9. Crystallising: Discernment and Stay with
Often times, people misunderstand this transition from presencing into crystallizing. In our experience, the first thing that happens after a presencing experience is: nothing. No-thing. It’s just a connection.But, when we succeed in keeping alive that connection to our deeper source of knowing, we begin to better tune into emerging future possibilities. Acting now,from a different place or sphere, we are able to begin to operate from a different source. We envision, prototype, and embody the new.
The term presencing can be used as either a noun or a verb and designates the connection to the deeper source of self and knowing. But becausewe keep that connection alive across the whole right-hand side of the U, we can say that we keep presencing (connecting and operating from source) throughout our entire journey. The term crystallizing designates the first stage of that process. What's important in this stage is:
You actively maintain the connection to source.
You take small, concrete actions to operate from that source and learn what it wants you to do.
You notice whether you've reverting back to downloading. You might experience judgment, cynicism or fear around this new connection. That's normal. Just stay with it.
Moving From Sensing to Presencing to Crystallizing
Not all visions are equal. Some never get beyond the "motherhood and apple pie" stage - good ideas that unleash no energy for change. Others transform the world. "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come," said Victor Hugo one hundred and fifty years ago. Yet, the power Hugo refers to remains elusive, carefully guarded by a paradox: there's nothing more personal than a vision, yet the visions that ultimately prove transformative have nothing to do with us as individuals.
The resolution of this paradox comes from the transformation of will that starts as we move through the bottom of the U. The seeds for this transformation lie in seeing our reality more clearly, without preconceptions and judgments. When we learn to see our part in creating things that we don't like but that are likely to continue, we can begin to develop a different relationship with our "problems." We're no longer victims. When we move further, from sensing to presencing, we become open to what might be possible, and we're inevitably led to the question "So what do we want to create?" But the "we" in this statement is the larger "we." The visions that arise out of genuine presencing come from "the field knowing itself," a spontaneous expression of discovering the power to shape our reality and our responsibility to an emerging future. As we begin to move up from the bottom of the U, this larger intention becomes accessible to us.
By contrast, many visions are doomed from the outset because those who articulate them, whether consciously or not, are coming from a place of powerlessness. If we believe that someone else has created our present reality, what is the basis for believing that we can create a different reality in the future? In terms of the theory of the U, the problem with most attempts to formulate visions is that they occur "too far up the left side of the U." When this happens, people formulate visions that are disconnected from a shared understanding of present reality and a sense of shared responsibility for that reality. If people are still externalizing their problems, they create, in a sense, "externalized visions," which amount to a kind of change strategy for fixing problems which they have not yet seen their part in creating. Only when people begin to see from within the forces that shape their reality and to see their part in how those forces might evolve does vision become powerful. Everything else is just a vague hope.
Frequently Asked Questions on Crystallizing
How is crystallizing different from a normal visioning process?
Crystallizing means clarifying vision and intention from our highest future possibility. The difference between crystallizing andthe normal visioning process is this:crystallizing happens from the deeper place of knowing and self,while visioning can happen from just about any place, even from the place of downloading. In our definition, if your will or action comes out of yesterday's habits, you're not moving from presencing into crystallizing. But when you begin to connect with and act from a bigger sense of self - a sense of what's emerging - you know you're on the right path.
My group went through the presencing process together. How do we know if we're ready to move to crystallizing?
After a moment of stillness or presencing, in groups, you can notice a subtle shift in identity and a different foundation for working together and moving forward. Up to this point, we have only felt the possibility of a future. After a presencing moment or encounter, people are now poised to bring this individual and collective potential into reality. “We can’t not do it.” The first step in this journey is to crystallize the vision and intention more clearly. We put into specific language what it is that we want to create.
What is the connection between crystallizing and prototyping?
Crystallizing means to stay connected to Source and to slowly clarify the vision and intention going forward. As we do this, our image of the future keeps evolving. Then we need to take this process of bringing the new into reality to its next level by enacting living examples or prototypes of the future that we want to create.
Discernment
This is a framework to consider when making decisions around what to let go of and what to let come, in moments of personal and group facilitation, during the Crystallizing phase of Theory U.
PURPOSE
We use discernment to clarify the transition from Presencing into action, as we start to move up the right side of the U.
