Scientific Definition
Otto Scharmer's U-shaped process for moving from habitual response to sensing what wants to emerge.
Plain-English Definition
Otto Scharmer's U-shaped process for moving from habitual response to sensing what wants to emerge.
Feynman Explanation
Most decisions are downloads of the past. Theory U asks you to stop downloading.
Core Principle
Otto Scharmer's U-shaped process for moving from habitual response to sensing what wants to emerge.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Otto Scharmer's U-shaped process for moving from habitual response to sensing what wants to emerge.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
When the same strategy keeps producing the same disappointing results, you're stuck at the top of the U.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Most decisions are downloads of the past. Theory U asks you to stop downloading.
Examples
- MIT Presencing Institute case work across school systems, hospitals, and the UN Global Compact.
- When the same strategy keeps producing the same disappointing results, you're stuck at the top of the U.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Suspend judgment → redirect attention → let go → sense the emerging future → prototype → embody.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Suspend judgment → redirect attention → let go → sense the emerging future → prototype → embody.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Psychological distance shifts thinking between abstract and concrete.
People value gains and losses asymmetrically, and judge relative to a reference point.
People operate in promotion focus (chasing gains, eager) or prevention focus (avoiding losses, vigilant).
How will I feel about this in 10 minutes / 10 months / 10 years?
Inattention or forgetfulness caused by low attention, hyperfocus, or distraction.
Forgetting to compare an offer with the next-best alternative.
Outcomes that could have happened but did not.
Overthinking a situation so that decision-making stalls.
The first number on the table silently sets the range for every number after it.
Tversky & Kahneman's classic: identical outcomes flip from 'risk averse' to 'risk seeking' when framed as lives saved vs. lives lost.
Our perception is shaped by what we selectively pay attention to.
Favoring suggestions from automated systems over conflicting human judgment.