September to December 2016
The U.lab course began with 36 participants meeting weekly at King's Cross Impact Hub. Approximately half decided to use the course to pursue their own action research in the field that was of interest to them and the other half used it to explore the Reinventing Democracy theme.
As we progressed with the course some of the participants documented the course in articles online.
The initial stages of the Reinventing Democracy project focused on democracy in quite a broad sense. Our group of diverse backgrounds had varying degrees of knowledge about governance and political systems. So we used the learning journeys to inform ourselves and to formulate a sense of what was actually going on in democracy in the UK and beyond.
This article on Intelligent HQ - Can U.Lab make politics more appealing? describes the initial learning journeys we embarked on.
The U.lab course began with 36 participants meeting weekly at King's Cross Impact Hub. Approximately half decided to use the course to pursue their own action research in the field that was of interest to them and the other half used it to explore the Reinventing Democracy theme.
As we progressed with the course some of the participants documented the course in articles online.
The initial stages of the Reinventing Democracy project focused on democracy in quite a broad sense. Our group of diverse backgrounds had varying degrees of knowledge about governance and political systems. So we used the learning journeys to inform ourselves and to formulate a sense of what was actually going on in democracy in the UK and beyond.
This article on Intelligent HQ - Can U.Lab make politics more appealing? describes the initial learning journeys we embarked on.
One of the fantastic things about the U.Lab course is its invitation us to get out of what we already know, our preconceptions and assumptions. Instead of imposing our preformed ideas onto the world, the first stage is to deeply listen to others and what's going on around us. It also expands our ways of knowing and sensing from more than just the rational, logical mind. Our hearts, bodies and collective intelligence are also engaged in learning about the any given system or situation so that we can build a more holistic picture of what's happening and more effectively address what's needed.
There were two important aspects to our group work. One consisted of going out into the world and doing action research , the other was bonding and forming the connections between ourselves. We learnt about each other through Empathy Walks, Peer coaching circles of mutual support, practising mindfulness, improvised games and even laughter yoga. In this way we built our own sense of internal democracy. Many of the tools we used are described in this article about our Co-Sensing journeys at Kings Cross.
As part of our learning journeys we witnessed a session in the UK parliament that was debating Brexit, we stood in Trafalgar Square with 'Free Listening' signs, we spoke to the young and we conducted 4D mapping sessions of what was happening at a systemic level in the field of politics and democracy.
See this article that describes the whole process of how we used tool of the Social Presencing Theatre to conduct a 4D journey into the state of democracy in the UK.
There were two important aspects to our group work. One consisted of going out into the world and doing action research , the other was bonding and forming the connections between ourselves. We learnt about each other through Empathy Walks, Peer coaching circles of mutual support, practising mindfulness, improvised games and even laughter yoga. In this way we built our own sense of internal democracy. Many of the tools we used are described in this article about our Co-Sensing journeys at Kings Cross.
As part of our learning journeys we witnessed a session in the UK parliament that was debating Brexit, we stood in Trafalgar Square with 'Free Listening' signs, we spoke to the young and we conducted 4D mapping sessions of what was happening at a systemic level in the field of politics and democracy.
See this article that describes the whole process of how we used tool of the Social Presencing Theatre to conduct a 4D journey into the state of democracy in the UK.
We were also very fortunate to have the final live broadcast of the 2016 U.Lab course taking place at Impact Hub Kings Cross in December. This way we got to meet the course creators Otto Scharmer and Adam Yukeson and people from all over London and the world engaged in the same course.
In a year that had seen an upheaval in global politics with the Brexit result of the EU Referendum and Trump winning the US presidency, Otto Scharmer commented on the flavour of the session gathering as being one of political awakening
However in our own Reinventing Democracy project despite our numerous sensing journeys and coming together for a prototyping day our individual ideas and ambitions proved to be too diverse to crystallise in a clear project. Lee Baker writes of his experiences from that time in this article How we can remake our democracy.
Nevertheless a smaller group decided it would like to commit to continue meeting at Impact Hub Kings Cross to see what we could co-create in the new year. The next chapter charts the work of our group from January to October 2017.
In a year that had seen an upheaval in global politics with the Brexit result of the EU Referendum and Trump winning the US presidency, Otto Scharmer commented on the flavour of the session gathering as being one of political awakening
However in our own Reinventing Democracy project despite our numerous sensing journeys and coming together for a prototyping day our individual ideas and ambitions proved to be too diverse to crystallise in a clear project. Lee Baker writes of his experiences from that time in this article How we can remake our democracy.
Nevertheless a smaller group decided it would like to commit to continue meeting at Impact Hub Kings Cross to see what we could co-create in the new year. The next chapter charts the work of our group from January to October 2017.