We began with a question: what if the quality of our attention is what determines the quality of our action? From that question, a field has grown.
The Presencing Institute (PI) was founded in 2006 at the intersection of science, consciousness, and systems change. At its core is Theory U — a framework and practice developed by Otto Scharmer and colleagues that invites individuals, organizations, and communities to move from reactive patterns toward what wants to emerge. Presencing — a blend of “presence” and “sensing” — names that threshold moment: when we pause deeply enough to feel what the situation requires, and begin to act from there.
What makes PI distinct is its insistence that inner work and outer transformation are not separate. Shifting from ego-system awareness to eco-system awareness — from “what benefits me” to “what benefits the whole” — is not a metaphor here. It is the actual practice. And increasingly, the whole PI understands itself in relation to includes the living systems we are embedded in: soil, water, climate, the more-than-human world.
PI offers capacity-building programs through the u-school for Transformation, the global Presencing Series (open and free), Social Presencing Theater, certifications in Awareness-Based Systems Change, and action research initiatives on regenerative futures. A small core team co-leads a global network of faculty and partners across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
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