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Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies
We have entered an age of disruption. Financial collapse, climate change, resource depletion, and a growing gap between rich and poor are but a few of the signs. Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer ask, why do we collectively create results nobody wants? Meeting the challenges of this century requires updating our economic logic and operating system from an obsolete “ego-system” focused entirely on the well-being of oneself to an eco-system awareness that emphasizes the well-being of the whole. Filled with real-world examples, this thought-provoking guide presents proven practices for building a new economy that is more resilient, intentional, inclusive, and aware.
304 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2013
240 people are currently reading
1108 people want to read
About the author
C. Otto Scharmer
10 books126 followersDr. C. Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and founding chair of the Presencing Institute. Otto introduced the concept of “presencing”—learning from the emerging future—in his bestselling books Theory U and Presence (the latter co-authored with Peter Senge et al.). In 2015 he co-founded the online MITx u.lab, which has since activated a global eco-system of societal and personal renewal involving more than 100,000 participants from 185 countries. Otto received the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching at MIT (2015) and the Leonardo European Corporate Learning Award (2016). His new book, The Essentials of Theory U (March 2018), focuses on the core principles and practical applications of awareness-based systems change in the context of reinventing our economies, democracies, and educational systems.
For more information visit www.ottoscharmer.com.
For more information visit www.ottoscharmer.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
March 20, 2025
This book tackles the big issues of our time: climate crisis, economic inequality, and disconnection from purpose and argues that our current EGO-driven system (focused on self-interest and growth) is failing. The authors call for a shift to an ECO-system economy, where decisions are made with the wellbeing of the whole in mind.
The first half is strong, offering a clear diagnosis of systemic issues: overconsumption, speculative finance, broken governance, and a widening wealth gap. It asks good questions about how we can respond to disruption and lead from a more conscious, connected place.
But the second half gets bogged down in abstract and spiritual language. Concepts like “presencing” and “absencing” feel vague, and the book leans too hard into metaphysical territory without offering concrete solutions. The message is important, but the delivery can be frustrating, long-winded and at times self-indulgent.
Main takeaway: The system is broken. We need a shift from individualism to collective wellbeing, from profit to purpose. But the book could have made that point in far fewer pages.
---------- Personal notes ----
INTRODUCTION
EGO (self) vs ECO (whole house)
- we are in age of disruption, dying old civilisation, where bigger is better, more consumption
- collectively creating results that nobody wants
- ECO = wellbeing of the whole
- Understand whats going on and change from EGO to ECO
- blindspot of todays culture = how to respond from deep space of emerging future
- let go of the past and lean into emerging future (disruptive change)
- How do we lead from the emerging future?
- What evolutionary economic framework can guide our journey forward?
- What strategies can help us to shift as a whole?
Ecological divide - we are using resources of 1.5 planets
Economic divide - 1% owns 90%
Disconnect between self and self in future - our actions vs who we are (suicide rates increased)
Financial vs real economy - most of the foreign exchanges in value are purely speculative destabilizing economy
Overuse of resources - wanter and soil, richest own 40% of worlds wealth.
GDP vs Wellbeing - higher GDP do not translate into higher wellbeing
RnD in pharmaceuticals serve the top, not the most
Positive to the top, negative to the bottom due to cost advantage (poor pay the highest price)
Governance is driven by many interest groups, but mainly oil, nuclear and pharmaceutical
- uneven playing field and lack of transparency
Today's thinking is the representation of our reality.
- being more aware of economics
- look at the edge of society
quality of system awareness
presencing = acting from a present on whats wanting to be present
energy follows attention = you should focus on what you want, than what you want to avoid
description of the U
- immerse yourself in a place that is most relevant to the situation you are dealing with
- future shows first in feelings, not analysis
There is also opposite, absencing, which leads to destruction
Chapter 1
What is thought of as indestructible may be break. Berlin wall, Fukushima protection wall, meltdown of the financial system in 2008
- inflexible centralised control structure
- decentralised systems
- small cracks in old system
- rebound of old forces obscuring transparency about such events
Co-creating disruptive change, people who start are on the edge of unknown.
- global movement going for ECO.
People are getting more detached from their work, increasing consumerism while increasing problems related to it: more waste, bigger division between rich and poor turning into burnouts or worse.
We need to approach all those problems as a system shift, not one at a time.
Now we have slow food, slow money, environment movements.
Journaling:
Where do you experience world that is dying? Society, organisation, yourself?
Both society and organisation.
Where do you experience world that is waiting to be born?
Myself and society.
Where have you experienced moments of disruptions? What did you do, presencing/absencing?
Everywhere. I did both. For stocks I went to absencing as I did not wanted to go down.
Chapter 2
systemic disconnects
Structural issues making us responding from the past.
Wealth gap at dangerous levels.
Trading hitting limits of speculation.
Instead of tech. solving problems, we use them as gadgets.
Decision makers disconnected from affected people.
Greater consumerism does not bring wellbeing and happiness.
Market idea of collaboration across companies. Innovation across the whole system.
History of society, heading towards eco-driven, co-creative economy
lead with co-creating together - governments, NGOs, local businesses
Countries divided between different levels

Journaling
where does your Food come from?
- IGA/MAXI, sometimes its local in Canada, sometimes not.
what role does material consumption play in your life?
- It is a burden, the more stuff you have, the harder it is to move.
what makes you happy?
- Seeing life in nature (ideally wild, but zoo is ok), taking care of plants, learning and connecting with good people.
what is your relationship to money?
- I have them, they allow me to travel, purse whatever I want. They are necessity in this world and I hate their distribution and future of it.
how do you see future of your economy?
- My personal or state? State-wise Czechia economy is shit. It is just manufacturer of cars, but germans are selling them. We also have beer.
- My personal, I will be wealthy enough to buy a house and start a family, but will the children have the same opportunities? I hope, but I don't know. And the same goes for kids of my sister, etc. Will our kids in general have opportunity to travel, own property at least for themselves, do whatever they enjoy while having something to eat and the same for their kids and so on..?
