practice · all tools
Container Building
Depth · what it can open●●○○2 — reflective
Holding · facilitation2 — facilitator
Trust · group readiness★any
Disclosure · what is sharedoptional
The facilitator's meta-practice from Theory U: deliberately creating the holding space before the work — preparing one's own inner condition, co-creating ground rules, and inviting open mind, heart, and will — so that differences can arise and be worked with rather than managed away. Unhurried by design: "spaciousness in time" is named as part of the method.
Hold with care
- The container is tested the first time someone risks something — the facilitator's response in that moment is the real ground rule
Practical
- Time
- 30-60 min
- Group
- 3–40 · small-group, large-group
- Settings
- in-person, online
- Materials
- None fixed; agreements made visible
- Mechanisms
- dialogic-encounter, ritual-container, values-clarification
- Change scope
- state → skill · recurring-practice (at the opening of any process that will go deeper than logistics)
Origin & where it lives
Otto Scharmer / Presencing Institute — Theory U (co-initiating)
Instructions: open online · CC BY (Presencing Institute)
In this directory via u-school for Transformation — Theory U tools
The tool behind every other tool in this directory: what "holding" levels describe is largely the capacity this practice builds.
status: checked · added 2026-08-26