deepest source of self and will allows the future to emerge from the whole rather than from a smaller part or special interest group.

5. Crystallizing

When a small group of key persons commits itself to the purpose and outcomes of a project, the power of their intention creates an energy field that attracts people, opportunities, and resources that make things happen. This core group functions as a vehicle for the whole to manifest.

6. Prototyping

Moving down the left side of the U requires the group to open up and deal with the resistance of thought, emotion, and will; moving up the right side requires the integration of thinking, feeling, and will in the context of practical applications and learning by doing.

7. Performing

A prominent violinist once said that he couldn't simply play his violin in Chartres cathedral; he had to 'play' the entire space, what he called the 'macro violin' in order to do justice to both the space and the music. Likewise, organizations need to perform at this macro level: they need to convene the right sets of players (frontline people who are connected through the same value chain) and to engage a social technology that allows a multi-stakeholder gathering to shift from debating to co-creating the new.