I've enjoyed reading Joe Firestone's articles about KM in National Government (http://kmci.org/alllifeisproblemsolving/?s=National%20Governmental%20Knowledge%20Management) and will try to apply his ideas in my current function as Director General of the Israel National Council for Research and Development.

Diving into the Theory U link (http://www.presencing.com/docs/publications/execsums/Theory_U_2pageOverview.pdf) was a completely different experience and it reminded me of the time during which I was the CKO of Israel Aerospace Industries, when we tried together, Yossi Pasher and myself to build and sustain the activity of communities of practice. These are gatherings of different people, coming from different organizations, only having in common the technological difficulties they are facing. These are ordinary people, while Otto Scharmer had the privilege of "charming" (what a convenient name) "leaders and innovators". Those are very special people, as Barbara Streisand sings about lovers.

While reading the theory, I have been trying to associate it with my experience with technological community members (probably most of them not being born leaders). Starting with Co-initiating we have indeed built into the beginning of the process, the instance of listening to each other, first with showing off their capabilities in order to re-enforce their self-esteem, but then, after confidence has been built, with an honest disclosure of their problems and difficulties. I guess I have to skip Co-sensing as these were very practical people mainly sensing with their head (rather than with their mind and heart), and interested in solving the issues they brought with them to the community. Presencing would then be the stage at which the participants started seing the big picture, out the tiny localized pseudo-different issues each one of them brought to the community, and trying to figure out a future situation in which most of these problems would not exist. Co-creating has been performed when solutions were generated within the community for the benefit of one of its members. I don't think we have ever reached the Co-evolving stage and maybe only time and persistence would have brought us there (hinting to the actual KM practitioners at IAI, or as the French say "une pierre dans leur jardin").