International Journal of Presencing Leadership & Coaching
type: channel
description: The International Journal of Presencing Leadership & Coaching (IJPLC) is an annual peer-reviewed publication dedicated to advancing the global field of presencing research. IJPLC supports scholarship with the potential to transform and evolve presencing practice, embracing a wide range of both traditional and innovative research methods. The journal invites emerging presencing approaches that foster new thinking, research and practical applications in leadership and coaching contexts [More >>>.].
publisher: Université Laval
language: en
publication name: International Journal of Presencing Leadership & Coaching
issn: 2818-2952
items: TRANSFORMING THE PRESENCING SELF
items: DYNAMIC PRESENCING COACHING
items: ADVANCES IN THE METHODOLOGY OF PRESENCING
items: EMBODIED PRESENCING LEADERSHIP
items: EMBODIED LEADERSHIP THROUGH PRESENCING
items: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EQUINE-ASSISTED LEARNING TO DEVELOP PRESENCING MASTERY
items: PRESENCING EMBODIED LEADERSHIP
items: HOW TO FACILITATE PRESENCING AS AN EMBODIED TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING PROCESS
items: BEING EMBODIED IN NAVIGATING CHALLENGE
items: PRESENCING AS A WAY OF BEING
items: COMMUNAL REVERIE
items: CULTIVATING PRESENCING EMBODIMENT
items: Editorial
items: Reclaiming the Ontotelic Depths of our Presencing Nature
items: Rethinking Varela's Presencing Ideal
items: An Emerging Path of Presencing Mastery
items: Reconnecting Self and Other
items: Progression Towards Presencing Mastery With a Growth Mindset and Theory U
items: Embodying Presencing Mastery as a Leaderly Way of Being
items: Developing Presencing Mastery
items: Cultivating Stillness Through Yoga
items: Dynamic Presencing Coaching
items: Nurturing Relational Forms of Presencing Mastery
items: Cultivating Presencing Mastery in Organizations for Corporate Leaders: Rediscovering a Values-Based Perspective through a Buddhist Inspired Framework
items: Presencing Mastery as a Relational and Iterative Way of Knowing and Being

TRANSFORMING THE PRESENCING SELF
type: item
description: This article introduces a new phenomenological movement that deepens and transforms the presencing self through developmental shifts in awareness and being. Central to this inquiry is the mesa-turn, an embodied ontological shift that extends Robert Kegan’s subject-object theory of development. Whereas Kegan’s meta-shift emphasizes transformation in one’s self understanding through cognitive decentering and perspectival awareness, the mesa-turn invites practitioners into reclaiming deeper levels of ontological embodiment as a basis for presencing mastery. Drawing from Dynamic Presencing (DP) (Gunnlaugson, 2020-2025), this inward reorientation cultivates direct, somatic contact with the presencing self. This deepening unfolds through the Threefold Developmental Movement: 1) the meta-shift, which uncovers the presencing self through a perspective-taking process; 2) the mesa-turn, which re-roots practitioners in the embodied depths of their presencing nature; and 3) unitive resting, which anchors them in a deeper integrative state of being presence. Together, these three movements reconfigure one’s relationship with their presencing self by guiding a progression from dis-identification (meta-shift) to embodied re-identification (mesa-turn) to a re-configured, integrative identification within presence itself (unitive resting). This framework opens new developmental horizons for presencing leaders, coaches, and practitioners by shifting presencing beyond a way of knowing into a generative and sustained way of being.
subject: Exploratory Research
  topic: section
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: ontological
  topic: keywords
subject: epistemological
  topic: keywords
subject: adult development
  topic: keywords
subject: embodiment
  topic: keywords
subject: meta
  topic: keywords
subject: mesa
  topic: keywords
creator: Olen Gunnlaugson
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Olen Gunnlaugson (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/q5e6wc19

