We have no choice but to go into the future, and deal with whatever the future may bring. But our only experience is in the past. We use this experience to build the future, but this may not be the best way.
Mike Bagshaw, Development Director of Trans4mation, went to the Shambhala Institute in Nova Scotia, and brought back profound new research for sensing the future as it emerges. He presented this at the 2005 Midlands Excellence Conference in Birmingham, and the plaudits are coming in thick and fast.
Otto Scharmer has created a model for the process of escaping the trammels of the past, and sensing the future as it emerges.
Scharmer calls the first stage downloading. When you download from a computer, you take the material as it is, with all ideas and images intact. When you download from your mind, you keep all your old ideas and views of the world exactly as they are. This may be the most comfortable way to proceed, as it involves no new thinking or change of plan. It may also be the way to lose everything that can be gained from change. Good leadership will enable people to let the old go, and let the new come.
To move into the future, you need to let go of the preconceptions that lock you into the past. We need to try to see things from different perspectives. Having a diverse team helps here, as it inevitably presents a variety of views. We need to direct our attention outwards, and try to get a sense of the whole situation.
This means putting our old beliefs on one side, while we listen actively and absorb what others are saying. We can’t do this in an instant. We need time to retreat and reflect, and to let the new perspectives grow within us. Scharmer calls this phase “presencing.” This is bringing the present into the future. It can also be pronounced “pre-sensing,” – sensing what is to come. The eastern philosophies of meditation can help us here, in that time spent in reflection helps us to consolidate what we are learning. But we need the input of other people, so group work and dialogue are important.
Scharmer calls the next phase “crystallisation.” From this, a new vision is born. This vision will not be perfect. We need to form prototypes, test them out, engage in more dialogue, and make adjustments. Once we find a shared vision of the future, we need to embed it in future practice and make it happen.
This is not the end of the process. Radical new visions can become accepted wisdom, and then grow old and out of date. They may meanwhile get ingrained in the system, so that the inspiration of the past is a stumbling block for the new. We need to reassess our beliefs, invite new perspectives, and be prepared to overthrow what has gone before. We will always be at the point where the future is just about to happen.
Mike Bagshaw will be running open programmes on ‘Transformational Leadership for Innovation and Change’, in partnership with Nottingham Business School on 17 – 19 July, 25 – 27 September and 27 – 29 November 2005. The two day residential programmes for senior managers focus on leadership development and impact and take place at the Lygon Arms, Broadway. For further details, contact Lucy Biltcliffe, at lucy.biltcliffe@trans4mation.com
To find out more about how we can help with your people investment, please visit www.trans4mation.com or contact:
Nick Cotter
T: +44 (0) 870 606 4400
F: +44 (0) 870 606 4411
nick.cotter@trans4mation.com
PO Box 44
High Street
Evesham
Worcestershire
WR11 4ZJ
