Leading from the emerging future

"..leading an organization to constructive change begins by setting a direction — developing a vision of the future (often the distant future)..." - Written by John P. Kotter in HBR Whitepaper What Leaders Really Do

 

Now, there is ample material on Who, How, What etc. but is there any methodology for developing the vision for future?

 

I was browsing through the courses offered on EDX (http://www.edx.org) and came across an interesting course offered by MIT titled U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self. The course begins on Sept 24, 2014 and I'm looking forward to learning from this course. In the interim, let's have a quick look at interesting concept that caught my imagination.

 

The theory, termed Theory U,  is based on the premise of letting go of the past in order to learn from emerging future. We are taught to learn from the past, while most of the real leadership challenges in organizations require ability to learn from future possibilites. The theory also supposedly goes deeper towards inner awakening. It would be too premature, of course, to comment further and form any kind of perception without learning the theory.

 

An interesting concept indeed!

 

 

Reference: https://www.presencing.com/theoryu