Most presentations of Theory U describe a leadership journey or staged transformation process.
However, in practice, organisational learning rarely unfolds as a neat linear progression.
Instead, awareness, dialogue, relationships, action, and perception continuously influence one another through recursive cycles of interaction and learning.
From this perspective, presencing can be understood not as a one-off event or mystical state, but as the dynamic quality of relational awareness that allows a social field to continuously re-sense, re-learn, and re-orient toward emerging reality.
This interpretation aligns strongly with Nonaka’s SECI framework, where learning emerges through ongoing interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge, social relationships, dialogue, action, and reflection.
The U Movement — Sensemaking, Awareness and Organisational Learning
Figure 1: Otto Scharmer’s Theory U framework
Figure 1 presents an adapted interpretation of Otto Scharmer’s Theory U framework, reframed through the lenses of organisational learning, sensemaking, and the SECI knowledge-creation model. Rather than presenting transformation as a purely linear leadership process, this interpretation emphasizes the progressive deepening of awareness, dialogue, relationships, and action within a social field.
The model begins in Field 1 – Downloading, where individuals and organisations primarily interpret reality through existing assumptions, habits, and established mental models. From this starting point, the left side of the U represents a movement of increasing openness and expanded perception.
In Field 2 – Open Mind, the process of sensing begins through suspending habitual judgement and becoming more attentive to new information and perspectives. This redirects attention beyond existing assumptions and enables new forms of inquiry.
In Field 3 – Open Heart, dialogue and empathic listening deepen relational awareness. Individuals begin moving beyond positional debate toward inquiry, shared understanding, and mutual learning.
At the base of the U, Field 4 – Open Will represents the process Scharmer describes as presencing — a shift in awareness where individuals and groups become more receptive to emerging possibilities rather than merely reacting from past patterns. In this interpretation, presencing is viewed not as a mystical event, but as a dynamic condition of relational awareness that enables learning, adaptation, and collective sensemaking.
The right side of the U represents the movement from awareness into action. Emerging understanding becomes progressively translated into:
- crystallising intent,
- prototyping action,
- and institutionalising new practices.
Importantly, this framework is interpreted here as a recursive learning process rather than a one-off transformation journey. Action changes the social field itself, which subsequently reshapes future sensing, awareness, and learning. In this sense, the U movement aligns closely with adaptive systems thinking and with recursive organisational learning processes such as Nonaka’s SECI model.
This interpretation also highlights the importance of dialogue, relationships, and shared awareness as foundational conditions for adaptive capability, organisational learning, and meaningful transformation.
The Sensemaking Cycle
Figure 2: Presencing Sensemaking Cycle
Figure 2 presents an adapted interpretation of Otto Scharmer’s Theory U framework, reframed through the lenses of organisational learning, sensemaking, and the SECI knowledge-creation model. Rather than depicting transformation as a linear leadership process with a fixed end-state, the model presents organisational learning as a recursive and relational cycle in which awareness, dialogue, relationships, and action continuously reshape one another over time.
The cycle begins in Field 1 – Downloading, where individuals and organisations primarily interpret reality through existing assumptions, routines, and inherited mental models. At this stage, perception is shaped by habitual patterns of thinking and previously established interpretations of reality.
The left side of the U represents the gradual opening of attention and awareness. During Co-Initiating, sensing begins to shift perception as individuals become more open to perspectives, experiences, and conditions that may previously have been overlooked. This movement continues through Co-Sensing, where changing perception begins to alter the quality of dialogue itself. Conversations progressively move beyond positional advocacy and debate toward inquiry, listening, and collective exploration.
At the base of the U, the process of Presencing represents a deeper shift in relational awareness. Dialogue begins to reshape relationships, while evolving relationships subsequently reshape awareness itself. In this interpretation, presencing is not viewed as a mystical event or one-off breakthrough, but as the dynamic quality of relational awareness that allows a social field to continuously re-sense, re-learn, and re-orient toward emerging reality.
The right side of the U represents the movement from awareness into action. Through Crystallizing, emerging awareness begins influencing intentional action and direction. Through Prototyping, action changes the organisational and relational field itself as new practices, interactions, and experiments are tested in lived reality. Finally, through Co-Evolving, these changes reshape future sensing and learning conditions, creating a recursive renewal cycle in which the field continuously influences subsequent perception, dialogue, relationships, and action.
This recursive interpretation aligns strongly with adaptive systems thinking and with Nonaka’s SECI framework. Learning is not treated as the transfer of static knowledge, but as an ongoing process of relational interaction between tacit understanding, dialogue, shared experience, action, and reflection. In this sense, organisational learning emerges not only through cognition, but through evolving social relationships, changing awareness, and participation within a living social field.
Theory U sensemaking and SECI
| Sensemaking Cycle Dynamic | SECI Relation |
| sensing changes perception | Socialisation |
| perception changes dialogue | Externalisation begins |
| dialogue changes relationships | relational Ba formation |
| relationships change awareness | tacit convergence |
| awareness changes action | Combination |
| action changes the field | Internalisation |
| field changes sensing again | renewed Socialisation |
The recursive learning dynamics presented in Figure 2 can also be interpreted through the lens of Nonaka’s SECI knowledge-creation model. In this interpretation, the movement through the sensemaking cycle reflects not merely a sequence of activities, but the continuous interaction between tacit understanding, dialogue, relationships, shared awareness, action, and learning within a social field.
The cycle begins with the movement that “sensing changes perception,” which aligns strongly with Socialisation within SECI. Through direct experience, observation, participation, and relational exposure, individuals begin to encounter perspectives and realities that challenge habitual assumptions and existing mental models.
As “perception changes dialogue,” the process begins moving toward Externalisation. Emerging tacit insights start becoming expressible through conversation, inquiry, storytelling, reflection, and shared interpretation. Dialogue allows previously unarticulated understandings to become increasingly visible and discussable.
The movement where “dialogue changes relationships” reflects the formation of relational Ba — the shared relational field within which learning and knowledge creation can emerge. Through sustained inquiry, listening, and interaction, participants begin developing trust, psychological safety, shared context, and deeper mutual understanding.
As “relationships change awareness,” tacit convergence begins to occur. Shared awareness emerges not necessarily through formal agreement, but through increasing alignment of perception, meaning, attention, and interpretation within the group. Individuals begin to perceive situations less as isolated actors and more through a developing collective understanding.
The movement where “awareness changes action” aligns strongly with Combination. Emerging understanding begins influencing decisions, coordination, planning, experimentation, and collective action. Tacit insights are progressively translated into explicit structures, initiatives, frameworks, practices, and organisational responses.
As “action changes the field,” the process aligns with Internalisation. New practices and lived experiences reshape the organisational environment itself. Participants learn not only cognitively, but through embodied participation, experimentation, reflection, and adaptation within changing conditions.
Finally, as “the field changes sensing again,” the cycle returns to renewed Socialisation. The changed field creates new experiences, new relationships, new tensions, and new learning conditions that subsequently influence future perception, dialogue, awareness, and action. Organisational learning therefore becomes recursive rather than linear — a continuously evolving process of sensing, relating, learning, acting, and adapting within a living social system.
Explore further
This article connects to the broader framework:
- Ethical Domain — how constraints shape decisions
- Sensemaking Domain — how organisations interpret reality
- Relational Domain — how trust and coordination emerge
- Learning Domain — how knowledge is created and tested
- Action Domain — how intent becomes capability
To understand more on Purpose detailed Subject Areas, visit the Deep Dive section.
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