multi-dimensional design,
regenerative resourcing;
space-holding and facilitation.
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I work with individuals and organizations to evoke new inner and outer paradigms within themselves, their teams, and in the world around them. Together, we develop vitality, viability and evolutionary capabilities through process design, regenerative design practices, systems thinking, and whole-person-centered facilitation.
I co-create containers - circles, workshops, multi-day experiences - in support of clarity, creative emergence and holistic transformation.
My design process is
not based on a formula, but rather an ecosystem of practices rooted in surfacing connections, seeing patterns, uncovering potential, co-creation, experimentation, creativity, and intuition.
I tailor my approach to the context of the opportunity and the people I'm working with. I love to alchemize my interdisciplinary background and experiences with collaborators in new ways as we explore, experiment and evolve a project towards greater insight, certainty and success.
Before designing anything, be it a product, service, experience, or landscape, I design the process. That begins with the following questions: Who needs to be a part of the design process, and when? What are the actions that need to be taken, and perhaps more importantly, how should those actions be sequenced? The answers to these questions influence each other, necessitating consistent iteration. This is an ongoing inquiry: as efforts progress, experiments are run, new insights are gathered, mistakes are inevitably made, and goals are met. I believe it's essential to stay fluid and refine the approach to most effectively serve the ultimate intention of the effort.
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I aim to co-create containers that enable greater seeing and knowing through the integration of deep listening and pattern sensing. I emphasize questions over answers; potential over problems. I believe it’s essential to engage the whole self in our work. Therefore, I also weave together simple mindset and embodiment practices in support of creative exploration.
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I approach creative projects, new ventures, businesses, and organizations as living entities, in deep relationship to their founders, local context and stakeholders. Like all living entities, they must move through a developmental process that must be embodied and tended to if they are to regenerate themselves in a healthy, sustainable way. I see part of my role as guiding that process in service of seeing and uncovering the deepest essence and potential that wants to come into being through people and forms. This entails supporting leaders and organizations to develop the capacity to create more space within themselves and their organizations to hold more complexity.
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Sometimes this requires disrupting traditional thinking and playing with alternative paradigms. In particular, I aim to move beyond conventional approaches that focus solely on business growth, progress, scale and profit margins. While these principles are essential to consider, I believe that higher order aims tied to the world we want to co-create and bring into being are what hold the potential to bridge our individual needs and desires with that which the greater collective is yearning for.
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For this reason my approach draws heavily from regenerative design philosophies, specifically from the Regenesis Institute. One of the basic premises is that to become agents of our own evolution and overcome mechanical thinking we must integrate personal and professional development with our values and the work we do in the world. We must expand our awareness to include the larger wholes and systems we operate within, which becomes an opening into new creative potentials. I lean on dynamic systems frameworks that are capable of holding increasing complexity and facilitating designs that are consistent with the evolutionary tendency of living systems.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS
​Regardless of the design context, there are a few elements of my process that remain essential.
Empathy
Vision
Pain-points
Assumptions
Design criteria
Co-creation
Critical, Systems Thinking
who are we designing for? what have they experienced? what are they currently experiencing? what are their values? what are their functional + emotional needs? who else needs to be considered that isn't already?
what is the intended outcome we hope to achieve? what does that look like, feel like, sound like...? is it inclusive, equitable and just?
what are the current barriers or challenges standing in the way of that vision? what needs to be un-designed, un-engineered, un-learned?
what assumptions are we making (about people, present conditions, the way to do things...)? are we sure they're true?
what must be true of a solution for it to work well in the short- and long-term?
who needs to take part in each stage of the design effort to ensure inclusive, holistic feedback and decision-making?
what larger system(s) are we operating within? how does what we're focusing on impact other components of the system, adjacent systems, and/or other nested systems? what are the critical intervention points? where might we create unintended consequences?
Note: these lists of questions are exemplary, not exhaustive.
These elements are consistent reference points to help ensure that what I co-create is human-, planet-, and life- centered, inclusive, equitable, regenerative, and forward-thinking; that it represents the true values of the people engaging with it, serves their true needs (not symptoms), doesn't adversely impact indirect stakeholders, and positively contributes to the larger systems within which it resides. I look for ways to run affordable, low-risk experiments to investigate assumptions and try out new work methods before making "big" decisions.
