New Paths to InclUsion: Theory-U, Person-Centred Planning and Transformative Systems Change

Presenter(s) and Affiliations
Dr. Oliver Koenig, University of Vienna and queraum. cultural & social research
Mag. Thomas Schweinsschwaller, Vielfarben: consultancy and training for NPOs and public bodies

Abstract
The New Paths to InclUsion Network (www.personcentredplanning.eu) is a three year (2013-2015) funded project under the EU Lifelong Learning program (Leonardo – Multilateral Network) with 20 partner organizations from 14 European Countries. It builds on the legacy of the European project New Paths to Inclusion I (2009-2011) which has developed an inclusive training course which helped to advance Person Centered Planning and Practice in support services in some parts of Europe and especially in the German speaking countries. The current Network project has now set out on an ambitious learning journey along its guiding question “How can we make sure that support services respond to the individual needs of persons with disabilities and help them live as active and contributing citizens in their communities? What kind of learning is necessary to make this happen?”

For our project we have adopted Theory-U – developed by Otto Scharmer and colleagues from Presencing Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (www.presencing.com) – as a guide to our learning. Theory-U stands for an understanding of social innovation that calls people to move outside their familiar assumptions and taken for granted patterns of behavior. Instead the practices associated with Theory-U provide diverse opportunities and social techniques to access and operate from deeper levels of listening, observation and awareness. The Core of Theory-U is to differentiate between two different kinds of learning: Downloading and Presencing. Downloading describes the predominantly used form of learning and problem solving of our times, which is learning and acting by reflecting upon the experiences of the past. Downloading assumes that what once proved helpful will also help when conditions and times have changed. In the light of the demands for Inclusion, as reflected in the UNCRPD the disability service sector will require new answers that downloading past experiences might not be able to produce. In contrast Scharmer’s alternative concept of learning: Presencing – joins the two words „presence“ and „sensing“. When operating from the mode of Presencing Leaders not only develop a much deeper state of attention and awareness of the effects of empathic observation of the situation on the inner source of their ambitions, they also develop the capacity to sense in the present situation the highest possible future that wants to be brought into being through them and their organizations – thus learning from the future as it emerges.

In this workshop we want to invite the participants to experience some of the social techniques and practices associated with Theory-U and Presencing (especially understanding and practicing different levels of listening and conversation), as well provide space to reflect in various dialogical and experimental settings the meaning(s) that the well worn out concepts of “Inclusion” and “Person-centered Planning” hold for them, where the resting position of our current support structures are at this moment and what it would take from us individually and collectively to move farther into new stories of inclusion and intentional action.

Time
09.00 am - 04.30 pm
Full day

Target Audience

• Researchers and/or PHD Students
• Members of Support Services for people with disabilities
• People with Disabilities
• Families
• Public Administration