Islands of Coherence: Building Resilience in Turbulent Times Otto Scharmer

The Climate Collaborative is beyond excited to offer a workshop with Otto Scharmer during Expo West. This is a rare opportunity to learn directly from Dr. Scharmer, a world-renowned systems thinker and founder of the Presencing Institute.

Otto Scharmer's transformative work has inspired hundreds of thousands of changemakers around the globe, shaping movements and driving real-world impact across diverse sectors, including sustainability, banking, and systems innovation. His work has also directly informed initiatives in the food and grocery industry, including the Climate Collaborative's Community of Practice and the Sustainable Herbs Initiative.

This workshop offers a unique opportunity to explore how to create and embody “islands of coherence” during this time of profound turbulence. You’ll gain practical experience with frameworks, practices, and tools that can help you build your capacity for meaningful, long-term impact. Through case studies and interactive discussions, participants will gain clarity on their roles within our collective community of changemakers, fostering a deeper sense of connection and purpose.

• Practical experience with Presencing Institute frameworks, practices, and tools that support building inner resilience and effective action.
• Real-world examples and case studies of regenerative work in action.
• Clarity on your individual role within communities of practice, empowering you to foster meaningful engagement and action.
• Tools for creating and embodying “islands of coherence” in your work and communities during times of rapid change.

This workshop is not to be missed. It’s designed to be an intimate, hands-on event, and it will sell out quickly. Don’t miss your chance to work alongside Otto Scharmer and deepen your impact as part of this transformative community.

Who is Otto Scharmer?

Otto Scharmer, a Senior Lecturer at MIT and Founding Chair of the Presencing Institute, has dedicated the past 20 years to helping leaders embrace cross-sector systems transformation.

Through his bestselling books Theory U and Presence (the latter co-authored with Peter Senge and others), Otto introduced the groundbreaking concept of "presencing" — learning from the emerging future. He also co-authored Leading from the Emerging Future, which outlines eight acupuncture points for transforming our economy from egocentric to ecocentric. His most recent book The Essentials of Theory U (2018) summarizes the core principles and applications of awareness-based systems change.

He co-founded the MITx u-lab, which has activated a vibrant worldwide ecosystem of transformational change involving more than 240,000 users from 186 countries. In collaboration with colleagues, he co-created global Action Learning Labs for UN agencies and SDG Leadership Labs for UN Country Teams in 26 countries, which support cross-sector initiatives for addressing urgent humanitarian crises.

Born and raised near Hamburg, Germany, Otto’s early experiences on his family farm profoundly shaped his vision. From his father, a pioneer of regenerative farming, Otto learned the significance of the living quality of the soil in organic agriculture, which inspired his thinking about social fields as the grounding condition from which visible transformations emerge. Like a good farmer who cares for the soil, Otto believes responsible leaders must nurture the social field in which they operate. He emphasizes that shifting our economic operating systems from extractive to regenerative requires innovations in leadership support structures for shifting mindsets from ego to eco. Building that infrastructure is the purpose of the u-school for Transformation.

Otto earned his diploma and his PhD in economics from Witten/Herdecke University in Germany. He is a member of the UN Learning Advisory Council for the 2030 Agenda and the World Future Council. 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.

Host or Publisher Climate Collaborative