Accessing the Blind Spot: The U Process as Seen Through the Lens of Developmental Action Inquiry

Exploring First, Second, And Third Person Research: Single, Double, And Triple Loop Learning, And Knowledge Generation

Senge and Scharmer (in Reason & Bradbury, 2001) describe how the action research model used as a basis for Theory U employs a third-person approach to organizing that gives explicit attention to first, second, and third-person research and practice. In other words, Theory U combines subjective, inter-subjective, and objective dimensions in framing challenges, examining relevant data, exploring collective needs and intentions, and prototyping creative pathways for change, or the realization of shared vision. Scharmer’s (2007) contribution in Theory U is the turn from third-person organizing typical of prior, past-oriented research to a new form of first, second, and third-person organizing that enacts the “highest potential future” (p. 52). In this section of our chapter, we use CDAI to explore both the interweaving of first, second, and third- person research, and the three loops of learning and knowledge generation, as they are involved in Scharmer’s U-Process. In discussing these three levels of engagement, we explore how research, learning, and action are simultaneously distinct and critically interconnected through the U process.