By R. David Parrish

Not long ago, I came across a recently published book called "Presence," written by Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers. This book immediately caught my attention because it talked about something that is critical to our work in corrections: profound change in people, organizations, and society. The book proposes a theoretical approach that is distinct from all of the work I have seen in the area of organizational development and claims it to be equally usable and powerful at all levels of the human experience.

I picked up the book and read it in one sitting. I was inspired and excited by the fact that MIT professors were developing an approach to change that reflected the wisdom of the transformational traditions of the East that I have been studying for several decades.

R. David Parrish (right) is joined
by C. Otto Scharmer.

The U - Theory maps a submersion into one's experience akin to meditation that provides access to what Scharmer calls the emerging future, a sensing of possibilities and potentialities that can be manifest in prototypes and developed into powerful interventions and applications. The bottom line is that this theory suggests that the most powerful and effective resource for learning and action is within us. In fact, in the book, a distinction is made between "self" with a small s, meaning our everyday personalities or egos, and "Self" with a capital S, meaning our deepest nature, or the source of our greatest possible future Self.

My interest in the application of this work is its potential for an approach to profound individual change for inmates and its use as an approach for organizational development in corrections. I wondered if I could learn more directly from the prime theorist and e-mailed Scharmer. I wanted to share my work in prisons and see if I could create a dialogue with him. To my surprise, he responded and was very interested in contributing to the development of programming and organizational change in criminal justice. We had a number of e-mail exchanges and began to develop a rapport out of our common desire to make a difference. Somehow, I felt I knew this man, although we had never met. We shared a sense of the possibilities for people and organizations. Scharmer invited my wife and I to Massachusetts last December to attend a weeklong workshop called "Presencing: Leadership for Profound Innovation and Change." I was excited about the opportunity to meet him, learn more about his work, and share about the challenges in corrections and the potential application of his theory.

C. Otto Scharmer is responsible for the
development of the U - Theory.

There were 71 people from around the world at the workshop. These were people from the private and public sectors who knew of the leading edge work Scharmer and his colleagues were doing and wanted to develop a deeper understanding of its application. There were people from major oil companies, the military, organizations for global change and even a group of nuns from the Northwest interested in transforming the Catholic Church.

We were the only people from corrections. The other participants considered the criminal justice system to be an interesting area for the application of this work. In addition to Scharmer, the presenters at this workshop were Arawana Hayashi, a dancer and meditation teacher; Beth Jandernoa, an international consultant; and Joseph Jaworski, Adam Kahane, and Peter Senge, all international consultants and well-known authors.

The workshop was a valuable and useful experience. The presentations and processes were designed to provide an opportunity to practice the use of the theoretical model and work on specific projects and challenges. The opportunity to interact with the model and the authors was enriching, especially for those of us who had read the groundbreaking books written by several of them. For me, the most valuable aspects of the experience were meeting with Scharmer and listening to the exchange of ideas and insights by the participants.

During breaks and dinners, we met people from China, Japan, New Zealand, Denmark, and Central America. We discussed the projects and work being done around the world to bring about a global shift in organizations. Everyone shared a common vision to have a workable world in which issues like poverty, starvation and crime were effectively addressed.

We had several opportunities to sit down with Scharmer to share our work and discuss the development of his theory. He is one of the most caring, compassionate and kind human beings I have ever encountered. He was very interested in the application of his work in corrections and offered to help in the development of programming.

Since my return, I have been working on developing applications of Scharmer's work in corrections. As an administrator, the utilization of this work can provide a new way of seeing the operation that holds the potential for innovation. In terms of programming, this work opens up a distinctively different way of looking at changing criminal behavior by motivating inmates and providing opportunities for them to change from the inside out.

I am creating dialogues and conversations with mental health, social work and education staff to look at developing program curriculum that makes use of the U - Theory for profound individual change in our setting. Scharmer is a newfound friend to the New Jersey Department of Corrections and to me personally and has committed his support and participation in the development of new initiatives.

My intention is to have 32 years of experience in prison work culminate in the creation of innovative approaches to prison operations and programming with the assistance and support of visionaries like Scharmer and the dedicated staff I have the privilege of working with daily. The success of the leadership in the NJDOC over the last two decades in creating a nationally recognized operation has set the stage for such work. We are living in an exciting time where the opportunities to make a significant difference in our future are present, and I am thankful to be a part of it.

R. David Parrish is administrator of Riverfront State Prison.