Otto Scharmer

Faculty

Otto Scharmer

Support Staff

Get in Touch

Title

About

Academic Groups

Academic Area

Centers & Initiatives

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 wins Jamieson Prize

Scharmer wins award for “elevating humankind”

Scharmer receives Leonardo Award

Publications

"Open Mind, Open Heart, Open Will (Podcast)."

Scharmer, Otto. SpreadLove in Organizations, February 2022.

"Ridding Ourselves of Trumpism Will Mean Leaning Into Disruption (Podcast)."

Interviewed by Andrew Keen. Keen On, November 2020.

"Turning the Tide."

Scharmer, Otto. Field of the Future BlogMedium, December 2018.

"Axial Shift: The Decline of Trump, the Rise of the Greens, and the New Coordinates of Societal Change."

Scharmer, Otto. Medium, November 2018.

"Ego to Eco – Building a New Economy for Western Australia (podcast)."

Interviewed by Karun Cowpe. Globalactive Podcast, August 2018.

"It Takes a Journey."

Scharmer, Otto. Indian Management, August 2018.

Load More

Recent Insights

Ideas Made to Matter

Fourteen MIT Sloan faculty members to follow on Twitter

New Twitter list collects insight and ideas from more than 40 professors, lecturers, and research scientists

Feb 19, 2015
Read Article

Media Highlights