We need to move money from EGo to ECO. Financing based on passions, solving real problems. Loans allow that, but is very risky in comparison to VCs funding or gov fundings.
Local currencies investment into resiliance - work only locally and thus supports only local businesses.
Transparent creation of money.
Fail early to prototype quickly.
The only way to do work is to love what you do.
.... here I stopped writing as it kept repeating all over just different ways.
The first half is strong, offering a clear diagnosis of systemic issues: overconsumption, speculative finance, broken governance, and a widening wealth gap. It asks good questions about how we can respond to disruption and lead from a more conscious, connected place.
But the second half gets bogged down in abstract and spiritual language. Concepts like “presencing” and “absencing” feel vague, and the book leans too hard into metaphysical territory without offering concrete solutions. The message is important, but the delivery can be frustrating, long-winded and at times self-indulgent.
Main takeaway: The system is broken. We need a shift from individualism to collective wellbeing, from profit to purpose. But the book could have made that point in far fewer pages.
---------- Personal notes ----
INTRODUCTION
EGO (self) vs ECO (whole house)
- we are in age of disruption, dying old civilisation, where bigger is better, more consumption
- collectively creating results that nobody wants
- ECO = wellbeing of the whole
- Understand whats going on and change from EGO to ECO
- blindspot of todays culture = how to respond from deep space of emerging future
- let go of the past and lean into emerging future (disruptive change)
- How do we lead from the emerging future?
- What evolutionary economic framework can guide our journey forward?
- What strategies can help us to shift as a whole?
Ecological divide - we are using resources of 1.5 planets
Economic divide - 1% owns 90%
Disconnect between self and self in future - our actions vs who we are (suicide rates increased)
Financial vs real economy - most of the foreign exchanges in value are purely speculative destabilizing economy
Overuse of resources - wanter and soil, richest own 40% of worlds wealth.
GDP vs Wellbeing - higher GDP do not translate into higher wellbeing
RnD in pharmaceuticals serve the top, not the most
Positive to the top, negative to the bottom due to cost advantage (poor pay the highest price)
Governance is driven by many interest groups, but mainly oil, nuclear and pharmaceutical
- uneven playing field and lack of transparency
Today's thinking is the representation of our reality.
- being more aware of economics
- look at the edge of society
quality of system awareness
presencing = acting from a present on whats wanting to be present
energy follows attention = you should focus on what you want, than what you want to avoid
description of the U
- immerse yourself in a place that is most relevant to the situation you are dealing with
- future shows first in feelings, not analysis
There is also opposite, absencing, which leads to destruction
Chapter 1
What is thought of as indestructible may be break. Berlin wall, Fukushima protection wall, meltdown of the financial system in 2008
- inflexible centralised control structure
- decentralised systems
- small cracks in old system
- rebound of old forces obscuring transparency about such events
Co-creating disruptive change, people who start are on the edge of unknown.
- global movement going for ECO.
People are getting more detached from their work, increasing consumerism while increasing problems related to it: more waste, bigger division between rich and poor turning into burnouts or worse.
We need to approach all those problems as a system shift, not one at a time.
Now we have slow food, slow money, environment movements.
Journaling:
Where do you experience world that is dying? Society, organisation, yourself?
Both society and organisation.
Where do you experience world that is waiting to be born?
Myself and society.
Where have you experienced moments of disruptions? What did you do, presencing/absencing?
Everywhere. I did both. For stocks I went to absencing as I did not wanted to go down.
Chapter 2
systemic disconnects
Structural issues making us responding from the past.
Wealth gap at dangerous levels.
Trading hitting limits of speculation.
Instead of tech. solving problems, we use them as gadgets.
Decision makers disconnected from affected people.
Greater consumerism does not bring wellbeing and happiness.
Market idea of collaboration across companies. Innovation across the whole system.
History of society, heading towards eco-driven, co-creative economy
lead with co-creating together - governments, NGOs, local businesses
Countries divided between different levels

Journaling
where does your Food come from?
- IGA/MAXI, sometimes its local in Canada, sometimes not.
what role does material consumption play in your life?
- It is a burden, the more stuff you have, the harder it is to move.
what makes you happy?
- Seeing life in nature (ideally wild, but zoo is ok), taking care of plants, learning and connecting with good people.
what is your relationship to money?
- I have them, they allow me to travel, purse whatever I want. They are necessity in this world and I hate their distribution and future of it.
how do you see future of your economy?
- My personal or state? State-wise Czechia economy is shit. It is just manufacturer of cars, but germans are selling them. We also have beer.
- My personal, I will be wealthy enough to buy a house and start a family, but will the children have the same opportunities? I hope, but I don't know. And the same goes for kids of my sister, etc. Will our kids in general have opportunity to travel, own property at least for themselves, do whatever they enjoy while having something to eat and the same for their kids and so on..?
We need to move money from EGo to ECO. Financing based on passions, solving real problems. Loans allow that, but is very risky in comparison to VCs funding or gov fundings.
Local currencies investment into resiliance - work only locally and thus supports only local businesses.
Transparent creation of money.
Fail early to prototype quickly.
The only way to do work is to love what you do.
.... here I stopped writing as it kept repeating all over just different ways.
July 9, 2014
I read this at the same time I was reading the Shambhala Principle -- both books have the same objective, which is to help the reader expand her/his understanding of how our existing beliefs and mental structures limit our possibilities. This book is more academic and may be more or less accessible depending on your background, but it's worth spending time with.
April 1, 2015
I have found this book well worth reading. If you want to understand how the challenges we see in economics, politics, society and technology are interconnected you should read this.
