International Journal of Presencing Leadership & Coaching
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 >>>.].
Cultivating Presencing as an Emergent Field of Learning and Action
This article is grounded in ongoing work within a graduate-level educational context focused on vertical development through the co-creation of collective spaces where participants feel free to be themselves. Over three years of engaging the U process with students, faculty, administrative staff, and industry professionals, our inquiry required staying with uncertainty for emergence to come forth. Guided by the insight that “the way to do is to be,” we approach presencing as the underlying phenomenon shaping this work—encountered as practice, shared space, moment of emergence, developing capacity, and lived outcome. Drawing on reflexive autobiographical narratives and facilitator journals, we observed participants suspending habitual reactions and orienting toward shared meaning, revealing multiple pathways into presencing and the need for sustained inner work. In dialogue with Theory U, Eastern wisdom traditions (including the Bhagavad Gita and Integral Yoga), and Bohmian–Krishnamurti dialogue, three themes emerged: the nature of the field across intra-personal, intersubjective, and outer environments; the evolution of consciousness as presencing becomes palpable within a collective social field; and the development of knowing–being–doing capacities supporting transformation. Two simultaneous movements were observed: the formation of a conscious ego (personal growth) and the transcendence of ego through surrender and letting go (inner growth). Through these movements, the bottom of the U came to be understood as an ever-present wellspring or Source, giving rise to a presencing knowing in the present through which boundaries soften and emergent possibilities arise.
Copyright (c) 2026 Pooja Joshi, Deepthy Raghavendra, Veenta Gupta, Jim Saveland, Sangeetha Balachandar (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Process of Play Production as an Instrument for Developing Collective Leadership Through Presencing.
This article examines play production in drama education as a relational presencing field in which collective leadership emerges as a function of shifting ontological conditions. Drawing on Theory U, social presencing theater, and the ontological scholarship associated with the International Journal of Presencing and Leadership in Complexity, the study reframes leadership as an emergent field phenomenon arising from ontological changes in the underlying ground of perception, attention, and relational awareness of participants. Within this framing, presencing is understood less as a technique or developmental skill located in individuals, more as a transformation in the source condition from which experience, meaning, and action arise. As participants engage in rehearsal and performance processes, habitual ego-based orientations are temporarily suspended, enabling a shift toward ontologically-attuned perception through the field in which agency becomes distributed across the ensemble. Observations from play production illustrate how leadership emerges momentarily through individual as well as relational coherence within the field. However, this coherence is shown to be inherently fragile, repeatedly disrupted by institutional pressures, ego reactivation, and temporal constraints, leading to oscillations between field coherence. The article argues that drama education serves as a kind of learning laboratory of ontological instability, where collective leadership continuously enacts, dissolves, and reconstitutes itself. In doing so, it deepens an ontological view of the social field by demonstrating how presencing operates as a generative condition for leadership emergence within embodied, time-bound creative human systems.
Copyright (c) 2026 Napoleon Motimele (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Inner, Intersubjective, and Transpersonal Experience of Presencing
This article explores a collective journey of presencing as an emergent pathway for cultivating collective leadership within higher education. Grounded in a shared inquiry among participants committed to reimagining higher education through more holistic, relational, and presence-based pedagogies, the study examines how presencing functioned as both an ontological and intersubjective process of transformation. Participants engaged in practices aimed at deepening their own capacities for presence across the domains of being, relating, and acting, thereby creating conditions for new forms of collective awareness, relational coherence, and shared vision to emerge. Building upon Theory U while extending beyond its predominantly epistemological orientation, this article draws on dynamic presencing perspectives to investigate the embodied, relational, and transpersonal dimensions of transformative learning and leadership. Particular attention is given to the way deeper attunement to the lived body, heightened intersubjective resonance, and moments of connection to a larger transpersonal source contributed to the emergence of collective leadership capacities. These capacities included expanded self-awareness, a strengthened sense of shared purpose, heart-centred relational engagement, and the co-emergence of actionable vision for transforming pedagogical and leadership practices within higher education. The article suggests that presencing, when engaged as a lived relational and ontological process, offers a powerful developmental pathway for cultivating forms of leadership capable of responding to the complexity, fragmentation, and transitional challenges facing contemporary educational institutions.
