u-school for Transformation

The u-school for Transformation is the Presencing Institute’s (PI) platform for scaling up and sustaining transformation literacy across communities, organizations and society. Globally accessible, u-school democratizes access to the tools and methods of societal transformation. It is a space for change makers to learn, support and act together on most pressing pressing global challenges.

The u-school for transformation builds on the Presencing Institute’s 15+ years of capacity building, action labs and research based on Theory U, a framework for catalyzing transformative personal and systems change. The Presencing Institute holds the overall governance, management and administration of the u-school and other systems change initiatives, including our work in support of clients and partners in their institutional change processes.

In the next decade, u-school will seed, grow, and replicate a distributed infrastructure of awareness-based collective action, based on these building blocks.

Innovation Labs and Application Hubs for Systems Change

A network of action labs and hubs to support changemakers across sectors who are applying awareness-based systems change to transform their local contexts and organizations. Action labs range from local community actions, to bio-regional regeneration initiatives, to multi-stakeholder initiatives.

Check our annual report for some case descriptions. Check our change initiatives with key partners: by region and acupuncture point. Explore u-lab.

Capacity Building

The u-school offers capacity-building in the methods and tools of awareness-based systems change, based on state-of-the-art techniques of systems thinking, action learning, social arts, awareness-based practices and multi-sector collaboration. u-school offers a range of on-line and off-line programs for learners and changemakers, offered globally through an innovative platform for learning and community-building Educational pathways are offered for learners to attain micro-credentials and to advance their own practice in leading and facilitating awareness-based systems change.

Join our programs and certifications. Check our self-paced learning modules.

A Network of Partners

The work and offerings of u-school are held with a network of partners that includes regional organizations, and specialist organizations that are addressing one or more of the key ‘acupuncture points' for societal change. u-school also partners with universities to tailor open u-school programs to create action-learning complements to existing curricula.

Check our change initiatives with key partners: by region and acupuncture point. Get to know our Clients and partners.

Africa | Transforming Africa’s Future

The philosophy of “Ubuntu” — “I am because we are” — is the organizing principle for the Ubuntu Lab, whose goal is to shape Africa’s future through action-oriented movement-building. Ubuntu Lab’s unique format aspires to be an example of 21st-century education. Over 500 lab “graduates” from 15 African countries are working together in local hubs to address pressing challenges and prototype local solutions. Examples of prototypes that have emerged: a women-owned agriculture business; an action plan to reverse the growing number of teenage suicides; a program to teach financial literacy and entrepreneurship to young people.

Indonesia | Linking the Inner Journey to Outer Impacts

Shobi works with various governmental, civil society, and business institutions to facilitate large-scale transformation processes through leadership and systemic innovations. She leads UID’s BEKAL Pemimpin program, which brings together Indonesia’s tri-sector emerging environmental leaders for system leadership capacity building and transformation; as well as TSEA’s inaugural offering Happy Digital X: Cities, Systems, Products, and Services which educates next-generation urban development actors to utilize technology and cross-sector collaboration for happier and more sustainable future cities.