Otto Scharmer - Presence of the Future

Does a future potential exist, seeking to emerge, that is already part of you, that in fact depends on you, and that can be experienced by you right now? Yes, says MIT researcher Otto Scharmer, and he coined the term “presencing” or “pre-sensing” to describe it. Increasing numbers of people, says Scharmer, are beginning to directly perceive our collective emerging future, and not just in rarified settings or during solitary meditation. People are having this mysterious and profound experience in everyday circumstances, social settings, in large groups, even while at work. More than that, Scharmer believes our collective capacity to literally pre-sense the future will help activate the latent potential within us to respond appropriately and wisely to the global, social, and environmental crises we now confront.

The depth of his research and personal passion for the work make this interview a rewarding journey to the place where theory meets practice. This talk is a must-listen for those with a serious interest in the emerging field of collective intelligence and its potential impact on the way we relate to our individual and collective existence.

BIO

Dr. C. Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a founding co-director of ELIAS (Emerging Leaders for Innovations Across Systems), a joint leadership development initiative of the UN Global Compact, and the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), along with leading global companies, the World Bank, and NGOs. ELIAS uses the U process of presencing to help young executives co-create profound systems innovations for a more sustainable world. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Center for Innovation and Knowledge Research, Helsinki School of Economics. An international action researcher, he is a co-founder SoL and has consulted with multinational firms and international institutions in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Scharmer holds a Ph.D. in economics and management from Witten-Herdecke University, Germany. His article “Strategic Leadership within the Triad Growth-Employment-Ecology” won the McKinsey Research Award in 1991. His most recent work has included research in the form of dialogue interviews with 150 eminent thinkers on leadership, strategy, and knowledge creation. A synthesis of this research has resulted in a theoretical framework and practice called presencing, which he elaborates in his forthcoming book, Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges, as well as in a co-authored book with Peter Senge, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers, Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (2004). With his colleagues, Otto has used presencing to facilitate profound innovation and change processes both within companies and across societal systems. He lives with his wife and their two children in Boston, Massachusetts.