8/12/2019 A Time Bomb Ticking?|Otto Scharmer

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A Time Bomb Ticking? | Otto Scharmer

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A week in Sao Paulo gave me a really interesting window onto the state (and soul) of the country.Two observations.

The people's openness for profound change has never felt stronger. I felt that openness at the launchof Novos Urbanos, a sharing economy initiative around collaborative, conscious consumption in SaoPaulo. I felt the openness in sessions with students and executives at FGV, one of the major businessschools. I felt it in a talk with a group of social entrepreneurs and "COOs" (Children Of Owners) --that is, millennials who soon will move into CEO roles in their family businesses, often with quitedifferent lifestyles and social aspirations than their parents' generation.

I also felt it during a keynote I gave at FNQ, the National Quality Management Association meeting,which was attended by 400 executives representing Brazil's industrial establishment (people in theroom represented 80 percent of the country's GDP). Even this rather conservative group wascompletely in synch with the need for a profound transformation of business, society, and self inorder to create a society that is more sustainable, resilient, equitable, and aware. So that was myfirst impression: the door to profound change is wide open in the eyes of so different groups inBrazilian society today -- much wider than probably they (or we) realize.

My second observation concerns a sense of collective paralysis and frustration. In one of theworkshops I joined with business leaders, the participants went on learning journeys across the cityto immerse themselves in hotspots of social change. Having returned from their immersion journeys,they were asked to create a 3-D model of what they saw and felt, of how they experience the currentsystem.

Here is one example of a model the group came up with. The model depicted different levels ofinfluence and power. At the top is a corrupt government and big banks. The first picture shows biggovernment as they perceived it: towering on top, taking money under the table, and NOTLISTENING to ordinary citizens.

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And then, on the ground level, you have a crowded mix of players who all struggle for theirlivelihood and to make a living. And when you look at the margins of that picture, you see threetypes of excluded participants, outside the gates. They were (1) the "voiceless" (people whoseconcerns are not heard), (2) the "next generations" (children and the unborn), and (3) "nature."

Also in the second picture, behind the government, you see ahttp://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/worldcup/2014/05/27/jurgen-klinsmann-berti-vogts-world-cup/9644759/massive time bomb that is ticking, depicted in the form of a soccer ball...

Below is another shot that looks at the same situation from the perspective of the excluded nextgeneration. Keep in mind that these models were formed by middle management business people,not by radical groups at the margin.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/worldcup/2014/05/27/jurgen-klinsmann-berti-vogts-world-cup/9644759/http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/worldcup/2014/05/27/jurgen-klinsmann-berti-vogts-world-cup/9644759/http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/worldcup/2014/05/27/jurgen-klinsmann-berti-vogts-world-cup/9644759/http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/worldcup/2014/05/27/jurgen-klinsmann-berti-vogts-world-cup/9644759/

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My dual impression from the week in Brazil boils down to this: amazing and inspiring individuals andgroups, a strong sense of collective possibility--and at the same time a screwed-up system thatdisregards the voices, aspirations, and needs of too many.

That description not only fits the current situation in Brazil and many other countries across theplanet; it also describes FIFA (the Fdration Internationale de Football Association), exceptthat FIFA is probably even more corrupt, ignorant, and self-absorbed. FIFA is a perfect microcosm ofwhat people around the world are frustrated about: a corrupt old guard at the top who don't listen tooutsiders, a lack of transparency, an absence of accountability, a system that socializes all costs tothe communities while privatizing all profits for themselves (FIFA will take over 1.5 billion dollarsback to Switzerland from this World Cup, without even paying any taxes in Brazil).

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out during the World Cup matches that startstomorrow (I already cancelled all my meetings for the next four weeks...). Although I felt in Brazil

that the door to profound renewal is wide open, does this mean that anyone will walk through it?Will people be able to activate the vast potential of change that many feel is possible today? Or will itget lost in a wave of violence and breakdown? We don't know. It's a very uncertain and fragilesituation.

I hope that the various initiatives that were seeded and launched during the week there with severalother colleagues of the Presencing Institute--including Novos Urbanos and Health Lab Brazil, whichwill become part of the Global Wellbeing Lab--will contribute to tipping society toward a pathway ofpositive change.

Where in your context do you see similar situations of possibility, fragility, and frustration? What'syour take on this?

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/otto-scharmer/brazil-and-fifa-a-time-bo_b_5485979.htmlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/otto-scharmer/brazil-and-fifa-a-time-bo_b_5485979.html

8/12/2019 A Time Bomb Ticking?|Otto Scharmer

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