DYNAMIC PRESENCING COACHING
type: item
description: Emerging from the ontological gesture of Letting Be—first articulated in the development of Dynamic Presencing (DP) (Gunnlaugson, 2020–2025) and later integrated at the heart of Dynamic Presencing Coaching (DPC) (Gunnlaugson, 2024a–2025)—this article introduces three holding gestures that deepen presencing from a mode of knowing into an embodied and participatory way of being. While Letting Go, Letting Be, and Letting Come establish foundational process movements for deepened presencing, the addition of Holding Presence, Holding Depth, and Holding Emergence introduces three ontological holding environments that stabilize and catalyze this transformation. These gestures unfold through a dimensional progression of three phases—Enfolding into Presence, Indwelling in Presence, and Unfolding Presencing Emergence—each corresponding to a distinct stage of presencing: Presence, Deep Presencing, and Dynamic Presencing. When integrated, the letting and holding gestures form a dynamic choreography between receptive openness and generative participation. Embodied within the DPC Process-Method, this integrated movement invites a deeply sourced and sovereign engagement with the relational, somatic, and emergent dimensions of presencing, enabling practitioners in leadership, coaching, and related fields to cultivate new forms and stages of presencing mastery.
subject: Exploratory Research
  topic: section
subject: emerging presencing approaches
  topic: keywords
subject: dynamic presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing awareness
  topic: keywords
subject: embodiment
  topic: keywords
subject: ontological
  topic: keywords
subject: epistemological
  topic: keywords
creator: Olen Gunnlaugson
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Olen Gunnlaugson (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/11n0en07

ADVANCES IN THE METHODOLOGY OF PRESENCING
type: item
description: This article introduces letting be as a transformative third gesture of presencing within Dynamic Presencing (DP) (Gunnlaugson, 2020-2025), introducing a new ontological region within the presencing process—beyond the familiar Theory U-based sequence of letting go and letting come. As a foundational gesture, letting be grounds the presencing process by offering a space for indwelling through the Five Level-Depths of Presence (Gunnlaugson, 2025). Integrated into the DP method, this gesture initiates an apprenticeship that shifts presencing from a way of knowing into an emerging presencing-based way of being. This article explores the pivotal and multifaceted contributions of letting be in stabilizing presence, cultivating relational and ontological depth, and fostering the presencing practitioner’s capacity to embody presencing across both individual and collective contexts of practice. Through these and other contributions, letting be reorients the presencing process beyond the Theory U (TU) (Scharmer, 2007-2018) framework, opening new ontological territory within presencing with particular relevance for applied domains such as leadership and coaching, while supporting the ongoing development of presencing practice.
subject: Exploratory Research
  topic: section
subject: presencing approaches
  topic: keywords
subject: dynamic presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing awareness
  topic: keywords
subject: embodiment
  topic: keywords
subject: ontological
  topic: keywords
subject: epistemological
  topic: keywords
creator: Olen Gunnlaugson
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Olen Gunnlaugson (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/tx331a58

EMBODIED PRESENCING LEADERSHIP
type: item
description: This article explores the practice of Embodied Presencing Leadership within the experiential framework of the Integral Art Lab, a creative and consciousness-based process developed in collaboration with the Presencing Institute. Designed for leaders navigating complexity, the Integral Art Lab uses the medium of visual art to activate sensory awareness, inspire creativity, and cultivate qualities of appreciation, dignity, and interconnectedness. Through carefully facilitated processes, both individual and collective dimensions of embodied leadership are awakened. Participants engage in practices that deepen perception, align inner and outer awareness, and support the emergence of new insights from subtle, often overlooked, dimensions of experience. As this work unfolds, a form of collective leadership begins to emerge that operates like a unified, living organism attuned to the deeper intelligence of life. The article proposes that Embodied Presencing Leadership, when practiced in alignment with Source and shared among a consciously attuned group, can support a more dignified and co-creative coexistence with all forms of life.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: embodiment
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: leadership
  topic: keywords
subject: source
  topic: keywords
subject: letting be
  topic: keywords
subject: creativity
  topic: keywords
subject: consciousness
  topic: keywords
creator: Ute Weber-Woisetschlager
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Ute Weber-Woisetschlager (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/k2e62k02

