Curiosity – Compassion – Courage
On Thursday 21st September, more than 12,000 people worldwide joined the launch of the U-Lab 2017 programme broadcast live by Dr Otto Scharmer and his team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A small group of us caught up with the recording of that live stream on Friday evening at Dunbarney House, in Elgin.
Find out about ULab in Scotland here.
While we didn’t have the buzz of being part of a live and global broadcast, we caught the spirit of what was being discussed, and being a day later, were able to pause the recording and speak about the topics as they came up. Dr Scharmer is always evocative, inspiring and connecting when he speaks about the U-Lab concept, and we found our conversations even more so!
Our first pause was to talk about our intent with the U-Lab programme, what it meant for us, and what we wanted to get from it.
The themes that emerged from our discussions were:
- Mindfulness in place of mindlessness
- Listening to the whole human!
- Bringing humanity into solutions rather than playing roles
- Looking at things differently
- Explore the tools and how to use them for Moray Wellbeing Hub and the wider ‘Peer Life Experience Movement’
- How to grow Moray Wellbeing Hub and identify mechanisms to develop sustainability
- Creative space where people can Be, Grow, Create – no squishing or crushing – help one another learn
- Teaching words, and tools to respond to life!
- Create a space where we can grow our own people – and the growth rippling out into the wider community
- Freedom to give or contribute whatever feels right – it feels radical to have more than 100 champions feel that freedom!
- Connecting with a larger field of intelligence
- Confidence to move into action
- Asking different questions; asking questions differently; asking questions to different people
- And so many more ideas emerging . . .
You Ulab Hub in Elgin will focus on learning the tools and applying those in a Moray Wellbeing Hub context.
In the week following each of the live broadcasts, we will be hosting at least one coaching circle where we can explore the tools of U-Lab to support personal projects.
ULab Moray Hub first gathering
These are currently scheduled for Fridays at Dunbarney House between 6.30pm and 9pm.
At the end of the evening, the conversations were energised and full of potential, and we would like to include anyone who would like to be involved.
Please get in touch if you would like to participate, and also let us know if Fridays don’t work for you and if Mondays could work better.
We look forward to hearing from you. And we look forward to our next U-Lab sessions.
Thanks to Champion June for writing this reflection.
