Business awareness
Theory U illustrated by its inventor in a book which has now been translated in Italy
A winning business is one that adapts the most and the most rapidly to the changing environment.But it is also the one that manages to be different – in a positive way – from others. Organisation and method are required. The task of entrepreneurs and shrewd managers. And a task that can be facilitated with conscious management and organisation. Reading “Teoria U. I fondamentali. Principi e applicazioni” (The essentials of Theory U. Core principles and applications) by Otto C. Scharmer can be a good thing to change the “tone” of a business.
Otto Scharmer’s Theory U is considered one of the most widely appreciated methods in what is referred to as contemporary change management, i.e. in the management of companies that need to evolve rapidly in order to respond effectively to change.Substantially Theory U tries to answer the question: how can our companies and our organisations learn to see and co-create emerging possibilities in the contexts in which they operate?Or rather: in a landscape marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, how can we actually learn from the crisis situations and co-design effective solutions? Scharmer’s idea is to start “from individual awareness to achieve change in the systems.” In particular, what counts is realising “that our ability to direct the attention literally shapes the world”. What prevents us from being present in situations with effectiveness is therefore that we are not fully aware of the interior condition which our attention and our actions originate from. Scharmer calls this lack of awareness the blind spot of contemporary leadership. The aim of the book is therefore to illuminate this blind spot and offer concrete tools for leaders and organisations from any industry and sector to strengthen their ability to co-create the future.
The book starts specifically with the examination of the “blind spot” and then immediately illustrates Theory U and the ensuing method.
Awareness of one’s own person and ability to be involved, empathy and emotion, forward-thinking looking toward the company’s horizon and the ability to go beyond the events. These appear to be some of the key aspects of Scharmer’s Theory U. Which should not be taken as a dogma nor even refused uncritically. No, they should be addressed and understood.
Scharmer’s book has a great merit: it is one of those books that shake you, also for the way in which it conducts a dialogue with the reader.
Teoria U. I fondamentali. Principi e applicazioni (The essentials of Theory U. Core principles and applications)
Otto C. Scharmer
Guerini, 2018
Theory U illustrated by its inventor in a book which has now been translated in Italy
A winning business is one that adapts the most and the most rapidly to the changing environment.But it is also the one that manages to be different – in a positive way – from others. Organisation and method are required. The task of entrepreneurs and shrewd managers. And a task that can be facilitated with conscious management and organisation. Reading “Teoria U. I fondamentali. Principi e applicazioni” (The essentials of Theory U. Core principles and applications) by Otto C. Scharmer can be a good thing to change the “tone” of a business.
Otto Scharmer’s Theory U is considered one of the most widely appreciated methods in what is referred to as contemporary change management, i.e. in the management of companies that need to evolve rapidly in order to respond effectively to change.Substantially Theory U tries to answer the question: how can our companies and our organisations learn to see and co-create emerging possibilities in the contexts in which they operate?Or rather: in a landscape marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, how can we actually learn from the crisis situations and co-design effective solutions? Scharmer’s idea is to start “from individual awareness to achieve change in the systems.” In particular, what counts is realising “that our ability to direct the attention literally shapes the world”. What prevents us from being present in situations with effectiveness is therefore that we are not fully aware of the interior condition which our attention and our actions originate from. Scharmer calls this lack of awareness the blind spot of contemporary leadership. The aim of the book is therefore to illuminate this blind spot and offer concrete tools for leaders and organisations from any industry and sector to strengthen their ability to co-create the future.
The book starts specifically with the examination of the “blind spot” and then immediately illustrates Theory U and the ensuing method.
Awareness of one’s own person and ability to be involved, empathy and emotion, forward-thinking looking toward the company’s horizon and the ability to go beyond the events. These appear to be some of the key aspects of Scharmer’s Theory U. Which should not be taken as a dogma nor even refused uncritically. No, they should be addressed and understood.
Scharmer’s book has a great merit: it is one of those books that shake you, also for the way in which it conducts a dialogue with the reader.
Teoria U. I fondamentali. Principi e applicazioni (The essentials of Theory U. Core principles and applications)
Otto C. Scharmer
Guerini, 2018