EMBODIED LEADERSHIP THROUGH PRESENCING
type: item
description: This article explores the vital role of embodied awareness in presencing leadership, challenging the enduring cultural bias that privileges intellectualism over the body's innate intelligence in how we understand leadership and human potential. Drawing on theatre-making traditions and contemporary leadership practices, it introduces the concept of dual intelligence via the embodied and conceptual, examining how their integration enhances presence, adaptability, and leadership effectiveness. Central to this exploration are three channels of sensory awareness: exteroception, proprioception, and interoception. Through examples from both theatre and leadership, the article shows how cultivating embodied awareness can result in more authentic, responsive, and impactful leadership. Emphasis is placed on centering and other regular embodiment practices as tools for deepening somatic intelligence and sustaining presence. The article further considers imagination as a bridge between conceptual and embodied knowing, proposing that when imaginative capacity is grounded in sensory awareness, it can catalyze both personal and collective transformation. By confronting the prevailing bias towards intellect, this work advocates for a more integrated, sensory-based approach to leadership. Particularly, one that builds resilience and capacity for leading holistically in today’s complex and evolving environments.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: embodied leadership
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing awareness
  topic: keywords
subject: embodied sensing
  topic: keywords
subject: embodied intelligence
  topic: keywords
subject: embodied storytelling
  topic: keywords
subject: relational leadership
  topic: keywords
subject: somatic awareness
  topic: keywords
subject: centering practice
  topic: keywords
creator: Colin Skelton
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Colin Skelton (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/6sggm013

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EQUINE-ASSISTED LEARNING TO DEVELOP PRESENCING MASTERY
type: item
description: This article introduces Equine-Assisted Learning (EAL) as an embodied and effective methodology for cultivating presencing mastery. The aim is to contribute to the growing repertoire of Emerging Presencing Approaches (EPAs) that advance the shift from presencing as a way of knowing to presencing as a generative way of being (Gunnlaugson, 2024). The article further explores the critical roles of clean feedback, intersubjective dynamics, and co-iterative relational processes in facilitating the development of presencing mastery. By situating presencing mastery firmly within the body, EAL offers a pathway for leaders to increase their resilience and efficacy in navigating the complex, fragmented, and often disengaged social systems of contemporary organizational life. In this context, presencing mastery emerges not only as a theoretical construct but as a living, embodied practice critical for leadership development in an era marked by escalating complexity and relational fragmentation.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
subject: equine-assisted learning
  topic: keywords
subject: EAL
  topic: keywords
subject: somatic intelligence
  topic: keywords
subject: emerging presencing approaches
  topic: keywords
subject: dynamic presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: integral theory
  topic: keywords
subject: conversational leadership
  topic: keywords
creator: Lissa Pohl
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Lissa Pohl (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/h8cdsy85

PRESENCING EMBODIED LEADERSHIP
type: item
description: For presencing leadership to become a deeply embodied way of being, the practice of trauma presencing must be consciously integrated within embodiment practices. Without this integration, practitioners risk misinterpreting unresolved trauma, remaining unaware of its presence, mis-attuning to trauma in themselves and others, or becoming hyper- or hypo-activated in trauma-related time loops. As these risks often go unrecognized, practitioners may inadvertently address only surface-level symptoms while missing subtler, unresolved trauma processes. This article highlights the importance of trauma presencing in the development of presencing leadership and calls for a deeper examination of disembodiment as a somatic phenomenon that can be integrated through trauma-sensitive practices. By examining trauma as a “blind spot” in the body and field, this work explores trauma’s time-looped, relational nature within the soma as processes that can be felt, synchronized with, and integrated. Trauma presencing enhances embodiment capacities, allowing presencing leadership to emerge as a deeply lived experience on individual and collective levels.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: ontological
  topic: keywords
subject: process ontology
  topic: keywords
subject: presence
  topic: keywords
subject: fourth-generation coaching
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
creator: David Young
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 David Young (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/de6pdv11

HOW TO FACILITATE PRESENCING AS AN EMBODIED TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING PROCESS
type: item
description: 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.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: theory u
  topic: keywords
subject: transformational leadership
  topic: keywords
subject: 4E cognition
  topic: keywords
subject: transformative learning
  topic: keywords
subject: innovation and knowledge creation
  topic: keywords
subject: ontological and process ontology approaches
  topic: keywords
subject: fourth-generation coaching
  topic: keywords
creator: Markus Peschl
creator: Peter Hochenauer
creator: Gloria Bottaro
creator: Katharina Roetzer
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Markus Peschl, Peter Hochenauer, Gloria Bottaro, Katharina Roetzer (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/56ndm426

