London’s first Solutions Lab took place at Brescia University College on May 31 and June 1, 2016 with a group of ninety participants and facilitators. Earlier this year Chris Moss, one of sixty persons from forty countries had been immersed in a prototyping workshop for two weeks at MIT in Boston to develop her skills helping people to use “Theory U” to bring about significant change in organizations, governments, and groups of people. For the past two years Otto Scharmer and his Team at MIT had led an open on-line course with thousands of registrants from around the world. The Solutions Lab provided an opportunity for groups from eleven different entities in London to use concepts of “Theory U” to create solutions to challenging issues.
I joined the Coordinator and two volunteers from Our Sisters’ Place in London, who with guidance from the presenter, Chris Moss, and our competent facilitator, Lina Bowden, reflected on the goals and operations of the jewelry making program at Our Sisters’ Place in which women develop their capacities to become confident members of society as they learn how to transform discarded or donated jewelry into marketable new creations. Otto Scharmer, the author of “Theory U”, describes the disconnects in our modern world, the great divides in our ecological, social, and spiritual-culture realms which have led us into creating “results which nobody wants”. Yet there is an inner shift in which many leaders are sensing and making present future possibilities. In the Solutions Lab at Brescia, participants practiced listening at deeper levels in the process of creating prototypes—transformative solutions to old problems. We experienced the challenges of attending not only to what others were saying, but to the difficulties of becoming aware and letting go of the inner blocks which prevent us from listening with open minds, hearts, and spirits. I was in awe of the changes that took place in each member of our little group and of the creative solutions which none of us had envisaged would occur. The original goal of the group focused more on helping the clients to attain success in marketing their products and becoming financially independent. As the group listened more deeply, they became far more interested in helping the women they served to grow personally, achieving wholeness rather than material gain. The coordinator and volunteers became animated as they identified ways in which they would work together to implement their new vision for the jewelry making program.
The Solutions lab had been made possible through the support of several groups in London, including Pillar Non-Profit Network, City of London, Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada, London Heritage Foundation, Innovation Works, Ontario Trillium Foundation, London Life, London Arts Council, and Brescia University College. If you visit U-Lab on your website, you can find a huge number of sites around the world who are using Theory U to make present an emerging future that all of us want.
Pat McKeon CSJ