Dr. C. Otto Scharmer is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges (SoL, 2007). In this new book, Otto expands on the "U" methodology of leading profound change that he first introduced in earlier articles and in the book Presence, with co-authors Peter Senge, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers. As we anticipate Otto's keynote presentation at this year's Pegasus Conference, we invite you to enjoy this excerpt from the introduction of Theory U. In it, he describes the "blind spot," that inner place from which we operate that we must come to understand in order to bring forth the profound systemic changes so needed in business and society today.

The Blind Spot
The blind spot is the place within or around us where our attention and intention originates. It's the place from where we operate when we do something. The reason it's blind is that it is an invisible dimension of our social field, of our everyday experience in social interactions.

This invisible dimension of the social field concerns the sources from which a given social field arises and manifests. It can be likened to how we look at the work of an artist. At least three perspectives are possible:

• We can focus on the thing that results from the creative process; say, a painting.
• We can focus on the process of painting.
• Or we can observe the artist as she stands in front of a blank canvas.

If we apply this artist analogy to leadership, we can look at the leader's work from three different angles. First, we can look at what leaders do. Tons of books have been written from that point of view. Second, we can look at the how, the processes leaders use. That's the perspective we've used in management and leadership research over the past fifteen or twenty years. We have analyzed all aspects and functional areas of managers' and leaders' work from the process point of view. Numerous useful insights have resulted from that line of work. Yet we have never systematically looked at the leaders' work from the third, or blank-canvas, perspective. The question we have left unasked is: "What sources are leaders actually operating from?"

Choose from among 24 diverse concurrent sessions to customize the conference experience to meet your particular needs and interests. A balance of case studies and skill-building opportunities illustrate the power of systems thinking in a wide range of applications.

Some highlights

Uncovering the Source of Phenomenal Results in Hewlett-Packard's Inkjet Division
Anne Murray Allen, AMA Associates; Bob Johnson, Conversant/Storytellers, USA; Greg Merten, HP (ret.)
Can the lessons learned inside Hewlett-Packard's legendary inkjet division be repeated by other organizations willing to follow relationship-based strategies to break from the pack? Leave with an introduction to (or reminder of) the principles that are essential for increasing healthy, phenomenal performance in 21st-century organizations.

Teach Our Students Well: Introducing Systems Principles in the Classroom
Diana M. Fisher and Former Students, Wilson High School, Portland, OR
Are we helping our students think long term, understand how feedback operates in complex systems, and see how our decisions affect our immediate environment? Hear former students talk about the lessons they learned in creating high school-level models of dynamic systems and learn how to introduce modeling into your local schools.

Only You Can Prevent Firefighting: High-Leverage Interventions for Lasting Impact
Michael Goodman, Innovation Associates Organizational Learning; David Stroh, Bridgeway Partners
"Firefighting" cultures that pride themselves on their ability to manage crises typically produce temporary improvements at the expense of sustainable impact. Understand why firefighting breeds "arsonists" and find the leverage points that can help you break out of the firefighting mode.

Sustainable Cascadia: Inside Large-Scale Change
Stephanie Ryan, Offerings Publications, Inc./Whidbey Institute; Sandra Poulson, Sustainable Cascadia/RealTrust Consulting
This six-year, multi-city, multi-stakeholder bioregional initiative is a real-life example of the kind of leverage that is possible when we scale up our definition of the "system" and tackle a societal issue at the appropriate level. Learn how organizers have generated a spiral of participation to convert visions to action.

Generational Synergy: The Alchemy for Dealing with an Uncertain Future
Deborah Gilburg and Alan Gilburg, Gilburg Leadership Institute
Do biased intergenerational assumptions undermine cooperation, trust, and a deeper understanding of the systemic dependencies that exist between age groups in organizations? Apply a powerful model of generational dynamics to build the intergenerational partnerships required to tackle an uncertain future.

Save $400 off your full conference registration
when you register by June 22...

Call us at 1-800-272-0945 to discuss team registration options.

by Vicky Schubert

Whether looking at the forces at work in the spread of diseases such as the Avian Flu or using sophisticated technology to model the causes of "stinkiness" in a campus pond in Nanjing, China, the students participating in this month's DynamiQUEST event located at Worcester Polytechnic Institute were not simply completing a school assignment. A key component of their work was to understand how the results of their investigation might be shared with policy makers or engineers to improve outcomes in a larger context.