A Conversation with Otto Scharmer

In this 60 minute recorded webinar, the Academy hosts Otto Scharmer in discussion about his work on Theory U, focusing on core principles and applications. Academy Founders, Peter Senge and Darcy Winslow, along with Academy Fellow and Strategic Design Manager, Katie Stubley, talk about turning theory into practice and take questions from participants as to how we can implement this work in our daily lives.

Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer in the MIT Sloan School of Management and founder of the Presencing Institute. He chairs the MIT IDEAS program for cross-sector innovation, which helps leaders in business, government, and civil society to innovate at the level of the whole system. Scharmer introduced the concept of “presencing” – learning from the emerging future – in his bestselling books Theory U and Presence (the latter co-authored with Peter Senge, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers). His new book, The Essentials of Theory U (2018), is a powerful pocket guide for practitioners that distills all of the research and materials found in his seminal texts Theory U and Leading from the Emerging Future. This book enables leaders and organizations in all industries and sectors to shift awareness, connect with the highest future possibilities, and strengthen the capacity to co-shape the future.