THEORY-U
"Invites us to see the world in new ways"
Strategy and Theory-U
NASA went to the moon in the sixties. Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon showed pictures of the Earth as seen from their spacecraft. "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth". It gave us a new way of looking at our own world.
In a smilar way Theory-U invites us to see the world in new ways. It is both a framework and a method for leading profound change. It has been developed at MIT in Boston by Otto Scharmer and others. In essence the U curve has three important steps:
i. observe, observe, observe (left side of U)
ii. retreat and reflect; (bottom of U)
iii. act in an instant (right side of U)
In the picture below the U-process as used by RAFIKI STRATEGY is visualised in more details:
Moving down the left side of the U is about opening up and dealing with the resistance of thought, emotion, and will; moving up the right side is about intentionally reintegrating the intelligence of the head, the heart, and the hand in the context of practical applications