Copyright (c) 2026 Bianca Briciu (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Five Field-Stages of Dynamic Presencing
How does the presencing field develop within shared contexts of leadership, coaching, facilitation, dialogue, and collective engagement? This article introduces the Five Field-Stages of Dynamic Presencing, a field process model that explores how presencing unfolds within conversational environments involving two or more participants. Presencing is approached as an ontological and field-dynamic phenomenon through which individual and conversational fields progressively gather, stabilize, deepen, and support increasingly relational, generative, and flow-based forms of participation. The framework identifies five successive field-stages that illuminate qualitative shifts in how the presencing field organizes perception, participation, emergence, and collective leadership. Beginning with the Convenor’s Field and Participant's Field, presencing first becomes established through sovereign participation before crossing a central ontological threshold into the collective we-field. Through the Relational, Generative, and Flow Fields, participation becomes increasingly shared, generative, and responsive as the field develops greater coherence, carrying capacity, and collective intelligence. Situated within the emerging body of work known as Dynamic Presencing Leadership, the Five Field-Stages offer a developmental account of how collective presencing unfolds through distinct modes of participation and how conversational fields become increasingly coherent, generative, and collectively inhabitable.
Copyright (c) 2026 Olen Gunnlaugson (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This article explores leadership as an emergent and co-participatory process arising within collective presencing fields. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience facilitating transformative individual and collective development through Pacific Integral’s Generating Transformative Change (GTC) program, coaching, and practice-based leadership initiatives, the authors examine how leadership unfolds through shared participation in presencing processes. Moving beyond conventional distinctions between leader and follower, self and other, the article proposes an interpenetrative understanding of individual and collective development in which transformation and emergence co-arise through relational and field-based participation. Grounded in Theory U and informed by developmental and transpersonal perspectives, the article explores how emergent leadership develops through practices that deepen collective awareness, relational trust, embodied participation, and openness to future possibility. Particular attention is given to the role of collective presencing, developmental maturity, and field-based emergence in cultivating new forms of leadership capable of responding to complex individual, organizational, and societal challenges. The article concludes by reflecting on leadership as a living movement of participation within an unfolding field of collective emergence.
Copyright (c) 2026 Geoff Fitch, Abigail Lynam (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Recent developments in presencing scholarship, particularly fourth-person knowing (Scharmer & Pomeroy, 2024, 2026), have deepened understanding of how individuals and groups access, sense, and know from the field. Yet this field-centric orientation leaves a fundamental question comparatively underexplored: What enables presencing to become embodied, inhabitable, and sustainable as a way of being in the field? This article argues that a significant blind spot within contemporary presencing scholarship concerns the role of the Presencing Self. Theory U–based approaches have substantially clarified how the field becomes accessible and knowable. Drawing on recent developments in Dynamic Presencing (Gunnlaugson, 2020–2026), this article turns attention toward the practitioner through whom presencing is lived and sustained. In particular, it examines the phenomenological and interior conditions through which presencing moves from a temporary experience of field awareness toward an enduring mode of participation. Central to this account is the gradual shift from an Everyday Self-Sense to a Presencing Self-Sense. This emerging self-sense becomes the practitioner’s lived center of participation, enabling a more continuous inhabitation of presencing across changing contexts and relationships. Without this development, presencing risks remaining episodic—something accessed under particular conditions rather than lived as an increasingly stable orientation to self, others, and field. To illuminate this developmental trajectory, the article introduces three interrelated contributions. The Presencing Conduit clarifies how presencing becomes grounded and embodied through the practitioner. The Five Field-Stages of Presencing map its progressive unfolding from individual participation toward the emerging we-field. The Fourfold Ontological Grammar of Presencing Participation situates this development within five foundational domains: the Ground of Presence, the Inner Presencing Body, the Presencing Self, the Field and Order of Time. Together, these contributions reclaim the Presencing Self as a central dimension of presencing scholarship. In doing so, the article extends the conversation beyond field-based knowing toward a developmental account of how presencing becomes inhabitable and enduring as a lived way of being in the field.