April 3, 2020
2018.05.27–2019.09.05
Contents
Scharmer CO & Kaufer K (2013) Leading from the Emerging Future - From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies
Introduction: Breathing Life into a Dying System
• Crumbling Walls
• The Blind Spot: How to Lead from the Emerging Future
• Symptoms: Landscape of Pathologies
• • The Ecological Divide
• • The Social Divide
• • The Spiritual-Cultural Divide
• Structures: Systemic Disconnects That Give Rise to Symptoms
• • Positive Externalities Flow to the Top, Negative Externalities to the Poor
• • Money Flows the Wrong Way
• • Governance Is Driven by Special-Interest Groups
• Mental Models That Give Rise to Systemic Bubbles and Disconnects
• Ego-System Awareness versus Eco-System Reality
• A Journey from Ego-System to Eco-System Awareness
• Sources That Give Rise to Mental Models, Structures, and Symptoms
• The Journey to U
• Shifting the Inner Place from Which We Operate
• Leading from the Emerging Future
• Principles of Presencing
• The Journey of This Book
1. On the Surface: Symptoms of Death and Rebirth
• The Toppling of Tyrants
• Presencing
• Absencing
• Moments of Madness and Mindfulness
• Fault Lines
• • The Ecological Divide
• • The Socioeconomic Divide
• • The Spiritual-Cultural Divide
• Three Divides, One Stream
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
2. Structure: Systemic Disconnects
• The Blind Spot I
• Eight Structural Disconnects
• The Economic Condition of Society Today
• The Evolution of Capitalism as an Evolution of Consciousness
• • Society 1.0: Organizing around Hierarchy
• • Society 2.0: Organizing around Competition
• • Society 3.0: Organizing around Interest Groups
• • Society 4.0: Organizing around the Emerging Whole
• One Map, Many Journeys
• • Europe
• • The United States
• • Africa
• • Japan
• • China
• • Indonesia
• • India
• • Brazil
• • Russia
• Globalization 1.0, 2.0, 3.0—and 4.0?
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
3. Transforming Thought: The Matrix of Economic Evolution
• The Blind Spot II: Consciousness
• Social Fields
• Oikos: The Origins of Economic Thought
• The Death of Economic Monotheism
• The Matrix of Economic Evolution
• Reading the Matrix
• Questions
• 1. Nature: Relinking Economy with Nature
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Seeing Our Future: Cultivating Our Commons
• 2. Labor: Relinking Work (Jobs) with Work (Purpose)
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Seeing Our Future: Igniting Global Fields of Social Entrepreneurship
• • The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)
• 3. Capital: Relinking Financial with Real Capital
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0: Natural, Human, Industrial, and Financial Capital
• • The Growing Gap between the Financial and the Real Economy
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Seeing Our Future: Collectively Creative Capital
• • GLS Bank and Triodos Bank
• • BRAC Bank
• • Complementary Currencies
• • Conclusion: Reclaiming Our Ownership of Capital
• 4. Technology: Relinking Technology with Collective Creativity
• • The Journey from 1.0 to 3.0: Tools, Machines, and Systems
• • Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Seeing Our Future: Unleashing Distributed Collective Intelligence
• • Wikipedia
• • Linux
• • Conclusion: Reclaiming Our Access to Enabling Technologies
• 5. Leadership: Relinking Leadership with the Emerging Future
• • The Journey from 1.0 to 3.0: Sticks, Carrots, and Norms
• • In Search of 4.0
• • There Is Only One Real Leadership Issue in the World
• • Three Leadership Myths
• • The Missing Mechanism: Collective Sensing and Prototyping
• • The Essence of Leadership Is Presencing
• • Seeing Our Future
• 6. Consumption: Relinking the Economy with Well-Being
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0: From Consumerism to Conscious Consumption
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Closing the Feedback Loop through Economic Dialogues
• • Seeing Our Future: The Power of Collaborative Conscious Consumption
• 7. Coordination: Relinking the Parts with the Whole
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0: Degrees of Separation
• • Passing like Messi
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Seeing Our Future: ABC
• 8. Ownership: Relinking Ownership with the Best Societal Use
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0: Open Access, State, Private, Mixed, and Commons
• • In Search of 4.0
• • All Ownership Forms Are Socially Constructed
• • We Need Commons-Based Property Rights
• • Shared Ownership Is Rising
• • Seeing Our Future: Reclaiming the Ownership and Stewardship of Our Commons
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
4. Source: Connecting to Intention and Awareness
• The Blind Spot III: Source
• A Conversation about Mind and Matter
• The Tao of Leadership
• The Blind Spot of Cognition Science
• The Matrix of Social Evolution
• Crossing the Threshold to 4.0 Societies
• Conclusion and Practices: Reintegrating the Matrix
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
5. Leading the Personal Inversion: From Me to We
• Man Is a Rope
• Cracking through the Wall
• Conditions of Possibility
• • Bending the Beam of Attention in Berlin
• Condition 1: Bending the Beam of Observation
• Condition 2: A Holding Space for Embracing the Shadow
• Condition 3: Going to the Edge of Letting Go
• • Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
• Turning Yourself into a Vehicle for the Future
• Conclusion and Practices: Twelve Principles
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
6. Leading the Relational Inversion: From Ego to Eco
• Three Obstacles: Denial, Cynicism, and Depression
• Conversations Create the World
• • Level 1: Unilateral, One-Way Downloading, and Manipulating
• • Level 2: Bilateral, Two-Way Discussions, and Exchange of Viewpoints
• • Level 3: Multilateral Stakeholder Dialogue: Seeing Oneself through the Eyes of Another
• • Level 4: Co-Creative Eco-System Innovation: Blurring the Boundary of Ego and Eco
• • Leverage Points
• Girl Scouts—Arizona Cactus Pine Council (ACPC)
• Shifting the Conversation on Climate Change
• ELIAS: Emerging Leaders Innovate Across Sectors
• ELIAS Prototypes: A Global Innovation Ecology
• Five Learning Experiences
• Growing the Co-Creative Economy
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Tool: Stakeholder Interviews
