The Currents Beneath: Week 4 – Theory U
The Currents Beneath: Week 4 – Theory U
Over the years I’ve coached, led and developed thousands of leaders. My work is grounded in real conversations, behavioural change and performance psychology born from practice, not theory. I’ve read hundreds of books. Interrogated so many models – but I rarely talk about them. Behind the questions I ask and the shifts I help create, there’s a body of knowledge that’s shaped my approach, and theories I haven’t committed to memory but which inform how I work.
This series is my way of surfacing that – one model at a time.
The currents beneath the waves of my coaching; these models are the quiet but powerful forces that shape each leadership journey I walk alongside.
This week, a model that continues to shape how I think about emergence, timing and depth: Theory U by Otto Scharmer.
What if leadership isn’t about driving change, but about allowing something new to emerge?
Theory U invites us to shift from reacting or fixing to slowing down, listening and sensing. It’s not just a model, but a practice - a way of leading from presence rather than pressure.
The U path itself is simple and powerful. Stage 4 presencing usually sits at the bottom of the ‘U’ in the model, but I prefer to think of Crystallise as the tuning point here - where presencing is acceptance before kicking up from the ocean floor - the solid crystal platform for rising to the surface.
1. Downloading - Reacting from the Past
We see and hear the world through old habits, assumptions, and routines - essentially replaying past thinking. It’s automatic and comfortable, but it keeps us stuck in patterns that may no longer serve us.
2. Seeing - Suspending Judgement
We begin to notice what’s actually in front of us, not just what we expect. This step invites us to pause and observe with fresh eyes -curious, open, and without rushing to label or fix.
3. Sensing - Connecting to the System
We go deeper by engaging directly with people and the system around us, often through immersive experiences. It’s about feeling what’s happening beneath the surface, both emotionally and systemically.
4. Presencing - Letting Go and Letting Come
For me, this is the point where we release what no longer serves us and tune in to what wants to emerge. It’s not about figuring things out -it’s about being present, listening deeply, and allowing space for insight.
5. Crystallising - Clarifying the Future That’s Calling
Now that we’ve connected to what matters, a clear intention or vision begins to form. It’s not a detailed plan, but a sense of direction that feels true and grounded.
6. Prototyping - Acting into the Future
We begin to test our ideas through small, real world experiments. These help us learn quickly, refine what works, and bring the future to life step by step.
7. Performing – Embedding the New Reality
What started as small experiments becomes a new way of working, leading, or living. This phase is about scaling and sustaining change across teams, organisations, or systems -so it becomes the new normal.
It’s not a quick fix. It’s a deeply human and systemic approach to change that begins with how we show up.
What I might add
For me, there’s an eighth, often un-named step - Integration. After the performance of something new, we must metabolise it. Name what changed. Reflect on what it cost. Recommit to what matters. Without this, the loop remains open. With it, leaders grow not just in action, but in wisdom.
This is key stage in my coaching practice too, what have you done, what have your learned and how do we embed that as the norm? For example.
A real moment from practice
I was working with a CEO under immense pressure - expectations from the board, a team close to burnout, and a growing urgency to decide the next move. The instinct was to act fast, to produce a solution. But something in them knew that wasn’t the answer.
So we slowed right down. We stayed with the discomfort. We listened - not just to words, but to what lay underneath.
What emerged wasn’t a strategy. It was a fear. A quiet, deep fear of no longer being enough. That fear had been fuelling the urgency, the overworking, the need to prove.
Naming it changed everything. It softened the grip. And in its place came a different kind of clarity - not about the next task, but about what truly mattered. A shift from survival to service. From reaction to presence.
It wasn’t a pivot. It was a moment of presencing.
Why it sits beneath my work
I’ve never named Theory U with clients - in fact until research these current pieces I couldn’t have names it - because - like many things I’ve read and assimilated over the years - it became part of what I do, a feeling or emotional state that I can call upon. re-reading the model, I realise it helps to shape the space I hold. It’s there in the trust that something meaningful will come if we allow it. It’s part of how I help leaders listen - not just to their teams, but to themselves and the wider system they’re part of.
It’s a verbalised reminder that slowing down isn’t weakness. It’s wisdom.
The most courageous leaders, Ive worked with, are often those who stop pushing long enough to truly sense what’s possible.
You can read more here
A question for you
Theory U reminds us that emergence isn’t passive. It’s an act of deep, courageous attention - a discipline of slowing down not to retreat, but to truly engage. What makes it radical is not its shape, but its stance: presence over pressure, surrender over speed.
The question:
What might your team, organisation or system be trying to tell you - if you slowed down enough to really listen? or in other words - be truly present?
Conclusion
In the rush of leadership, it can feel risky to slow down. But every wave has a current beneath - and every current has its own pace. When leaders learn to trust that rhythm, to wait without withdrawing and sense without seizing, they become something more than strategic. They become true stewards of change.
This series shares the models that quietly shape how I coach. I hope this ‘dip’ into Scharmers Theory U useful. And if it, or the CEO’s plight, lands - let’s talk.
Next week, we explore the Cynefin Framework – and how leaders lead through complexity
—Stefan
‘Enjoyed’ reading this? Consider doing one of these:
Sign up to my newsletter ‘Be The Waves” here - which collates each weeks long form post on a monthly basis and you’ll get to read it later in the month
Get in touch - If any of this topic resonated with you and you have something you’d like to share with me or if you’d like to discuss working with me on this topic - stefan@stefanpowell.co.uk works really well for me.
Connect with me on linked in and read my long form posts on the rotating topics of Work, Rest. Play, Sustenance and Love every Thursday
Book an inquisitive session with me to find out more about what I do and how I do it or run a challenge or thought you have passed me.
I look forward to sharing my next OPINION blog soon.
For now; thank you
I am…
An executive coach who specialises in helping good people lead great things.
Good people care about others, our planet and beauty. Great things are changes for the betterment of society and all that lives within an around it.
It sounds big and fun - it is.
I'm also an endurance racing cyclist and a go. getter.
You can read more about me and what I do; how I work here