Enacting Presence Through Archetypal Coaching
This article draws on the integration of Gunnlaugson’s (2020-2025) gesture of letting be with findings from recent research on archetypal coaching (Carod, 2021, 2025). It situates archetypal engagement within the framework of Dynamic Presencing Coaching (DPC). Archetypal coaching reframes archetypal images as field-mediated phenomena emerging within embodied presencing. In this view, archetypes arise as dynamic field intelligences rather than as internal subpersonalities. As the field emerges through the quality of presence co-enacted within the coaching relationship, archetypes, once presenced through the gesture of letting be, become active collaborators in co-sensing, co-creating, and co-evolving. They support coherent, intentional action grounded in sourced wholeness rather than habitual patterns. In doing so, this article offers an integrative contribution to DPC discourse by bridging active imagination, presencing ontology, and coaching practice.
Copyright (c) 2026 Alba Carod (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Presence as Originating Ground, Presencing as Way
Contemporary presence-based and presencing-informed coaching approaches increasingly recognize the importance of embodiment, emergence, relational depth, and the transformative potential of presence. Yet the ontological relationship between presence and presencing remains insufficiently articulated. Presence is often described as a practitioner capacity, relational quality, or condition of effective coaching, while comparatively less attention has been given to how presence functions as the originating ground from which presencing unfolds. As a result, presencing is frequently approached as a conversational process, field phenomenon, or mode of emergence without a corresponding account of the ontological foundations that enable it to become embodied, stabilized, and inhabitable as a way of being. This article addresses that gap by introducing Dynamic Presencing Coaching (DPC) (Gunnlaugson, 2020–2026), a presence-sourced and presencing-guided approach that distinguishes between Presence Work and Presencing Work as two interdependent dimensions of the coaching field. In DPC, presence functions as the originating ground from which presencing unfolds, while presencing refers to the living movement through which embodied presence becomes generative within experience, relationship, and the coaching field. The article develops a twofold account of the coaching process, clarifying how presence establishes the ontological conditions for transformational emergence and how presencing carries that emergence forward as a lived way of being. Through this distinction, DPC offers a developmental and ontological framework for understanding how presencing becomes embodied, sustained, and inhabitable within coaching practice.
This editorial introduces Volume 3, Number 1 of the International Journal of Presencing Leadership & Coaching, devoted to the theme of Collective Leadership. Drawing together contributions from diverse perspectives, the issue explores how collective leadership emerges through relational, field-based, developmental, and presencing-oriented approaches. The editorial situates the articles within the broader evolution of presencing scholarship, highlighting several conceptual blind spots and emerging directions for research and practice. The contributions in this issue advance a field-based understanding of collective leadership and offer new perspectives on how presencing can be cultivated, embodied, and sustained within collective contexts.
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.
Copyright (c) 2025 Olen Gunnlaugson (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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.
ADVANCES IN THE METHODOLOGY OF PRESENCING
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.
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.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ute Weber-Woisetschlager (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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.
Copyright (c) 2025 Colin Skelton (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EQUINE-ASSISTED LEARNING TO DEVELOP PRESENCING MASTERY
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.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lissa Pohl (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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.
Copyright (c) 2025 David Young (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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.
Copyright (c) 2025 Markus Peschl, Peter Hochenauer, Gloria Bottaro, Katharina Roetzer (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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.
Copyright (c) 2025 Katharina Sell (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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.
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).
Copyright (c) 2025 Sam Hinds (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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.
Copyright (c) 2025 Bobby Ricketts (Author) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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.
Reclaiming the Ontotelic Depths of our Presencing Nature
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).
Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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.
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.
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.
Progression Towards Presencing Mastery With a Growth Mindset and Theory U
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.
Embodying Presencing Mastery as a Leaderly Way of Being
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.
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.
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.