exercise · all tools
Case Clinic
Structured peer-coaching for 5–8 people (~70 minutes): a case giver presents a current leadership challenge at their growing edge; after clarifying questions, the group holds three minutes of stillness, then mirrors back images, feelings, and gestures before generative dialogue. The case giver harvests insights; coaches practice listening without advice-giving.
Prerequisites
- Case giver brings a real, current challenge they genuinely own
- Coaches hold the no-advice discipline — the script must be honored
- Mirroring feelings can land close to the bone; keep it offered, not asserted
- Confidentiality agreement before the case is spoken
Practical
- Time
- 70 min + 10 landing
- Group
- 5–8 · small-group
- Settings
- in-person, online
- Materials
- Timekeeping; case-clinic script; quiet space
- Mechanisms
- dialogic-encounter, feedback-mirroring, stillness-silence, systems-sensing
- Change scope
- state → skill · repeatable
Instructions
- Where
- u-school.org/caseclinic — u-school for Transformation — Theory U tools, open
- Availability
- Open online — published at the link, free to read
- Licence
- Creative Commons (per u-school.org)
Source link checked 29 Aug 2026 — unchanged since we recorded it on 28 Aug 2026
This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.
Origin
Otto Scharmer / Presencing Institute — Theory U (u.lab); roots in peer case consultation
In this directory via u-school for Transformation — Theory U tools · IDG Phase 2 Research Report & Toolkit (2022) · HostingTransformation Methods ToolBox
The stillness phase is the tool's hinge — skipping it turns Case Clinic into an ordinary advice round. A strong example of how a precise script lets holding-2 facilitation safely host depth-3 material.
status: checked · added 2026-08-25