Intro – Introduction

If you pick up this book, you probably are on a journey – longer or shorter, more or less profound – and realizing that ‘somehow’ ‘something’ ‘somewhere’ needs to change.

But what? And where?
How to do it better than so far?

Something in how we speak, listen and work together is no longer adequate for the world we are living in – our habitual conversational style needs an upgrade. Many of us feel this tension in teams, projects and communities – although urgently needed, collaboration in many project teams is disappointing – the issues we face are complex and urgent, yet our habitual way of conversing often leave us stuck, polarised or exhausted.
This book starts from a simple premise: the way we converse matters; our prevailing conversational habits are not sufficient for the many collective challenging questions we are facing.

Collective Presencing is a collective practice that focuses on how we meet one another in conversation – how we listen, how we sense and how we stay in relationship – also when complexity, difference and uncertainty are present. Rather than zooming in on ‘solving problems’, this practice attends to the quality of the relational field in which problems are held. It invites participants to bring their subtle, embodied senses into dialogue, so that conversations become places of shared orientation, creativity, coherence and co-creation.

This collective practice builds on individual practices – such as meditation, embodiment, contemplative inquiry or any spiritual practice – and places them explicitly in service of a collective inquiry process. Any personal practice is a much needed foundation, but is no longer enough; what is needed is a way of collective inquiry, in real time, with real stakes.

This book is a practical guide. It offers principles, patterns and examples in order to support any group that wants to engage in conversations that are more generative, relationally grounded and responsive to the complexity of the issues they face. It is not meant to be exhaustive, but usable – something you can take into your group, team or circle and begin practicing.

This book weaves together multiple voices and forms – essays, reflections, personal accounts – reflecting the nature of the practice itself: a constant interweaving of different voices with different stories. As with any practice, understanding emerges over time through engagement. The intention is a process of growing capacity, both for individuals and groups: to listen more deeply, to stay present together, and to navigate uncertainty with greater coherence and care.
Reading along, you can taste the different flavors added to the mix (even a tiny bit of AI structured this introduction, thanks to Dona). Slowly but surely you will get a picture of the whole weave in the end. As this collective practice is ‘a practice’ in the real sense of the word, you will notice how practitioners are changed – even transformed – through their ongoing engagement.

In this sense, the book is an invitation to continue your own unfolding in a group context, and offers guidelines of how to host and participate in conversations that are more artful, generative and alive. With this practice as the basis we aim for a working culture with deep respect for all things relational.