People have tried for centuries to develop practices that bring them present to what is, in the moment-a transition we refer to as "waking up." This two-year collaborative action research project by 15 professionals explored how intending to wake up makes a difference in one's experiences at work.

In the current article, we describe how individual experiences of presence may be a key factor in giving birth to the kind of leadership that enables deep sustainability. The empirical data come from two studies of the same theme: (a) an international action research project about Waking Up Moments at Work and (b) a Finnish phenomenographical study about experiences of presence. Both studies address the generative qualities of waking up or presence, suggest the value of such experiences as catalysts for inner shifts in human consciousness, and begin to explore how this may be a core component of developing leaders' potential for contributing to sustainability.

Social empowerment of the participants/future employees of the social enterprise formed the important, intangible capital in this case. By definition, the core of social enterprises is the customer- and employee-driven nature. This study clarifies how a social enterprise functions as a laboratory of social innovation at the local and community levels.

The context for this article and the research project that it describes is the potential importance of being awake and present for leaders. This 2-year collaborative action research project was designed to explore whether simply intending to be present could make a difference in participants’ quality of experience at work and also to find out whether this would impact people with whom they worked. The study included a phenomenological analysis of contemporaneous notes taken several times a week for 4 weeks by two groups of 12-15 people from North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. The study also explored the possibility that this approach to mindfulness might be useful for leadership development and education on a broad scale. The results suggest that sustaining ongoing awareness practices supports leaders in attaining the steadiness and flexibility needed for addressing the adaptive problems of our world.

Mankind is facing numerous global, ecological and economic challenges that demand new, holistic approaches, and more sustainable innovations. This study identifies a multifaceted hereand-now approach of presence. Presence can be regarded as promising and little researched approach in finding fresh solutions and ideas of sustainable approaches. The qualitative data was collected through workshops, interviews and written narratives from six organizations of public sector and 220 workers with different sexes, ages, backgrounds and professions in Finland examined through the holistic approaches of phenomenology. The results unveiled that the most common experiences of presence in the daily life of the workers were connected specific themes like being in nature, sharing experiences and interconnectedness. The purpose of this study is consider if it is possible to use the learnings of these experiences as help for the more sustainable innovation, work, and the way of life?