How to Facilitate Presencing as an Embodied Transformative Learning Process

In a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), traditional leadership and innovation strategies turn out to be insufficient. This paper explores how leaders can develop a future-driven mindset through the Theory U framework and, in particular, the process of presencing. Grounded in recent theoretical frameworks from cognitive science (4E/enactive cognition), we understand presencing as an embodied transformative learning process. We examine how embodied practices and social interactions foster the ability to sense and act upon emerging future potentials during presencing. Drawing from longitudinal empirical research in higher education settings, we analyze the role of leaders as facilitators for supporting individual process of presencing and, crucially, how to collectivize these experiences of individual transformations as a team in order to create sustainable innovations. Furthermore, we derive concrete embodied practices that enable individual and collective sense-making, key leadership skills, and mindsets that enable organizations to co-create a sustainable future.