Otto Scharmer

Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer in the MIT Management Sloan School and founder of the Presencing Institute. He chairs the MIT IDEAS program for sustainability and cross-sector innovation. Scharmer introduced the concept of “presencing”—learning from the emerging future—in his bestselling books Theory U and Presence (the latter coauthored with Peter Senge, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers). He is coauthor of Leading from the Emerging Future, which outlines eight acupuncture points for transforming capitalism. His new book, The Essentials of Theory U (2018), outlines an updated summary of the core principles and applications for leading profound systems change.

In 2015, Otto cofounded the MITx u.lab, a massive open online course (MOOC) for leading profound change, which has since activated a global eco-system of societal and personal renewal involving more than 125,000 users from 185 countries. In 2019, he cofounded the Societal Transformation Lab (u.lab-S), involving 350 place-based teams focusing on reinventing education, governance, and our economies in the context of their eco-system.

Otto earned his diploma and PhD in economics from Witten/Herdecke University in Germany. He received the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching at MIT (2015) and the European Leonardo Corporate Learning Award (2016). In 2018, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General appointed him to the UN Learning Advisory Council for the 2030 Agenda. For 2019 he is ranked #3 of the world’s top 30 education professionals by Global Gurus.

For more information: www.ottoscharmer.com