BEING EMBODIED IN NAVIGATING CHALLENGE
type: item
description: The challenges of our complex, uncertain and ambiguous world take us to the limits of conventional ways of knowing and being in leadership. We might see this as an invitation to move beyond the conventional and attune to our wider senses and field consciousness, which allows us to access presenced ways of knowing and navigating that hold generative potential. Integrating a presencing disposition in our leadership, however, is not a temporary practice to add to our toolbox; it requires an ontological apprenticeship of grounding our being in deeper realms of presence from where new answers and resources may arise. These states of presence are not accessible or sustainable without being deeply connected to our bodies and -through that- to our deeper essence and source. Based on a two-year collaborative action research process with a group of executive leaders, this article highlights the catalysing role of embodiment in navigating leadership challenge – not only to facilitate a presencing disposition on a day-to-day basis, but also to ground us in an ontological paradigm that enables a way of being and relating to reality in a generative presencing way. In particular, this article suggests two practices that facilitate our deep embodiment in this apprenticeship: The regular practice of grounding, and the practice of navigating with the felt sense of a presencing insight over time. Both micro practices, being implemented into day-to-day leadership long-term, they appear to have the potential to enable us to navigate the complex and unknown with an embodied compass, to ground us in an ontological paradigm that allows us to access resources and insights beyond the rational-analytic realm, and to tap into the generative potential inherent in our given reality.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: leadership
  topic: keywords
subject: embodiment
  topic: keywords
subject: process ontology
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
subject: presence
  topic: keywords
creator: Katharina Sell
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Katharina Sell (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/1emtyg97

PRESENCING AS A WAY OF BEING
type: item
description: This article responds to the fourth-person perspective introduced by Scharmer and Pomeroy (2024), which positions the social field as a new epistemological category of collective knowing. In contrast, it introduces Dynamic Presencing Coaching (DPC) (Gunnlaugson, 2024a–2025) in contributing to evolving development of fourth-person knowing by offering a fully embodied and inhabitable approach to presencing in both individual and collective coaching contexts. Central to this contribution is the presencing self-sense—a lived, phenomenological orientation that functions as a dynamic conduit of presence. In DPC, this self-sense is enacted through the coach’s inner presencing body as it connects their presencing self in the presencing field as a living, self-generating circulation and flow of presence. From this perspective, the accessibility and depth of fourth-person knowing emerges through an inner enactment of five dimensional, embodied level-depths of presence. To support this reframing, the article articulates five critical contributions of DPC: (1) recasting embodied participation in relation to the presencing field; (2) providing a cohesive ontological framework for field engagement; (3) integrating individual and collective dynamics through presence; (4) reconfiguring the temporal architecture of presencing to integrate past, present, emerging future, and eternal dimensions of deep time; and (5) restoring practitioner agency as a co-creative force in shaping the field. These contributions build upon the ontological foundations of Dynamic Presencing (DP) (Gunnlaugson, 2020–2025), which affirms the presencing field as an emergent, immanent dimension of presence. Overall, Dynamic Presencing Coaching contributes to a reframing of fourth-person knowing as an embodied generative way of presencing within coaching and the whole of daily life.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: fourth-person perspective
  topic: keywords
subject: ontological presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: field-based presencing
  topic: keywords
creator: Olen Gunnlaugson
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Olen Gunnlaugson (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/rkvrk593

COMMUNAL REVERIE
type: item
description: Communal Reverie can be described as an emerging presencing approach (EPA) initiated at the beginning of 2021 (Gunnlaugson, 2023; Hinds, 2023). Its closest predecessor and influence amongst the presencing practice ecosystem is Baeck’s (2018) Collective Presencing, from which key elements in its original procedures and guiding protocols were sourced. Adding to the myriad streams of indigenous knowledges, wisdom traditions, and integral philosophies and life practices that have informed presencing up to date, Communal Reverie has incorporated influences from mystical streams and philosophical frames emphasizing engagement with the autonomous productions of the deep imagination (Anzladua, 1987; Bosnak, 2007; Bourgeault, 2020; Burbea, 2015, 2016, 2017; Corbin, 1969, 1977, 1999; Jung, 1966a, 1966b, 1969, 1980; Segall, 2023). My understanding of the potentials of Communal Reverie practice are informed, at the deepest level, by a variety of convergent visions set forth by philosophers contending that imaginal practice, in its most realized forms, enables conscious participation with transpersonal influences of a subtle nature (Barfield, 1988; Bernstein, 2005; Ferrer, 2017; Gebser, 1985, 2024; Tarnas, 1991). Communal Reverie, to my present knowledge, is distinct amongst EPAs insofar as it is framed explicitly as a collective imaginal practice and, likewise, distinct amongst imaginal practices insofar as it approaches the group field as a source of communal imaginal revelation. This article will introduce Communal Reverie with specific focus on the theme of presencing embodiment (Gunnlaugson, 2023).
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: collective presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: imaginal
  topic: keywords
subject: collective imaginal attunement
  topic: keywords
subject: communal reverie
  topic: keywords
subject: participation
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing embodiment
  topic: keywords
creator: Sam Hinds
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Sam Hinds (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/w12fkt98

