#emergingfuture

[sisi66]

What is stirring? What is emerging? . . . . . . #emergingfuture #silviasiretphotography #Abingdon #winter2021 #oxfordshire #bitsofbritain #floods #flooding (at Abingdon Oxford UK) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLEFlZuLV2s/?igshid=r1ot90jcyqr1

[inspiredleader]

How to Embrace the Emerging Future: Insights from Dr. Otto Scharmer

When a crisis hits, what is your response? According to Otto Scharmer, a senior lecturer at MIT and author of "Theory U," there are two options. The first is to freeze, shut down and reject the change. The second is to let go, lean into the unknown and connect with the emerging future.

These two reactions are seen in many situations, but one that Otto mentioned on Visionary Leader, Extraordinary Life this week is the issue of climate change. When faced with this new reality, people frequently fall into these two categories of reaction to change; they freeze and deny that change is happening and that action is needed -- or they take action and seek ways to address the problem. Otto is fascinated by these two human responses -- why does a person react one way rather than the other way? He believes that your reaction is based on several factors and isn't necessarily a predestined decision. "How you react is a choice," he stated.

Rather than basing one's response on events or circumstances, Otto has found that one's response is derived from a sense of self and stability. "The difference is, essentially, one's inner place or awareness. To embrace the emerging future, you must shift the inner place that you operate from so that you can let go and let the change in rather than shut it off." In other words, one's emotional and mental state is very important and influences unconscious decision making and reactions.

Knowing this fact doesn't make it easy to be a leader who must deal with ambiguity and lean into the unknown, embracing an emerging and imminent future.  Why is it so hard to do? According to Otto, there are three "enemies" that get in the way: the voice of judgement, which shuts down an open mind, the voice of cynicism, which shuts down the capacity for empathy and compassion, and the voice of fear. These three enemies, combined with one's inner state influence a person's ability to embrace the future.

For those who do lean into the unknown rather than freeze, it can still be difficult when surrounded by people who don't want to recognize a change. Otto acknowledges this and gives this advice: "Shape something, even on a small scale, to create the reality you want. Partner up, create your own network of people who want to lean that direction. You also want to support yourself with an intentional stillness practice to focus on what is important to you and let go of everything else."

Leadership literally means "to die," as Otto pointed out on the show. He explained,  "The Indo-european root of the word 'leadership' means, essentially, to die -- the ultimate letting go of one world in order to let in another world of whose existence we can't even be sure. It is letting go of the known and putting a foot into the territory of the unknown. It is the courage to let go of the known and lean into the unknown future, but a future that we feel is possible."

To learn more about Otto and his work, click here to listen online or here to download the podcast.