When Life becomes the Teacher (2): Learning to Listen Again, My Deep Dive into Theory U

In the last week of June, I found myself in a small German village called Gross-Behnitz, attending the Presencing Foundation Program with Otto Scharmer, Kathrin Kaufer and their team. It turned out to be one of the most meaningful learning experiences of my professional life.

Part of it was the content - rich, transformative, and rooted in a profound understanding of how change really happens. Part of it was the setting - a place so beautiful and spacious that it seemed to hold the work for us. And part of it was the people: more than eighty participants, many in my own age group and still deeply committed to shaping society in thoughtful, courageous ways. Being in that circle felt like entering a field of shared intention.

The workshop was orchestrated with great care. Each step built on the next, creating a gentle descent into deeper layers of awareness - what Scharmer calls “presencing,” that shift from reacting to sensing, from downloading old patterns to opening into what wants to emerge.

I returned from Gross-Behnitz enthusiastic, full of possibility.  And then, back in my professional reality, a more sobering realization surfaced. We live in a time where technological and societal shifts move at an almost unbearable speed.

Many of my clients are under such pressure that they cannot afford the patience or spaciousness that true inner transformation requires. They operate in reactive mode, not reflective mode. And so I find myself being very selective about what I bring from Theory U into my work - not because the ideas aren’t powerful, but because most organizations are running too fast to walk the full path.

Still, I am deeply grateful for having been there. Even if I cannot apply the entire cycle, many of the small practices, the subtle shifts in attention, the way we held conversations - these have quietly reshaped how I design and deliver my own programs. The learning continues to live in my work, just in a different form.