Fast-track U process
Otto Scharmer’s U process will soon be celebrating its 20th Birthday, and needless to say what an amazing, transformational impact it has had on so many people and organisations. Here at Nexus we have been using it as the background to our work for the last 15 years; often to design 1-day, or 3-day […]
Feedback? No thanks!
Antonio, marketing director of a multinational company, is a firm believer in the practice of ‘continuous feedback’ that has recently been introduced in the performance management cycle. Antonio thinks that, precisely through feedback, it is possible to develop the soft skills of his employees, not only their technical skills. That is why he never misses […]
Discerning in order to make a better choice
Today I had lunch with a friend, a company director, who complained that he had no choice but to accept a price cut imposed by one of his biggest customers. This will force him to outsource part of his business to low-cost countries. This is completely contrary to his values and to what he wants […]
Easter and Regeneration
In the Christian tradition, Easter is the most important of all feasts – more important than Christmas itself. Why? Because it is then that the resurrection is being revealed; it is then that we discover that death is not the end, but only a passage towards renewed life. Whether we choose to have faith […]
Generative Dialogue: the 4 fields of conversation
Better known for his “U Theory”, Otto Scharmer has also worked extensively on Dialogue, together with his MIT colleague Bill Isaacs. In his pre “U Theory” days, he developed a very useful matrix to map out the various conversational fields that we could find ourselves in. For him, there are 4 such fields: Field #1: […]
Regenerating Democracy
Last week I was in Rome, facilitating a General Chapter for a male religious congregation. Democracy: insights from religious congregations Religious congregations are a very interesting type of organisation. In many ways – and despite all the fantasies and projections we might have about them being very hierarchical and authoritarian – congregations are one […]
Decision-making process : Nexus’ iterative model
Decision-making is not an instantaneous event, something that occurs only at the actual moment that the decision is being made. Rather, it sits within a process that includes the build-up to the decision, the decision itself, and then the impact of the decision itself. That process can be extremely quick (minutes, or even seconds), or […]
Idealization, death of idols, and rebirth: accompanying the regeneration of leaders and their organisations
The years I have spent coaching business leaders have often led me to the terrain of the shadows: that of our inconsistencies, our contradictions, our shortcomings; those aspects of ourselves that we prefer not to talk about, even to ourselves… Working with the shadows has allowed me to discover that there are generally 3 […]
Practical use of the model
The model, or Operating System is quite simple to use. In our experience we have found it is best implemented through a process modelled on the 3 phases of Otto Scharmer’s U-theory: First phase – Sensing This phase involves exploring past and present activities through the prism of this model, identifying what you […]
Principle #6: Develop collaborations
Principle #6: Develop collaborations, partnerships and symbiotic relationships. This principle, again, flows on from the previous principle, enabling you to scale up your regeneration by turning some of your life-giving encounters into more stable patterns of collaboration. In Nature, Life creates the conditions for more Life primarily through weaving complex patterns of symbiotic relationships, where […]
