leading from the emerging future

I have started a 13 week course through MIT and edX called ULab: Leading from the Emerging Future.  About 12,000 participants from 145 countries are involved..many in work groups across sectors of government, health care, business, environmental science, and more....

The opening of our live video last week grabbed me:  

"We are living in an age of disruption."

 "We see communities responding in one of three ways."

1. Downloading. We listen from a habitual place that reconfirms old patterns and beliefs.  This keeps us stuck in a status quo, doing what we've known to do but not getting us to a better place.

2.  Another response is to move backward as the mind, heart, and will closes in hopes of protecting self and the familiar.   

3.  Leaning forward through a mind, heart, and will that is open to seeing with fresh eyes, sensing/connecting in different ways, being still and surrendering, letting the new come, and working to co-create through curiosity, compassion, and courage.  

This experience is aimed at helping us move from an ego-system of me to an eco-system of we.  
Its premise is that leaders have results they produce and processes they use, but under both of those are the sources from which they operate.  Most of the time we cannot see the source from which we operate; we aren't aware of the place from which our attention and intention originate.  

The challenges we face require us to become aware and change the inner place from which we operate.  "The essence of leadership is to become aware of the blind spot from which we operate, both individually and collectively, and then shift."  

I have been thinking so much about all the Scripture that undergirds what's being taught in this diagram.  

-Be still and know that I am God.
-Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
-You are a new creation in Christ, the old is gone the new is here.
-Do not fear. (over and over through Bible)
-Love your neighbor as yourself.
-Invitation to join Christ in his redemptive work.


In this first week of class, I am reflecting on ways that I'm personally involved in the absencing arch, and I'm considering where I'm living in the presencing U.  I'm also thinking about this regarding privilege and systemic racism.  And I'm thinking about this regarding the white American Evangelical Church.

Much to chew on as I jump into module one!  You can check out this course yourself, if interested:  

https://www.edx.org/course/u-lab-leading-emerging-future-mitx-15-671-1x-0

"We cannot solve problems with the same kind of thinking that created them."  -Albert Einsten