Theory U:Rethinking Business as Practical European Philosophy

The recent Carnegie report (Colby, et al., 2011) characterizes the goal of business education as the development of practical wisdom. In this chapter, the authors reframe Scharmer’s Theory U as an attempt to develop practical wisdom by applying certain European philosophical concepts. Specifically, they trace a genealogy of social sculpture, Schwungspiel, poetic creation, and spiritual science, and suggest that Scharmer’s work integrates these concepts into a pragmatic pedagogy that has implications for business practice as well as business education.