Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kaeufer Book Title Survey: Round 2

Thank you for helping us select the best title for the new book by Otto Scharmer (author of the international bestseller Theory U) and Katrin Kaeufer.

In this new book, Scharmer and Kaeufer reveal how to deal with the three deep divides of our time -- ecological, social, and spiritual -- and how the essence of reinventing our economy and reinventing capitalism requires us to bridge all three of these divides.

The crises of our time are not only about financial, economic, or political bankruptcy. They are also about intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy.  The people we entrust to solve society’s problems usually try to do so with the same thinking that created them. Very few leaders are addressing the root causes of the breakdowns of our time.  They respond more often by doing more of the same.

This book is about a new type of response: a journey of becoming aware and of awakening our deepest sources of intention, creativity, and innovation.   It explores how to tap into our deep reserves of individual and collective creativity as individuals and small groups, and as organizations and globally connected societies. People and entities must strengthen their collective capacity to innovate with society’s highest future potential in mind.

Historically, capitalism has evolved through massive waves of institutional innovation that are sparked by severe societal breakdowns and challenges.  Scharmer and Kaeufer show that our time presents the opportunity for such profound renewal and change. 

The blind spot of current economic thought and capitalism concerns how consciousness and awareness influence the degree and depth of connection between every system’s vital elements.  Scharmer and Kaeufer take an evolutionary perspective, identifying four levels of awareness that that shape all human, social, and economic systems.

This book illustrates seven interrelated “acupuncture points” that together could shift the whole system to a higher state of operating: as “Society 4.0”.  It concludes by outlining a practical pathway to Society 4.0 and its Deep Innovation Economy that incorporates all of society’s major institutions.