• • Circle Conversation
7. Leading the Institutional Inversion: Toward Eco-System Economies
• Shifting the Locus of Leadership
• Institutional Inversion
• Leading the 4.0 Revolution across Sectors
• • Government and Democracy 4.0: Direct, Distributed, Digital, and Dialogic
• • • Bojonegoro, East Java, Indonesia: Shifting the Field of Democracy to 4.0
• • • Brazil: Transforming the Secretariat of the National Heritage
• • Health 4.0
• • • Namibia
• • • Regional Health Transformation in Denmark
• • Education 4.0
• • • Vienna: Reinventing the Educational System
• • • Beijing: Leading Learning Communities in the Chinese Government
• • Companies 4.0
• • • BALLE: Creating a Nationwide Movement out of the White Dog Café
• • • Natura: Shifting the Field of Business
• • • Food Lab: Shifting the Field of Food
• Summing Up
• • NGOs 4.0
• • WWF
• • Banking 4.0: Banking as a Vehicle for Positive Change
• • • Transformative Eco-System Banking
• • • Shifting the Center of Gravity of the Economic Field
• • An Emerging Fourth Sector: A Cross-Sector Platform for Eco-System Economies
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
8. Leading from the Emerging Future: Now
• Closing the Feedback Loop of Matter and Mind: Economy 4.0
• Our Dream
• U.School: Putting Students into the Driver’s Seat of Profound Societal Innovation
• • Awareness-Based Action Research
• • Collective Leadership Capacity Building
• • Global Forum
• Living Examples: Sensing What Wants to Emerge
• • A Cooperative Initiative in the Bronx
• • The Global Well-Being and Gross National Happiness Lab: Innovating beyond GDP
• • A Movement in the Making
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Authors
About the Presencing Institute
Contents
Scharmer CO & Kaufer K (2013) Leading from the Emerging Future - From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies
Introduction: Breathing Life into a Dying System
• Crumbling Walls
• The Blind Spot: How to Lead from the Emerging Future
• Symptoms: Landscape of Pathologies
• • The Ecological Divide
• • The Social Divide
• • The Spiritual-Cultural Divide
• Structures: Systemic Disconnects That Give Rise to Symptoms
• • Positive Externalities Flow to the Top, Negative Externalities to the Poor
• • Money Flows the Wrong Way
• • Governance Is Driven by Special-Interest Groups
• Mental Models That Give Rise to Systemic Bubbles and Disconnects
• Ego-System Awareness versus Eco-System Reality
• A Journey from Ego-System to Eco-System Awareness
• Sources That Give Rise to Mental Models, Structures, and Symptoms
• The Journey to U
• Shifting the Inner Place from Which We Operate
• Leading from the Emerging Future
• Principles of Presencing
• The Journey of This Book
1. On the Surface: Symptoms of Death and Rebirth
• The Toppling of Tyrants
• Presencing
• Absencing
• Moments of Madness and Mindfulness
• Fault Lines
• • The Ecological Divide
• • The Socioeconomic Divide
• • The Spiritual-Cultural Divide
• Three Divides, One Stream
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
2. Structure: Systemic Disconnects
• The Blind Spot I
• Eight Structural Disconnects
• The Economic Condition of Society Today
• The Evolution of Capitalism as an Evolution of Consciousness
• • Society 1.0: Organizing around Hierarchy
• • Society 2.0: Organizing around Competition
• • Society 3.0: Organizing around Interest Groups
• • Society 4.0: Organizing around the Emerging Whole
• One Map, Many Journeys
• • Europe
• • The United States
• • Africa
• • Japan
• • China
• • Indonesia
• • India
• • Brazil
• • Russia
• Globalization 1.0, 2.0, 3.0—and 4.0?
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
3. Transforming Thought: The Matrix of Economic Evolution
• The Blind Spot II: Consciousness
• Social Fields
• Oikos: The Origins of Economic Thought
• The Death of Economic Monotheism
• The Matrix of Economic Evolution
• Reading the Matrix
• Questions
• 1. Nature: Relinking Economy with Nature
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Seeing Our Future: Cultivating Our Commons
• 2. Labor: Relinking Work (Jobs) with Work (Purpose)
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Seeing Our Future: Igniting Global Fields of Social Entrepreneurship
• • The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)
• 3. Capital: Relinking Financial with Real Capital
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0: Natural, Human, Industrial, and Financial Capital
• • The Growing Gap between the Financial and the Real Economy
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Seeing Our Future: Collectively Creative Capital
• • GLS Bank and Triodos Bank
• • BRAC Bank
• • Complementary Currencies
• • Conclusion: Reclaiming Our Ownership of Capital
• 4. Technology: Relinking Technology with Collective Creativity
• • The Journey from 1.0 to 3.0: Tools, Machines, and Systems
• • Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Seeing Our Future: Unleashing Distributed Collective Intelligence
• • Wikipedia
• • Linux
• • Conclusion: Reclaiming Our Access to Enabling Technologies
• 5. Leadership: Relinking Leadership with the Emerging Future
• • The Journey from 1.0 to 3.0: Sticks, Carrots, and Norms
• • In Search of 4.0
• • There Is Only One Real Leadership Issue in the World
• • Three Leadership Myths
• • The Missing Mechanism: Collective Sensing and Prototyping
• • The Essence of Leadership Is Presencing
• • Seeing Our Future
• 6. Consumption: Relinking the Economy with Well-Being
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0: From Consumerism to Conscious Consumption
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Closing the Feedback Loop through Economic Dialogues
• • Seeing Our Future: The Power of Collaborative Conscious Consumption
• 7. Coordination: Relinking the Parts with the Whole
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0: Degrees of Separation
• • Passing like Messi
• • In Search of 4.0
• • Seeing Our Future: ABC
• 8. Ownership: Relinking Ownership with the Best Societal Use
• • The Journey from 0.0 to 3.0: Open Access, State, Private, Mixed, and Commons
• • In Search of 4.0
• • All Ownership Forms Are Socially Constructed
• • We Need Commons-Based Property Rights
• • Shared Ownership Is Rising
• • Seeing Our Future: Reclaiming the Ownership and Stewardship of Our Commons
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
4. Source: Connecting to Intention and Awareness
