Consciousness...The Blind Spot of Economic Thought

photo credit: Craig neal

photo credit: Craig neal


Intellectual bankruptcy in most organizations
Stages of Capitalism
4 levels of crisis response for organizations/ecosystems
7 Acupuncture Points
Creating Co-sensing Infrastructures: Listening the New Into Being
What is needed
Principles of groups

Heartlanders gathered today to hear Otto Scharmer speak online. More powerful, incisive reflections from Otto, who is a true visionary, in the most collaborative, generative way possible. Download SevenAcupuncturePoints

Intellectual bankruptcy in most organizations: How people pay attention collectively affects the outcome. The quality of consciousness we share as human beings directly connects to the future we collectively want to create going forward. What do we really do? What is the essence of leadership work on how people pay attention to shifting the fields of collective attention? The reflective turn opens the possibility of something new. How do we help people to be attentive?

Stages of Capitalism:
1.0: Shareholder Capitalism [growth, extractive, externalities I]
2.0: Stakeholder Capitalism [distribution, welfare state, externalities II]
3.0: Conscious Capitalism [transformative, regenerative, eco-system renewal]

In order to get to 3.0, the important point is to convene the key players within each ecosystem that is evolving: i.e. local/city, business/global.

The main differentiator of Capitalism from 1-3 is based on 3 different levels of awareness.
1- Ego
2- Stakeholder
3- Eco-system awareness- seeing things whole

Competition [2.0] vs. collaboration [3.0]
Competition creates opportunity and diversity
Collaboration creates innovation through seeing and acting from the whole.

4 levels of crisis response for organizations/ecosystems:
Reacting -> Redesigning -> Reframing -> Regenerating
Most organizations only consider levels 1 and 2, in a continuous loop and never get to levels 3 or 4

photo credit: pexels.com

photo credit: pexels.com

7 Acupuncture* Points: Innovations in Infrastructures to move to 3.0
Co-sensing Infrastructures: Listening the New Into Being
[Creating a new mechanisms]
1- Coordination mechanism: Infrastructure for collective action arising from shared seeing and common will. Local living economies
2- Nature: New property rights for commons (Trusts)
    the challenge/nature of the current way we consume the earth needs 1year/4months to recover.
3- Labor: Basic income as a human right. Access to health, education, entrepreneurial opportunity
    1/2 of the global economy 3-4 million— live below the poverty line. Billions are unemployed.
4- Capital: Transparent e-Bay-style participatory banking+investing. Carrying Costs. Complementary currencies.
5- Technology: Open source technologies for community entrepreneurship and innovoation.
    Need massive investment in new technologies: green and social, particularly collaborative technologies
6- [MOST MISSING] Management and leadership: Global and local action leadership schools [G schools]; challenge of cross-sector innovation.
    Create joint understanding and innovation. This competence is not nurtured in educational systems, nor leadership development work.
7- User/Citizen: Reinventing media+public conversation. Deepening democracy: participatory public planning.

*in Chinese medicine acupuncture is used to activate the resilience of the bodily organism as a whole. Working to heal and evolve the collective social body means co-creating it moment to moment.

What is needed: a whole new concept of leadership learning and management. Move it out of the classrooms, into the world. Create new kind of leadership schools working within centers of societal innovation and communication. Doing rather than reading.

Citizenship: renew how we communicate across boundaries.
Civil Society/Business/Politics move from this level to create fields of conversation and innovation to allow for collective creativity. Inner space/innovation space missing today.

Principles of groups:
Intention of Group- Common intention on the innovation journey to create something together
Co-sensing- systems thinking
Create opportunity for connection to Source or presencing: Create opportunity for asking “what is my intention?” “what is my calling?”
Prototyping- holding space and enabling infrastructures
Enabling co-sensing Infrastructures