U-lab: leading profound innovation for a more sustainable world

Lectures: 1 session / week for 6 weeks, 3 hours / session

Dr. Claus Otto Scharmer, MIT Senior Lecturer and Founding Chair of the Presencing Institute

This interactive and experiential class is about leading profound innovation for pioneering a more sustainable economy and society. It focuses on the intertwined relationship of the following three questions:

The class is organized around three main threads:

In order to "explore the future by doing," each student will develop a prototype initiative that connects the three threads — the personal, relational, and systemic dimensions.

This course is open to all MBA, MIT and non-MIT students. No special requirements or applications are necessary.

This course is designed to create three types of knowledge:

Scharmer, C. Otto. Theory U: Leading From the Future As It Emerges. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2009. ISBN: 9781576757635.

Presencing Institute: Transforming Capitalism

This will be a pass/fail course. In order to pass, you must attend all class sessions. In addition, each student must (a) participate in and facilitate results in a self-organized project, (b) write a weekly reflection report (one page), and (c) write a final reflection paper on some key lessons and observations within two weeks of the end of the course. The final reflection paper should be 2 to 5 pages in length.

Students who sit in on part of the class, or who miss days or parts of days, will not receive credit.

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