• The Blind Spot III: Source
• A Conversation about Mind and Matter
• The Tao of Leadership
• The Blind Spot of Cognition Science
• The Matrix of Social Evolution
• Crossing the Threshold to 4.0 Societies
• Conclusion and Practices: Reintegrating the Matrix
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
5. Leading the Personal Inversion: From Me to We
• Man Is a Rope
• Cracking through the Wall
• Conditions of Possibility
• • Bending the Beam of Attention in Berlin
• Condition 1: Bending the Beam of Observation
• Condition 2: A Holding Space for Embracing the Shadow
• Condition 3: Going to the Edge of Letting Go
• • Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
• Turning Yourself into a Vehicle for the Future
• Conclusion and Practices: Twelve Principles
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
6. Leading the Relational Inversion: From Ego to Eco
• Three Obstacles: Denial, Cynicism, and Depression
• Conversations Create the World
• • Level 1: Unilateral, One-Way Downloading, and Manipulating
• • Level 2: Bilateral, Two-Way Discussions, and Exchange of Viewpoints
• • Level 3: Multilateral Stakeholder Dialogue: Seeing Oneself through the Eyes of Another
• • Level 4: Co-Creative Eco-System Innovation: Blurring the Boundary of Ego and Eco
• • Leverage Points
• Girl Scouts—Arizona Cactus Pine Council (ACPC)
• Shifting the Conversation on Climate Change
• ELIAS: Emerging Leaders Innovate Across Sectors
• ELIAS Prototypes: A Global Innovation Ecology
• Five Learning Experiences
• Growing the Co-Creative Economy
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Tool: Stakeholder Interviews
• • Circle Conversation
7. Leading the Institutional Inversion: Toward Eco-System Economies
• Shifting the Locus of Leadership
• Institutional Inversion
• Leading the 4.0 Revolution across Sectors
• • Government and Democracy 4.0: Direct, Distributed, Digital, and Dialogic
• • • Bojonegoro, East Java, Indonesia: Shifting the Field of Democracy to 4.0
• • • Brazil: Transforming the Secretariat of the National Heritage
• • Health 4.0
• • • Namibia
• • • Regional Health Transformation in Denmark
• • Education 4.0
• • • Vienna: Reinventing the Educational System
• • • Beijing: Leading Learning Communities in the Chinese Government
• • Companies 4.0
• • • BALLE: Creating a Nationwide Movement out of the White Dog Café
• • • Natura: Shifting the Field of Business
• • • Food Lab: Shifting the Field of Food
• Summing Up
• • NGOs 4.0
• • WWF
• • Banking 4.0: Banking as a Vehicle for Positive Change
• • • Transformative Eco-System Banking
• • • Shifting the Center of Gravity of the Economic Field
• • An Emerging Fourth Sector: A Cross-Sector Platform for Eco-System Economies
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
8. Leading from the Emerging Future: Now
• Closing the Feedback Loop of Matter and Mind: Economy 4.0
• Our Dream
• U.School: Putting Students into the Driver’s Seat of Profound Societal Innovation
• • Awareness-Based Action Research
• • Collective Leadership Capacity Building
• • Global Forum
• Living Examples: Sensing What Wants to Emerge
• • A Cooperative Initiative in the Bronx
• • The Global Well-Being and Gross National Happiness Lab: Innovating beyond GDP
• • A Movement in the Making
• Conclusion and Practices
• • Journaling Questions
• • Circle Conversation
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
About the Authors
About the Presencing Institute
Read
October 6, 2015Book Review by Dr. Kacey Shap, Senior Researcher at Lapin International.
Did you know that 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day; that we are using 50% more resources than Earth’s capacity to regenerate; that the richest 1% own more than 40% while the bottom 50% own only 1% of the world’s wealth; and that, each year, suicide kills more people than violent conflicts and natural disasters combined? In Leading from the Emerging Future (2013), Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer connects these seemingly unrelated social phenomena and argue that our society is in a state of transition, from the old civilization mindset of maximum “me” to a new consciousness, a deeper human awareness of “who we really are and who we want to be as a society.” Effective leadership, they argue, will require us to think from a systemic perspective.
Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer are economists from MIT who argue that the economic disparity between the haves and have nots, the climate change, the financial disasters, Earth’s depleting resources, the Arab Spring, and other international conflicts are symptoms of the larger global change that are forcing us to expand our traditional ways of thinking, a shift from the head to the heart. They argue that we live in the age of social, political, and ecological disruptions, when the old patterns of thinking are no longer effective. Schamer and Kaufer note:
The world has changed. Walls are crumbling. Tyrants are toppling. The polar caps and glaciers are melting. We have been watching these developments for years. But the two things that appear to be deeply frozen and unchanged are our collective habits of thought and the actions that they produce and reproduce in our world.
The journey from “me” to “we” as leaders transition from an ego-system to an eco-system model has three facets. The first is relating to others. The second is relating to the self. And the third is relating to the system as a whole. To lead from the emerging future, Scharmer and Kaufer suggest that leaders let go of the past in order to learn from and connect with the possibilities of the future. This is known as presencing, which is “a blended world combining sensing (feeling the future possibility) and presence (the state of being in the present moment). It means sensing and actualizing one’s highest future possibility—acting from the presence of what is wanting to emerge.”
Throughout the book, Scharmer and Kaufer attempt to answer three fundamental questions: in the face of disruption, how do we lead from the emerging future? What evolutionary economic framework can guide our journey forward? What strategies can help us to function as vehicles for shifting the whole? In doing so, they address the blind spot in today’s global discourse, specifically how to approach the disruptions from a place of connection rather than as a reaction.
