In front of the blank canvas: sensing emerging futures

Purpose – The paper asks how leaders in organizations address complex situations or challenges where past experiences are no longer helpful or might pose an obstacle for success. The authors use the metaphor of the blank canvas to describe the work of entrepreneurs or innovators who connect to an emerging future possibility. Based on their research, the authors argue that social technologies allow actors in organizations to connect to an emerging future, and break through habitual patterns of the past. Design/methodology/approach – Underlying this paper, are action research projects in change management and organizational learning. While social science methods tend to be based on observational data, the founder of action research, Kurt Lewin, and his successors, including Ed Schein, Chris Argyris, Peter Senge, and Bill Torbert, claim that we have to use more than just observation (third‐person views) to get meaningful data about social reality. According to Bill Torbert organizational researchers need to access third‐, second‐, and first‐person knowledge – that is, observational data (third person), conversational data (second person) and experiential data (first person) that stem from participative action inquiry. Findings – The paper concludes that organizational innovation and change processes cannot be outsourced. Profound innovation and change are only sustainable and successful when connected to the knowledge of the individuals involved, and when created by the people who will use them and be responsible for the results they produce. Originality/value – Any social action can originate from different inner places; every actor, an individual or a group, even an organization, can choose between different places from where their action originate. How we choose to attend to the world is the leverage we have to determine the outcome of our actions. The arts provide processes that allow actors in organizations to access this quality of knowledge and leverage it.