CULTIVATING PRESENCING EMBODIMENT
type: item
description: This article explores Presencing Embodiment, a dynamic state of heightened sensory, emotional, and relational awareness, where individuals align perception, intention, and action in real time. This state fosters adaptive engagement with the present moment and deepens the potential for co-creative participation. Drawing on sensory input from both internal and external sources, Presencing Embodiment cultivates a deep, felt awareness that enables real-time responsiveness, creativity, and collaboration, allowing individuals and groups to navigate complexity and co-create emergent possibilities. Inspired by the developmental strategies of improvising musicians, the author draws upon extensive improvisational music performance experience to synthesize key theoretical frameworks—including Gunnlaugson’s Dynamic Presencing (2020), Ericsson’s Deliberate Practice (1993), Gallagher and Zahavi’s Phenomenological Embodiment (2012), Stacey’s Emergence in Complex Systems (2001), Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory (1996), and Scharmer’s Theory U (2009). From this synthesis, five orientational modes are identified: Co-Creation, Embracing the Unknown, Deep Listening, Embodied Awareness, and Playfulness. Grounded in the context of improvisational music ensemble performance, these modes foster the capacities that enhance Presencing Embodiment. The article discusses how these modes, though originating in music, are applicable across domains such as leadership and education. Engaging with these modes enables practitioners to deepen their attunement to themselves, others, and the environment, fostering resilience, creativity, and adaptive leadership. Through the synthesis of lived musical experience and theory, the article presents a framework for enhancing collective capabilities to co-create transformative outcomes.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: Leadership development
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: embodied leadership
  topic: keywords
subject: transformative leadership
  topic: keywords
subject: creative leadership
  topic: keywords
creator: Bobby Ricketts
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Bobby Ricketts (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/bs1n7059

Editorial
type: item
description: This editorial introduces the second issue of the International Journal of Presencing Leadership & Coaching, focused on the theme of presencing embodiment. It outlines how the body serves as a generative ground for presencing practice, drawing attention to subtle somatic, relational, and developmental dimensions often overlooked. Key questions frame the issue’s inquiry into how embodiment informs leadership and coaching, and where new practices and blind spots are emerging. The notion of Emerging Presencing Approaches (EPAs) is revisited to affirm the journal’s role in supporting methodological innovation and trans-traditional inquiry. This issue affirms presencing embodiment as a foundational and evolving dimension of practice, while extending an open invitation for future contributions that continue to explore presencing as a living, integrative discipline.
subject: Editorial
  topic: section
creator: Olen Gunnlaugson
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 Olen Gunnlaugson (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-06-25
publication date: 2025-06-25
doi: 10.69470/wfybhf97

Reclaiming the Ontotelic Depths of our Presencing Nature
type: item
description: In this article, I introduce the notion of the Ontotelic to bring attention to a significant blindspot within existing presencing theory and practice: the ontological nature and source of the presencing self, which plays a formative role in activating as well as sustaining a deeply embodied overall presencing perception in the presencing field. Foundational to reclaiming the depths of presence of our presencing self in the work of Dynamic Presencing Coaching (Gunnlaugson, 2024a, 2024b, forthcoming; Proches, C. et al., 2024), apprenticing with the Ontotelic depth-dimensions of our being plays a critical role in establishing necessary preconditions for developing a robust presencing perception from the five level-depths of presence that constitute our deeper presencing nature within the presencing field (Gunnlaugson, forthcoming).
subject: Exploratory Research
  topic: section
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: Ontotelic
  topic: keywords
subject: soul
  topic: keywords
subject: flow
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
subject: transformational way of being
  topic: keywords
creator: Olen Gunnlaugson
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 211
ending page: 229
doi: 10.69470/4nch8d32