PRINCIPLES
Have courage to cut to the essence of what you read, interpret, and know
Be willing to release past realities to make way for the new
Suspend the Voice of Fear in service of moving ahead
Trust that anything needing to be in the picture will surface at the right time
USES & OUTCOMES
The Discerning tool provides:
A simple method for carrying forward the energy revealed during Presencing
A gentle way to start moving up the U
Input for dialogue with your Self, your circle, and the universe
Input for your vision and intention
SET UP
People & Place
This is an individual exercise that ideally follows Journaling, within a few hours or days.
You will want a quiet space with a firm writing surface.
Time 10-30 minutes
Materials
Pages from your Journaling Exercise
Pen with a bold tip, for good visibility
Letter paper or note cards
SEQUENCE
Bypass Open to new possibility and process. Hold the container, the safe space, for what you and others can create. Be willing to let go of old habits, mindsets, and ways of operating that keep you bound in the past and that will not support emerging future possibilities. Instructions: Notice how you are thinking, feeling, and any impulse to action. Is your mind-heart-will open? If not, take time to revisit any of the 3 Voices that might have returned. Do what is necessary to quiet them, to facilitate letting go. Scan your written pages with your eyes and hands to reconnect with your experience of the journaling process.
NAME
Bring attention to what you want to move forwards as your seeds of the future. You don’t have to elaborate at this point; you only need to name key points. Listen (Level 2) in an objective way. Open your mind. Suspend your opinions or beliefs, in order to identify essential aspects of the picture you will form. Instructions: Go back to your journaling pages and look for words that jump off the page. What resonates with you? What has energy? It does not matter what stage of the journaling exercise the words come from, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. Just notice what stands out and seems to want attention. Underline key words or phrases. Try to keep it essential; you will be expanding on what you have chosen in coming practices. You can write the words in this space, if it helps your process.
ENGAGE
Prepare to deepen your inquiry Listen (Level 3) from within for what has energy and wants to be seen and heard. Carry forward the words that have the most resonance, that speak to your open heart. Instructions: Move 5-6 key words or phrases onto paper note cards, one word per paper or card.
TRANSFORM
Listen deeply (Level 4) for what wants to expand, what calls for transformation. Hold the sense of possibility as you shift into a new phase of developing your future, bringing presencing into action. Instructions: Continue dialoguing with your Self, your circle, and the universe to further crystallize your intention. Then continue with 2D Modeling, 3D Sculpting, 4D Mapping, or Prototype Mapping to expand the picture.
Stay with
The main focus of this week is on crystallizing, crystallizing your vision and intention, as opposed to holding on and projecting a rigid vision of the future that you impose on your environment and on yourself. the world that's wanting to emerge around us is mirroring the world that is wanting to emerge from within. To do so you need to go into deeper territory and “stay with”. Meaning, don’t jump into a conclusion too early. Practically, we suggest to you to engage this in three dialogues that you can triangulate with each other-
- a dialogue with yourself, a dialogue with your circle,
The dialogue with yourself you can engage in by creating a moment of stillness in the early morning- ten, 15, minutes- where you really connect to the deeper sources of your own knowing. Some of us do meditation. Some of us use other techniques.
- your circle of friends, your coaching circle,
you can use actually your coaching circle, your case clinic group. And what we suggest, in fact, is to not do a regular case, but have a session where each of you has the opportunity to share a little bit what it is that's emerging for you, and then have a moment of the others reflecting back to you what they heard, what resonated for them with their mind, with their hearts.
- number three, a dialogue with the universe.
dialogue with your context. It's the dialogue with everything that happens in your work, in your life. And dialogue with the universe really means being intentional, being conscious about the intention that you send out into the world. And then the response that the universe is giving back to you.
So you can do these, you can apply these to your personal situation. And those of you who do this whole process in groups or in the context of your community, in the context of your organization or your larger system, this is also a great opportunity is to apply the same principles, the same practices, not only personally, but also to what's emerging for you as a community of changemakers, as an organization in the context that you are working in. So enjoy the process. Stay with it. Don't be frustrated if something isn't clarifying very early and very quickly because the key for really tuning in to what's wanting to emerge is to stay with it and allow the universe to speak to you, rather than doing all the talking all the time yourself. Enjoy the process.