The Current Transformation of Global Capitalism

Preparation

Pre-reading

Scharmer, C. Otto. "Seven Acupuncture Points for Shifting Capitalism to Create a Regenerative Ecosystem Economy." Oxford Leadership Journal 1, no. 3 (2010). (PDF)

———. "Individual Actions." Chapter 16 in Theory U: Leading From the Future As It Emerges. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2009. ISBN: 9781576757635.

———. "China, Europe, and the US: Three Approaches to Meeting the Future." Otto's Blog, September 29, 2010.

Bird, Kelvy. "Simon Johnson Interview." Transforming Capitalism. Presencing Institute, January 15, 2010.

Johnson, Simon. "The Quiet Coup." Atlantic Magazine, May 2009.

"BALLE Community of Practice Immersion." Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.

Video Clips

theRSAorg. "Crises of Capitalism." June 28, 2010. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0.

malekanoms. "Quantitative Easing Explained." November 11, 2010. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k.

Scharmer, Otto. "Michelle Long, Executive Director, BALLE, Charleston, South Carolina, May 21, 2010." September 10, 2010. Transforming Capitalism, Presencing Institute.

In-Class Practice

Sculpting; The Art and Practice of Deep Listening

Assignment

Listening Review

1. Every evening, take 3 or 4 minutes to review the day: How much time did you spend on what type of listening?

Listening 1: downloading—more of the same
Listening 2: factual—taking in something new
Listening 3: empathic—becoming part of "another movie," part of another person's world
Listening 4: generative—connecting to the source of future possibility

2. Conduct at least one conversation with one or several persons around the 5 questions that we used in class:

1. Introduce your personal context with one or two formative experiences that shaped you to become the person you are.
2. What do you see going in terms of economic-social change—and what do you consider the root causes/issues of the current crisis?
3. What do you feel is going to happen over the next 10-20 years?
4. If you were to advise the president of your country today, what three action steps would you suggest him to take?
5. What would you like to do right now in order to make a difference going forward?

Reflection Paper

Write one page in which you reflect on:

• your four-direction sculpting exercise (which we did in the last class): What surprised you? What touched you? What scares you? What draws you from the future? What questions come up for you now?
• your daily listening reviews
• the conversation that you created around the 5 questions.