Scharmer wins award for “elevating humankind”
April 21, 2021
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Otto Scharmer
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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
Honors
Scharmer receives Leonardo Award
Scharmer wins Jamieson Prize
Publications
"Universities as Innovation Ecologies for Human & Planetary Flourishing."
Scharmer, Otto. Field of the Future Blog. Medium, March 2025.
"An Emerging Third Option: Reclaiming Democracy from Dark Money & Dark Tech."
Scharmer, Otto. Field of the Future Blog. Medium, November 2024.
"Indonesia’s Role in an Emerging New Global Political Order."
Scharmer, Otto. LinkedIn. November 2024.
"Podcast: What Future Is Wanting to Emerge Through You?"
Scharmer, Otto. Sounds True, July 2024.
"Johan Galtung: Peace with Peaceful Means."
Scharmer, Otto. Field of the Future Blog. Medium, February 2024.
"Fourth Person: The Knowing of the Field."
Scharmer, Otto and Eva Pomeroy. Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change Vol. 4, No. 1 (2024): 19-48.
Media Highlights
Press
Medium
Holding the gaze steady
Senior lecturer Otto Scharmer wrote: "Atrophy is what happens when we outsource all our creative challenges to AI: yes, we do get short-term results (a sugar high) but at the expense of accumulating what a recent MIT study referred to as cognitive debt: the loss of our deeper creative capacities."
Press
La Nación
Otto Scharmer: 'You don't create something new simply by destroying the old: you have to open up spaces for experimentation.'
Senior lecturer Otto Scharmer said: "The most important thing is to be open to something new. Openness is the key skill. Because you don't create something new simply by destroying the old. You have to open up that space to experiment with new ways of working. The key to that, in organizations and societies, is to create small spaces for experimentation."
Press
The Club of Rome
Twelve principles for reimagining universities in times of rupture and regeneration
Senior lecturer Otto Scharmer and co-author wrote: "In a time defined by an accelerating erosion of social, ecological and spiritual foundations, the dominant models of leadership and education are increasingly becoming part of the problem. And yet, new possibilities are also becoming visible. Across regions and sectors, educators and innovators are prototyping ways of learning, leading and organizing that are more life-affirming, more connected and more resilient."
Press
Forbes
The deficit reflex: Why change management keeps solving the wrong problem
Senior lecturer Otto Scharmer said: "You cannot change a system unless you change the mindsets of the people who are enacting that system. If the mindset does not change, the same people in a new structure will recreate the same outcomes."