Effective organizations keep learning and growing together. 

 In 2016, I was working to help organize the second Continental Permaculture Convergence. Sitting at a picnic table in a dusty open area north of San Francisco, Bonita Ford and and I had a long conversation. Sure, we agreed, permaculture has a lot of the technical and experiential knowledge to do amazing restoration projects that can transform our natural world, its economy, and our well-beings. But there is a problem. Or, rather, more than one. 

1. We (people, including permaculture people) don't know how to make long-term agreements so that projects persist into the future.
2. We don't even know how to really agree with each other on a vision and how to proceed from there. 

This led me on a journey from Gaia University's Regenerative Living program to Sociocracy for All's introductory resources and then their Sociocracy in Leadership Training. Eventually, I trained in SoFA's Academy and have been working with SoFA since then. 

In addition to sociocracy skills, I've been drawing on previous training and experience in nonviolent communication, organizational design, facilitation, and governance to support groups in having difficult conversations, designing solutions, and affirming collaborative relationships. Over the last 25 years of organizing groups and founding nonprofits and businesses, experience and continuous learning have built a toolbox that is helpful to others. 

The Solution:

Effective Organization

Whether you are working on a new project or re-thinking how to be more effective in your existing organization, we can support your goals. The solutions might mean something intensive, like restructuring your organization. Or it might mean rethinking how you communicate when you collaborate. Most often the solutions are not about your platforms or other expensive technologies, but about how people contribute and what the common vision is. Here are a few things we've facilitated before.