Faculty
Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer in the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-founder of the Presencing Institute. He chairs the MIT IDEAS program for cross-sector innovation and introduced the concept of “presencing”—learning from the emerging future—in his bestselling books Theory U and Presence (the latter coauthored with Peter Senge and others). His most recent book, The Essentials of Theory U, summarizes the core principles and applications of awareness-based systems change.
In 2015, he co-founded the MITx u.lab and in 2020 the GAIA journey (Global Activation of Intention and Action), both of which promote a worldwide ecosystem of transformational change. Most recently, he and United Nations colleagues cohosted the Global Dialogues on Transforming Systems. With his colleagues he co-created the Action Learning Lab for change makers across UN agencies, as well as a set of SDG Leadership Labs that build capacity for leading transformational change.
Otto earned a PhD in economics from Witten/Herdecke University in Germany. He is a member of the UN Learning Advisory Council for the 2030 Agenda, the World Future Council, and the Club of Rome’s High-Level 21st Century Transformational Economics Commission. He has won the Jamieson Prize for Teaching Excellence at MIT and the European Leonardo Corporate Learning Award. In 2021 he received the Elevating Humanity Award from the Organizational Development Network.
For more information visit www.ottoscharmer.com and www.presencing.org
Scharmer, Otto. Field of the Future Blog. Medium, December 2023.
Scharmer, Otto. Field of the Future Blog. Medium, December 2023.
Scharmer, Otto. Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change Vol. 3, No. 1 (2023): 9-16.
Scharmer, Otto. Field of the Future Blog. Medium, April 2023.
Inayatullah, Sohail, Emma Paine, and Otto Scharmer. Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change Vol. 2, No. 2 (2022): 183-201.
Otto Scharmer. In Earth4All: Deep-Dive Paper 11, October 2022.
New Twitter list collects insight and ideas from more than 40 professors, lecturers, and research scientists
Otto Scharmer offered the term "holding the space" to describe how leaders create the right conditions for the emergence of new ideas.
"None of the big problems we face today can be solved within our own bubble. Listen to improve the quality of the conversation."
"I also feel the presence of profound positive possibility that is palpable across so many places today."
"Because our planetary emergency is already so fragile, each of us needs to hold and protect the flame by holding it close to our heart."