Rethinking Varela's Presencing Ideal
type: item
description: This article addresses Francisco Varela’s epistemological ideal of presencing mastery. For some time, further clarification has been needed to explore its feasibility, the methodological means to it as well as its cultivation in contexts of practice. As a response, drawing from the work of Dynamic Presencing (Gunnlaugson 2020, 2021, 2023; Gunnlaugson and Brendel, 2019, 2020, 2021), I introduce a three-stage ontological process-method for cultivating presencing mastery by developing one’s presencing self from the ground of presence in the presencing field. In contrast to Varela’s ideal, this ontological method serves as an internal, subtle yet robust scaffolding structure, that when applied as a transformative method, introduces a new form of presencing mastery as a generative way of being in leadership and coaching contexts.
subject: Exploratory Research
  topic: section
subject: dynamic presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing awareness
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
subject: ontological
  topic: keywords
creator: Olen Gunnlaugson
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 190
ending page: 210
doi: 10.69470/gtvyj513

An Emerging Path of Presencing Mastery
type: item
description: Drawing from the recent developments of Dynamic Presencing Coaching (Gunnlaugson, 2024a, 2024b, forthcoming; Proches, C. et al., 2024), I introduce a framework outlining an embodied, phenomenological and ontological-based (EPO) approach to cultivating new forms and expressions of presencing mastery. Through each of the three EPO dimensions of practice, it becomes possible to effectively immerse in, embody and transform one’s way of navigating the depth regions of presencing coaching as an emerging frontier of mastery practice.
subject: Exploratory Research
  topic: section
subject: emerging presencing approaches
  topic: keywords
subject: dynamic presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing awareness
  topic: keywords
subject: ontological
  topic: keywords
subject: epistemological
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing coaching
  topic: keywords
creator: Olen Gunnlaugson
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 174
ending page: 189
doi: 10.69470/tta2ga85

Reconnecting Self and Other
type: item
description: This article explores presencing mastery from the perspective of serving a human need that is universally shared: the need to belong. Starting from a personal experience I will set the context for presencing moving beyond a situational or systemic interventionist activity towards cultivating deeper causes and conditions of wellbeing. To then develop an understanding of presencing beyond its current framing in Theory U, I will draw on the fundamental human need to belong (Baumeister & Leary 1995). By rooting advances in presencing in this foundational aspect of human nature, I follow a thread of developing two interdependent capacities of presencing mastery. One, cultivating awareness and compassion in one’s inner world to deepen understanding of how the need to belong shapes our way of being in the world. Second, as self-understanding of one’s own nature gradually deepens inwardly, develop the skillful means to create conducive learning environments reflective of the human need to belong. These learning environments prototype the causes and conditions of satisfying the need to belong as a way of being, shifting our experience of separation towards realizing connectedness as a source of wellbeing. I will close by pointing to Gross National Happiness as a holistic societal development model integrating these two capacities towards the well-being of all.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
subject: need to belong
  topic: keywords
subject: conductive learning environments
  topic: keywords
subject: wellbeing
  topic: keywords
creator: Ursula Versteegen
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 153
ending page: 173
doi: 10.69470/xhzvsa74

Progression Towards Presencing Mastery With a Growth Mindset and Theory U
type: item
description: Contemporary discourse surrounding leadership, creates a context for presencing mastery as a practice. Globally, we are living in times of disruption, with institutions failing because of a blindness to the inner core of understanding with respect to transformation and leadership (Scharmer, 2018). Corruption is endemic in South Africa, with a lack of accountability and mindful leadership through standardization of systems that no longer serve the people. It is argued that an inner shift needs to occur where one is able to broaden one’s thinking capacity to think beyond the self (ego) and move from ego-system awareness, centred around care for oneself only, towards eco-system awareness, centred around care for the benefit of all (Scharmer and Käufer, 2013; Scharmer, 2018). When this inner shift takes place in leadership, conditions for activating “wisdom-based leadership development become present” (Gunnlaugson, 2021, p. 4). I argue further that this inner shift can only occur when you surrender to the Divine Presence within.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: growth mindset
  topic: keywords
subject: leadership
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing
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subject: spirituality
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subject: surrender
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subject: Theory U
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creator: Praline Ross
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 139
ending page: 152
doi: 10.69470/k36y1d46