The ability to shift from reacting is probably the single most important leadership capacity today. It is a capability that is critical in situations of disruptive change, not only for institutions and systems, but also for teams and individuals. In the old days, we used to learn one profession and practice it throughout our working lives. Today we face rapidly changing environments that increasingly require us to reinvent ourselves. The more dramatic the changes in our environment, the less we can rely on past patterns, and the more we need to learn to pay attention and tune in to emerging future opportunities.
Scharmer and Kaufer propose Theory U as a viable framework for assisting leaders navigate the disruptions. The framework of Theory U, they argue, is simple: “The quality of results produced by any system depends on the quality of awareness from which people in the system operate.” Theory U argues that “energy follows attention” and encourages the participants to have an open mind, heart, and willpower so that they can suspend old patterns of thought, empathize with others, view the situation from a different vantage point, and, in the process, let go and embrace new ideas and insights.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Scharmer’s and Kaufer’s approach towards transforming businesses, societies, andeven ourselves, while novel, is not a new concept. In fact, what they denote as “From the Ego-System to the Eco-system,” is David Lapin’s “Leading by Greatness”, Ram Charan’s “The Attacker’s Advantage, “ the Center for Creative Leadership’s the “The Core Leadership”, GAP International’s “The Breakthrough Leadership,” and Zenger Folkman’s “The Extraordinary Leader.” Of course, I am oversimplifying it, but the central tenet of the 21st century leader is similar: great leadership begins with the self and requires the individual to be open-minded, vulnerable, and embrace disruptions as an opportunity for growth.
For Schamer and Kaufer, the decoupling of the social reality, the unstable financial system, and the ecological disruptions are forcing leaders and communities to think differently, to shift from the “egocentric awareness” to the “eco-system awareness.” Such perspective is similar to the field of conflict resolution. Conflict can be unpleasant. It puts people in an uncomfortable position. The outcome is uncertain, and people tend to avoid it at any cost. However, conflict can also be an opportunity for growth and to renegotiate the competing realities.
David Augsburger explains this complex relationship best when he says, “ Conflict provides an indepth view of a culture’s social construction of reality. When conflict situations are fully explored, they reveal that we live simultaneously in multiple frames of reference, multiple realities—superficial, social, psychic, elemental, and survival realities. In the conflicts of our social interactions, we must coordinate these multiple worlds and create connections between them.” Constructive conflicts require parties to think beyond their ego-centric framework and instead renegotiate and collaborate on a new reality. Over all, Schamer and Kaufer propose a different way of thinking about leadership in an age where disruption is the norm and global pressure the new normal.
Originally posted at www.lapininternational.com
Did you know that 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day; that we are using 50% more resources than Earth’s capacity to regenerate; that the richest 1% own more than 40% while the bottom 50% own only 1% of the world’s wealth; and that, each year, suicide kills more people than violent conflicts and natural disasters combined? In Leading from the Emerging Future (2013), Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer connects these seemingly unrelated social phenomena and argue that our society is in a state of transition, from the old civilization mindset of maximum “me” to a new consciousness, a deeper human awareness of “who we really are and who we want to be as a society.” Effective leadership, they argue, will require us to think from a systemic perspective.
Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaufer are economists from MIT who argue that the economic disparity between the haves and have nots, the climate change, the financial disasters, Earth’s depleting resources, the Arab Spring, and other international conflicts are symptoms of the larger global change that are forcing us to expand our traditional ways of thinking, a shift from the head to the heart. They argue that we live in the age of social, political, and ecological disruptions, when the old patterns of thinking are no longer effective. Schamer and Kaufer note:
The world has changed. Walls are crumbling. Tyrants are toppling. The polar caps and glaciers are melting. We have been watching these developments for years. But the two things that appear to be deeply frozen and unchanged are our collective habits of thought and the actions that they produce and reproduce in our world.
The journey from “me” to “we” as leaders transition from an ego-system to an eco-system model has three facets. The first is relating to others. The second is relating to the self. And the third is relating to the system as a whole. To lead from the emerging future, Scharmer and Kaufer suggest that leaders let go of the past in order to learn from and connect with the possibilities of the future. This is known as presencing, which is “a blended world combining sensing (feeling the future possibility) and presence (the state of being in the present moment). It means sensing and actualizing one’s highest future possibility—acting from the presence of what is wanting to emerge.”
Throughout the book, Scharmer and Kaufer attempt to answer three fundamental questions: in the face of disruption, how do we lead from the emerging future? What evolutionary economic framework can guide our journey forward? What strategies can help us to function as vehicles for shifting the whole? In doing so, they address the blind spot in today’s global discourse, specifically how to approach the disruptions from a place of connection rather than as a reaction.
The ability to shift from reacting is probably the single most important leadership capacity today. It is a capability that is critical in situations of disruptive change, not only for institutions and systems, but also for teams and individuals. In the old days, we used to learn one profession and practice it throughout our working lives. Today we face rapidly changing environments that increasingly require us to reinvent ourselves. The more dramatic the changes in our environment, the less we can rely on past patterns, and the more we need to learn to pay attention and tune in to emerging future opportunities.
Scharmer and Kaufer propose Theory U as a viable framework for assisting leaders navigate the disruptions. The framework of Theory U, they argue, is simple: “The quality of results produced by any system depends on the quality of awareness from which people in the system operate.” Theory U argues that “energy follows attention” and encourages the participants to have an open mind, heart, and willpower so that they can suspend old patterns of thought, empathize with others, view the situation from a different vantage point, and, in the process, let go and embrace new ideas and insights.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Scharmer’s and Kaufer’s approach towards transforming businesses, societies, andeven ourselves, while novel, is not a new concept. In fact, what they denote as “From the Ego-System to the Eco-system,” is David Lapin’s “Leading by Greatness”, Ram Charan’s “The Attacker’s Advantage, “ the Center for Creative Leadership’s the “The Core Leadership”, GAP International’s “The Breakthrough Leadership,” and Zenger Folkman’s “The Extraordinary Leader.” Of course, I am oversimplifying it, but the central tenet of the 21st century leader is similar: great leadership begins with the self and requires the individual to be open-minded, vulnerable, and embrace disruptions as an opportunity for growth.
