A foundational aspect of our approach to change in science is the concept of Network of Networks, articulated by Mei Lin Fung, who helped formulate the world of Customer Relations Management during her work at Oracle.  Mei Lin’s kitchen has been described as a place for sharing of ideas in an informal setting.

Emergence is the arising of new levels of capability at the meta-level, where the sum is greater than its constituent parts (an interesting mathematical description can be found here in the Santa Fe Institute offering from Nils A. Baas and Claus Emmeche).  Emergence, and evolution of the current constructs of science, are what ReImagine Science is designed for.  We are currently stepping up our capability in accelerating the discovery of prototypes that work in the technological and scientific sectors.

We had conducted a survey on who would be the best target group for training in ‘the science of team science,’ and what the content of such training might be (turns out that our respondents thought every stage of a scientific career could benefit from further training in team-work).  We did our own prototyping of this in a retreat July 28-31st, 2016 in Estes Park.  Our facilitators were Lisa Chacon, co-founder of the Oakland Impact Hub, and Mery Miguez, a social presencing theater facilitator.

ReImagine Science Retreat/Workshop
Estes Park July 29-31, 2016 ~ double rainbow over the Estes Park Conference site at the conclusion of our three day workshop.

We are currently hosting a ReImagine Science ULab, with Mery Miguez and Peter Wolff facilitating our group.  Our intention is to engage the tools created at MIT by Otto Scharmer and his colleagues at the Presencing Institute in the field of science, to experiment our way into new ideas and higher levels of clarity in a shared vision for the future of science.  We will be prototyping together, trying small experiments in what sort of training is called for to engage and shape the future leadership and collaboration skills that will have science find its place on the world stage for the future of the planet.

Theory U is a social technology for helping to bring about profound innovation and change. The focus of this method is on sensing and actualizing emerging future opportunities, both individually and collectively. In this program you will learn how to sense and seize future opportunities and how to connect to the deeper journey of your professional and personal life in order to become a more effective leader and change-maker at the level of systems of science and engineering.

Since it emerged around 2006, Theory U has come to be understood in three primary ways: first as a framework; second, as a method for leading profound change; and third, as a way of being – who we are in the matter, how we look at the systems we are part of, how we look at others, and how we engage ourselves.

Course particulars:

This is a working group/co-learning cohort lead by Mery Miguez, Peter Wolff and Kennan Salinero as part of the larger Presencing Institute Theory U Edx course out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  There are currently around 20,000 registered participants worldwide in the massively open online course you will be joining.  This is the third iteration of the ULab as a virtual MOOC; our focus, and theirs, is to move from the learning phase into the realm of action and projects, producing results we wish to see in the world.

It is an asynchronous, virtual course.  Stay tuned, as we will be looking for partners to prototype training and skills aimed at developing the capabilities and attributes leading to highly collaborative, creative work in the scientific fields of study.  If you are interested in discussing being a test site, please email us at contact@reimaginescience.org.

The course syllabus is accessible here.