Four years ago, I started organizing a small end-of-year gathering with other Bay Area collaboration practitioners to celebrate and make meaning of the year together. We would spend the first few hours of our session mapping how our individual

What I’ve Learned About Building Collaboration Muscles

Nov 12th, 2020 14m 45s

It’s now been seven years since I first started exploring a simple hypothesis: Collaboration is a muscle (or, rather, a set of muscles) You strengthen these muscles by exercising them repeatedly (i.e. practice) Our current orientation toward co

Doing “More” Is a Terrible Goal

Jul 24th, 2020 7m 42s

When I was in my early 20s, I used to play pickup basketball with a guy who was 20 years older than me, but didn’t look it. He was in superb shape, and he never seemed to get injured. At one of our games, I sprained my ankle, and when I was hea

Do the Work

Jul 2nd, 2020 12m 36s

It’s been one month since a white police officer in Minneapolis murdered George Floyd, a 46-year old Black father of five. I’ve found the subsequent response remarkable for its intensity, unprecedented diversity, and impact. While I’m moved by

Case Study: Designing and Facilitating a Small Nonprofit Board Retreat with Zoe Tamaki

May 20th, 2020 24m 12s

Over the past two years, I helped designed and facilitate two annual board retreats for a small nonprofit with my colleague, Zoe Tamaki. I don’t typically do one-offs like this, but the executive director was a friend of mine, and I was looking

The Emperor Has No Clothes: Acting Strategically While Recovering from Process Trauma

May 4th, 2020 4m 2s

A huge part of my job over the years has been helping groups recover from Process Trauma (and its ugly cousin Consultant Trauma). It’s caused when a group goes through some kind of process, such as strategic planning, and has a horrible experie

Online Collaboration Isn’t Just About Meetings

Apr 13th, 2020 10m 16s

COVID-19 has forced many of us to reckon with a working world where we can’t be face-to-face. I’ve been heartened to see how collaboration practitioners have been responding overall. I love seeing folks tapping the wisdom of their own groups be

Freaking Out Is Part of Systems Change

Mar 23rd, 2020 8m 37s

We are in the midst of a global pandemic. Re-reading those last two words still feels bonkers to me, even though it’s been almost three months since the first reported case of COVID-19 and almost two weeks since the World Health Organization (W

From Go-Go-Go to Going Slow: Lessons from My Own Painful, but Ultimately Successful Journey

Feb 12th, 2020 22m 45s

I discovered weights freshman year in college, and as a weak and skinny kid, I found them to be a revelation. One of my friends had played football in high school, and he and I would work out together often. He worked out hard — at least five d

Confronting Despair, Building Muscles, and Saving Democracy (and the World)

Jan 16th, 2020 17m 15s

For the past 18 years, I have begun almost every introductory conversation about my work with the following questions: What was your best experience collaborating with others? What would your life be like if all of your collaborative experience

Rate