For Schamer and Kaufer, the decoupling of the social reality, the unstable financial system, and the ecological disruptions are forcing leaders and communities to think differently, to shift from the “egocentric awareness” to the “eco-system awareness.” Such perspective is similar to the field of conflict resolution. Conflict can be unpleasant. It puts people in an uncomfortable position. The outcome is uncertain, and people tend to avoid it at any cost. However, conflict can also be an opportunity for growth and to renegotiate the competing realities.
David Augsburger explains this complex relationship best when he says, “ Conflict provides an indepth view of a culture’s social construction of reality. When conflict situations are fully explored, they reveal that we live simultaneously in multiple frames of reference, multiple realities—superficial, social, psychic, elemental, and survival realities. In the conflicts of our social interactions, we must coordinate these multiple worlds and create connections between them.” Constructive conflicts require parties to think beyond their ego-centric framework and instead renegotiate and collaborate on a new reality. Over all, Schamer and Kaufer propose a different way of thinking about leadership in an age where disruption is the norm and global pressure the new normal.
Originally posted at www.lapininternational.com
February 15, 2021
This book addresses ecological, social, and the spiritual-cultural divides in contemporary leadership. It is a response to what the authors call a “blind spot” in global discourse today: How to respond from the deep position that binds us to the future of today’s waves of disruptive change, instead of reacting to trends from the past which normally means perpetuating them. In their view, bridging the gap between eco-system reality and ego-system awareness is the main challenge of leadership today. Inspired by theory U, they have introduced “Presencing” as an ability that is crucial not just for the organizations and structures but also for teams and persons in situations of disruptive transition. Change-makers in various sectors, including cultures, and systems, including business, government, civil society, media, academia, and local communities are the audiences of this book.
March 14, 2020
An interesting book with some very thought provoking ideas about how an evolving mindset about ourselves, others, and the world can, should, and is leading to remarkable changes in the world in many different organizations, etc. It also has warnings of some risks if we fail to make this upward shift in the way we think, work, lead, and co-create our organizations and our world. The main thesis is grounded in systems thinking and the idea that in order to solve the problems we are facing in the world today we need to be able to view the whole system, our role in its present dysfunction, and how we and the whole system need to change to solve the problems we face. Very interesting. It is helpful if you know a little something about systems thinking before you read the book.
April 15, 2022
A superb book. Not the easiest to read, I agree but the effort is worth the content. Now I am completely bias 😁... Having published a book on developing your self-leadership I completely believe that the emerging future will rely on these three components - the integration of science (the third person view) - the social transformation (the second person view) - and the evolution of the self (the first person view... And yes this is where self-leadership comes in!!!) [page 242]. This book is about giving you idea on what is needed that we can truly co-create our future moving from ego to eco-system 😁🙏🤗!!!
May 8, 2023
A thought-provoking exercise in the path of social transformation. My main complaint is that it assumes a thorough understanding and acceptance of Theory U without providing an adequate summary or making the case. In that sense, the entire book begs the question rather than provide a compelling argument for that model of social transformation. Much of the book resonated with personal experience and offers a hopeful, humane, and constructive way forward through the interrelated ecological and economic crises driven by selfish human behavior with the ensuing concentration of wealth and power.
January 27, 2024
Mediocre, head-first and abstract are the first words I come up with, when I think about this book. I wanted to learn about Theory U, but this book only rudimentarily explains it and otherwise try's to reason why it work by comparing the four levels of egocentric to ecocentric mindsets with examples in politics, economics, education, social sciences etc and basically tries to be revolutionary to hard.
What this book does deliver is some abstract picture to where we have to develop into as a society, but I find the guidance part, which is the actual challenge, lacking and (again) too abstract.
What this book does deliver is some abstract picture to where we have to develop into as a society, but I find the guidance part, which is the actual challenge, lacking and (again) too abstract.
August 13, 2018
Spurs further thought
This book is for those who feel it within themselves that there is something we have got fundamentally wrong with the way we are working and living. The author recommends for each and every one of us to be more aware with this dissonance that is within us, and to create communities for co-creation and change.
It is a book worth revisiting over and over again and to delve some thought at the guiding questions at the end of each chapter. My challenge is getting over the inertia and moving towards these uncharted waters.
This book is for those who feel it within themselves that there is something we have got fundamentally wrong with the way we are working and living. The author recommends for each and every one of us to be more aware with this dissonance that is within us, and to create communities for co-creation and change.
It is a book worth revisiting over and over again and to delve some thought at the guiding questions at the end of each chapter. My challenge is getting over the inertia and moving towards these uncharted waters.
September 17, 2019
This ambitious leadership book merges management with philosophy and spirituality traditions. There is also focus on emerging possibilities, personal accountability and global interconnectedness. The author shares examples of farming, globalized learning and relfective teaching practices from his own life.
The book is often about our own accountability in systems : ends up there is an I in team. The ideas seem simple, but they are challenging in practice. Theory U is taught an online course, which may be useful for readers
The book is often about our own accountability in systems : ends up there is an I in team. The ideas seem simple, but they are challenging in practice. Theory U is taught an online course, which may be useful for readers
February 1, 2025
A necessary reading to get a historical perspective on the current systemic challenges we have to face in environmental, societal, and government dimensions. Otto Scharmer sheds lights on topics we have to intentionally discuss as leaders and future leaders to collective produce results we all - the world - want.
