Adam Yukelson on Transformative Learning Environments
By: Sarina Ruiter-Bouwhuis
Tags: Leadership, Practitioners, Learning, Transformation, Education

Entering New Territory

Initially, Adam’s role was mainly around research, writing, and documentation, in projects with the Sustainable Food Lab and the Global Wellbeing Lab (which focused on moving organizations and governments beyond GDP). This experience, in addition to what he had learned in India, gave him a deep understanding of what it looks like to go through a U process and how to bring the framework and practices together in a journey. Still, when Otto asked Adam to lead the development of the first u.lab course in 2014, it was new territory.

“I had zero background in online learning, I didn’t even know what a MOOC was. But I did have a deep process understanding and a pretty clear felt sense of what these methodologies could offer in an in-person context. And that was primarily what we used to inform the design of u.lab.”

3D mapping demo for u.lab-S

Defining Transformative Learning Environments

Adam’s definition of online-to-offline transformative learning environments might seem obvious: “It depends on what it is that you’re trying to transform.” He continues: “In the context of what we try to do in u.lab, you might say that we’re transforming the quality of attention that we bring into action.” This is based on the fundamental idea underlying Theory U that the outcomes we create together in a social system are a function of the awareness or attention that we bring into those systems. Adam highlights:

“When I am talking about transforming attention, the assumption is that there are different ways that we can pay attention. But many of us have not been made aware of the fact that attention is something we can shift.”

Indeed, he explains that, given the right conditions, we can go from “having one or two modes of operating, to having multiple modes of operating.” Transformative learning environments, then, “are about creating the conditions in which such transformation can happen.”

These conditions are what online learning platforms such as u.lab have aimed to provide virtually. The main challenge in doing so is really to get people to self-organize forming small groups and work without an expert facilitator, at scale. In fact, Adam stresses that “the only way in which such learning environments can work at scale, is if they are co-creative.”

What is crucial here, is for the online facilitators to provide guidance from the position of knowing and fully trusting the process and practices you offer. “It’s important to remind people that this is an effective process, that it has worked for many, and that it might take some time to get into. It might not work right away — and that is absolutely fine.” Encouraging learners to come in with an openness to the practice is also important. As Adam reminds us: “It’s not just about a particular exercise or process, but it’s also simply a practice ground for your own attention.”

Mindfulness moment during a u.lab-S Zoom session

Three Intentions

When asked what such learning environments aim to achieve, Adam’s thoughtful answer moves away from an old mindset “achievement framework,” and rather focuses on what the intention is of such learning spaces.

The first intention Adam describes is that of “helping individuals and groups develop a sense of agency to create change in the social systems in which they live. his is a major part of my understanding of systems thinking.” He described this idea, also rooted in the work of and systems thinking articulations by Peter Senge, that often we assume the system is something “out there” and its negative effects are something that happen to us. Adam has witnessed that leading people on a U journey allows them to understand, not just intellectually, but also experientially, that: “the decisions that I take and the things that I do on a day-to-day basis are not in fact separate from the system that’s out there.” He points out:

“We live in a time and a context where cause and effect are not as obvious anymore, as there is a delay in seeing the effects of our actions.”

For that reason, bringing the right group of stakeholders together and creating the right type of environment, can help affect a shift in the sense of “I am a victim of my circumstances,” towards “the things I do are interrelated with the system that is out there”. And that allows for a much greater sense of agency and possibility to effect change in your context, Adam points out.