Embodying Presencing Mastery as a Leaderly Way of Being
type: item
description: Over the past decades, presencing has gained increasing weight as an approach to address complex societal and organizational challenges. But could presencing be more than a method to gain contextual knowledge? Could it be a path to more profound ways of experiencing the world and our place in it? Embracing the increasing complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity in organizations seems to require not just a different toolset or way of doing, but an entirely different way of being – one that is able to move in sync with our VUCA environment by incorporating the presencing process and disposition in our day-to-day life. What would it mean to develop this form of presencing mastery and embody presencing as a second nature in our leadership, life, and work? What finer aspects of the presencing process and disposition would we need to deeply integrate? Which challenges might we need to grapple with on the journey? And which potential might lie in incorporating presencing mastery as a leaderly way of being? Based on a six-year doctoral action research, this article fleshes out the archetypical inner journey towards presencing mastery. Ongoing cycles of action and reflection with a long-term collaborative inquiry group of organizational leaders have revealed key insights and practices for the process of developing presencing mastery as an embodied way of being. The findings also suggest that in order to incorporate and navigate with a noted degree of presencing mastery, we need to face the inertia of conventional mental models and commit to the costs and growing pains of embracing post-conventional epistemologies and ontologies. Through this ongoing commitment we may come to discover presencing mastery as a powerful way of participating in an unfolding, interconnected world and co-creating generative ways of living and leading in it.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
subject: inner knowing
  topic: keywords
subject: embodiment
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subject: leadership
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subject: leadership journey
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subject: way of being
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subject: vuca
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creator: Katharina Sell
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 111
ending page: 138
doi: 10.69470/7e62db62

Developing Presencing Mastery
type: item
description: This article presents a leadership practice directed towards the cultivation of presencing mastery through the integration of Theory U, Dynamic Presencing, Systems Thinking management theories, and a Buddhist-based mindfulness practice as a method of leadership and organizational development. Each of these modalities are explored to gain insight into enhancing a leader’s overall ability to lead viable organizational systems amidst current VUCA conditions. The article posits that capacities that cultivate presencing mastery are enhanced in particular ways through an overall integration of Theory U and Dynamic Presencing, as well as through a mindfulness and systems thinking and being practice, leading to more effective overall presencing leadership. As a whole, these progressive approaches reorient the pursuit of presencing mastery as an essential component of an integral organizational systems leadership framework.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
subject: mindfulness
  topic: keywords
subject: systems thinking
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing leadership
  topic: keywords
subject: Theory U
  topic: keywords
subject: organizational equanimity
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creator: Roderick Campbell
creator: Marty Jacobs
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 96
ending page: 110
doi: 10.69470/50hbeh03

Cultivating Stillness Through Yoga
type: item
description: Dynamic Presencing offers a significant advancement in the work of presencing. The work as a whole opens up new territory at the bottom of the U that develops existing understandings and applications of presencing in Theory U contexts. Key to the first three journeys is the ability to embody different level-depths of presence and to learn to rest in stillness and discern emergence in a way that generates a subtle but active renewal of our seeing from Source. We suggest the Yoga Sutras, as a foundational document of the philosophy and practice of yoga, and as a holistic and systemic approach to stilling the waves of consciousness, offer supportive practices and ways of being that are complimentary to the Dynamic Presencing method of attuning to, being and seeing from Source. In this article, we illustrate how yoga practice not only aligns with but also provides an important and necessary contribution to the Dynamic Presencing mastery ideal of engaging presencing as a generative way of being. To this end, we outline two of the eight limbs or components of classical yoga—yama-niyama and gunas—as a means of demonstrating these alignments and essential contributions.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: yoga sutras
  topic: keywords
subject: stillness of consciousness
  topic: keywords
subject: holistic approach to Dynamic Presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: yama-niyama
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subject: gunas
  topic: keywords
creator: Renata Cueto de Souza
creator: Charles Scott
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 82
ending page: 95
doi: 10.69470/eh0wg012

Dynamic Presencing Coaching
type: item
description: This article draws upon findings from a recent five-year period of research, which led to the genesis and development of Dynamic Presencing Coaching (Gunnlaugson, 2024a, 2024b, forthcoming; Proches, C. et al., 2024), an emerging next-stage, fourth-generation coaching approach. In the sections that follow, I present a meta-framework outlining seven transformative shifts for exploring beyond the territory of current “third-generation coaching practice” (Stelter, R. 2014a). I then address how this meta-framework, derived from key insights generated from the Dynamic Presencing Coaching methodology serves as a transformative lens for exploring, clarifying and deepening into the space of fourth-generation coaching as a path for uncovering emerging forms of presencing mastery.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: ontological
  topic: keywords
subject: process ontology
  topic: keywords
subject: presence
  topic: keywords
subject: fourth-generation coaching
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
creator: Olen Gunnlaugson
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 43
ending page: 71
doi: 10.69470/zv3grz15