The book guides you through blind spots that drive us to routines and “best practices” we need to turn off. I hope you enjoy the reading as much as I did and that it sparks in you the will to push the change forward.
The book guides you through blind spots that drive us to routines and “best practices” we need to turn off. I hope you enjoy the reading as much as I did and that it sparks in you the will to push the change forward.
September 29, 2022
I gave up on this book after only about one hour in. It is very generic and tries to solve all problems of the world in one theory. The concepts it introduces seem to be picked out of thin air and remain very high-level.
September 12, 2018
Eh? I read this for class and found it interesting and was glad there were connections to other things we've rad.
December 17, 2019
Read this 'diagonally'. Should read it again when confronted with managerial challenges or for creative sessions. A reference book for me. One of the better management books out there imo
May 3, 2021
Note to self: jumped around - didn’t read all chapters.
September 25, 2021
Awesome book, the only problem I had is that I didn't read it any sooner
December 31, 2022
La dernière version de la Théorie U et ce qu’elle peut permettre comme transformation de l’échelle individuelle à l’échelle sociétale. À lire, mais surtout à pratiquer et incarner !
August 30, 2025
the future that needs to emerge and how to transform it
October 5, 2016
This is an application of Theory U, also by Scharmer. Currently I follow the u.lab MOOC, https://courses.edx.org/courses/cours... and follow live sessions at a local hub. Very interesting and very inspiring.
April 21, 2016
A great read from one of the founders of ULab. I got half way through ULab 2 from MIT and through various reasons haven't been able to complete the course, but I will go back to it when I have less on my plate. The reason and rationale behind the book and the course are very timely and the tenets are exactly what is required if we want to have a safe and healthy planet for our descendants to inherit. The challenge in the book and course is what are we going to do about it. Otto doesn't want people to just read the book, he wants us to change the course of the way we live today. To buy into the fact that we chose the world we live in, many of the reasons at various times may have been the right ones, but they are no longer the right ones.
What Otto has achieved with ULab is wonderful. Thousands of people are making commitments and acting on them in a system that provides a support structure and system to move for global change in the way society acts and thinks. The philosophy that doing the right thing for the eco-system is one of two choices we can make. We either continue to kill each other and the planet, or we build a society that recognizes that what is good for all is then also good for the individual. I'm not talking communism and I embrace rewarding effort and innovation, it's just ensuring that its done the right way.
I recommend this book to all and challenge you to not be moved by it.
What Otto has achieved with ULab is wonderful. Thousands of people are making commitments and acting on them in a system that provides a support structure and system to move for global change in the way society acts and thinks. The philosophy that doing the right thing for the eco-system is one of two choices we can make. We either continue to kill each other and the planet, or we build a society that recognizes that what is good for all is then also good for the individual. I'm not talking communism and I embrace rewarding effort and innovation, it's just ensuring that its done the right way.
I recommend this book to all and challenge you to not be moved by it.
November 24, 2021
I read Theory U and became aware of another book by Otto Scharmer, Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies and I didn’t immediately read it. In fact, I didn’t read it until it became part of the coursework for an EdX.org course that Otto was leading. EdX is interesting because it offers Massively Open Online Course. The course I took was U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self. It was an opportunity for me to experience the concept and look at material I was interested in at the same time.
Click here to read the full review
Click here to read the full review
November 8, 2015
Mind blowing! Prof. Otto Charmer presents Theory U in association to iceberg model, which defines 8 Systemic issues that deeply affects society, organizations and self. All these issues needs outstanding solutions, instead of looking into past experience and knowledge searching for answers. So this book guides you through the U theory process, providing tools and methods to learn how to solve issues by leading from the emerging future.
More than just a book, it's quite transformational! Definitely a must read!
More than just a book, it's quite transformational! Definitely a must read!
July 30, 2015
Extremely vast scope in this book
This was also made very clear through the vast numbers of case stadies, which are, to me, the best part of the book (my preferred way of learning). The book can be very dense on one page, and then quite repetitive on the next, but that didn't really bother me.
Not having read 'Theory U' wasn't felt as a handicap, although I'm sure I would take even more from it with that background.
This was also made very clear through the vast numbers of case stadies, which are, to me, the best part of the book (my preferred way of learning). The book can be very dense on one page, and then quite repetitive on the next, but that didn't really bother me.
Not having read 'Theory U' wasn't felt as a handicap, although I'm sure I would take even more from it with that background.
November 6, 2015
I read this book in conjunction with the online course U.Lab: Transforming business, society and self. The course was great and inspiring; the book was pretty buzzword heavy and jargony. It was just a small part but I was disappointed with their discussion of the future of NGOs. Each chapter ended with interesting questions for journaling and internalizing the materials, which I liked doing.
December 20, 2015
Parts of this book are brilliant. Parts -- where Scharmer tries to explain the arc of all future phenomena with his principles (some of which have gone dramatically in a different direction since the book's publications) -- are hard to read through.
Nonetheless, the effort is worth it. Scharmer has a disciplined, comprehensive view of how social systems are and can be organized.
Nonetheless, the effort is worth it. Scharmer has a disciplined, comprehensive view of how social systems are and can be organized.
January 17, 2021
Excelente viaje a traves de teorías y vivencias reales, que nos ayudarán a repensar el mundo en que vivimos, reinventar nuestra Mente, Corazón y Voluntad para cruzar el umbral del yo al Yo, del ego al eco, Y unirnos a la corriente del futuro que quiere emerger de un modo más colectivo e incluso más consciente.
June 28, 2015
Along with xMITs course of the same name, this book provides a framework to evaluate my personal intentions and challenges. The historical economic and social bubbles are enabling me to get out of my myopic anxiety and see how most solutions are simply communication waiting to happen. A winner!
November 21, 2015
I am not exaggerating when I say that this book has changed my life. I attended a 5-day workshop centered on it and found some fairly deep tectonic shifts in how I am approaching challenges in both my professional and personal life.
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