This week I attended a workshop with Otto Scharmer, author of Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges. It was a life changing experience.

Otto explains that there are four levels of listening:

1. Downloading: We only pay attention to information that confirms what we already know. We listen selectively and register only what we already believe is true.

2. Open Mind: We suspend our judgment and we consider other points of view and perspectives. We believe that we can learn from others.

3. Open Heart: We listen from outside of ourselves, stepping in other people's shoes so to speak. We pay attention to both the factual information and the emotional context.

4. Open Will: This is the deepest level of listening. It is a listening that connects with the source and attends to an emergent future. It is only from this type of listening that we can truly innovate.

Someone in our group likened the "open will" type of listening to a gardening metaphor and that image really resonated with me.


In the spring, when the snow has melted, the gardener contemplates the patch of dark earth that is his garden in becoming. The earth is moist and soft but it is bare. The seeds and the bulbs are beneath the surface preparing to germinate. The gardener knows that in this fertile ground some green shoots will soon emerge the earth. He anticipates with pleasure the lush and colorful plants that will be in full bloom in just a few weeks.

Listening from the "open will" is like being a gardener and trusting the potential growth of his garden in the Spring.

What are some dreams, hopes, wishes that are still dormant within you? What old patterns to you need to let go of in order to let come a new reality?

Will you be a gardener of your own future potential?

Check out Otto Scharmer's website below for more information on Theory U:
http://www.ottoscharmer.com/