How We Work
Always, the first step is to begin a conversation, establish a context and exchange a few stories. We design the right process for the right time with you. No two engagements are the same.
Our work typically addresses or is related to the challenges and opportunities of phase transitions and cultural shifts taking place within a community.
• cultural shiftsProjects and communities grow nonlinearly. As layers are added and overlapped, complexity increases. Moving from one stage to the next is one of the most difficult challenges for any group, as it signals a fundamental change in organizational structure and thought. We help identify and put in place the scaffolding that enables such transitions.
Communities often end up with solutions drawn from compromise, finding their lowest common denominators rather than escaping to a higher order where the entire community and all of its parts realize a new potential. We can help move beyond either/or thinking to AND–without compromise–by bringing governments, private & public sectors, and citizens of all ages into a deep design process that facilitates the emergence of a new culture.
What is the art of the possible for your community?
What We Offer
• experiential workshops, conferences & design events
What makes a community gathering more than the sum of its parts? How can themes, sessions, content, the physical environment and the expertise of participants be interwoven and meaningfully connected?
Given the abundance of choices of process tools, techniques, location and subject matter expertise, what are the meta-structures and -processes that release Group Genius? How can we realize a rich, meaningful experience, powerful relationships and stronger capacities for action? These are a few of the inquiries that shape our designs.
• advisory & design consultations in systems thinking and process design
Design gives permission and the pleasure of finding new answers. With a good design process it is relatively easy to take a standard workshop and turn it into something transformational.
Providing processes that enrich each person's imagination and ability to bring into coherence their own individual, community, and planatary actions.
• teaching & transfering our methodology
We celebrate this part of our work. Models such as the 5 E's and 5 Points of Mastery are a few that inform our basic assumptions of the "teaching process."
• creating environments & processes for ongoing innovation and renewal
Regardless whether we're talking about a garage, conference room, or community center, it is difficult to overstate the impact that the physical environment can have on the interaction that takes place there. Any of these or other places can be made into fabulous spaces to help facilitate creativity and collaboration through all phases of a design process.