Nurturing Relational Forms of Presencing Mastery
type: item
description: Drawing on a body of collaborative work in communities of practice and research exploring holistic approaches to social transformation, in this article I discuss how a triune of community, deep participation, and embodied play may aid the cultivation of presencing mastery. For the purposes of this article, I explore presencing as a relational practice, the mastery of which requires us to come into fuller, more conscious engagement with ourselves, one another, and the world at large. To enable the deepening of each of these relationships, I make the case for integrative inner work, cultivating participatory ways of knowing that go beyond cognitive intelligence and that tap somatic, emotional, social, ecological, and spiritual insights. I posit that such integrative whole-person development is central for presencing mastery to be realised. I also discuss how communities of practice provide essential scaffolding on this journey, helping us to address our blind spots and automaticities in perception, thought and action. Creative practices and embodied play can be greatly beneficial here, loosening perceptual filters and enabling between us more open, receptive, and fluid states of consciousness that provide a kaleidoscopic appreciation of our inner and outer worlds and their complexities.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
subject: communities of practice
  topic: keywords
subject: integrative practice
  topic: keywords
subject: holistic change facilitation
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subject: play
  topic: keywords
subject: deep participation
  topic: keywords
subject: intercorporeality
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subject: other ways of knowing
  topic: keywords
subject: inner work
  topic: keywords
subject: active receptivity
  topic: keywords
creator: Jessica Bockler
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Jessica Bockler (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 7
ending page: 23
doi: 10.69470/a2xyrv69

Editorial
type: item
description: In this inaugural editorial, I share the background context and impetus for the journal, outlining the background contexts that are contributing to presencing as an emerging field. I touch briefly on contributions for this issue as it delves into the theme of presencing mastery with a particular interest in the shift from presencing as a way of knowing to a generative way of being. I then introduce a framework outlining the three stages of presencing theory and practice, discussing a path for third stage presencing research as an emerging overarching focus and meta narrative for this current and upcoming issues of the journal.
subject: Editorial
  topic: section
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
subject: third stage presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing as a way of being
  topic: keywords
creator: Olen Gunnlaugson
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 1
ending page: 6
doi: 10.69470/7bnktb28

Cultivating Presencing Mastery in Organizations for Corporate Leaders: Rediscovering a Values-Based Perspective through a Buddhist Inspired Framework
type: item
description: This article shares a theoretical framework supported by hands-on practices that can help corporate leaders develop and refine their core values in the context of developing presencing mastery. Presencing mastery enables a deeper way of being: one that is generative and contextually embodied. Drawing on our academic and practitioner experience, we propose exploring leadership values within a Buddhist inspired framework from a values-based leadership perspective as a means for creating the inner space in leaders to awaken a more profound sense of purpose and service. As a whole, presencing, values-based leadership, and Buddhist psychology intersect in their common intent of operating from one’s generative inner being as primary.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: Presencing
  topic: keywords
subject: Values
  topic: keywords
subject: Values-based Leadership
  topic: keywords
subject: Buddhist Principles
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subject: Organizational Leadership Practice
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creator: Kathy Bishop
creator: Luis Lunden
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 24
ending page: 42
doi: 10.69470/ebfreb88

Presencing Mastery as a Relational and Iterative Way of Knowing and Being
type: item
description: This article uses the case study of a social innovation hub formed as part of the u.lab MOOC at a Sino-British university, to outline the ways in which Theory U’s integrative framework alongside the experiential learning and contemplative practices embedded in u.lab can be used to develop core capacities for presencing mastery. Presencing is understood here as a relational and iterative process that, when supported by epistemic and ontological shifts, guides the locus of presencing mastery to be informed by the pattern and quality of relationships, with one’s inner knowing and among individuals in a group. The article positions Theory U as a holistic framework for individuals and groups to engage and integrate the cognitive, emotional, relational, and spiritual dimensions of theirs and the group’s presencing. It identifies empathic listening, supported by awareness-based contemplative practices in u.lab, as key for developing relational and embodied forms of presencing mastery.
subject: Feature Articles
  topic: section
subject: Theory U
  topic: keywords
subject: u.lab
  topic: keywords
subject: relational capacities
  topic: keywords
subject: presencing mastery
  topic: keywords
creator: Beatriz Carrillo
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 Beatriz Carrillo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2024-06-21
publication date: 2024-06-21
starting page: 72
ending page: 81
doi: 10.69470/vfzwy553