Why work with me

The people I work with are committed to tackling the big interconnected challenges and opportunities of our time.

They know they need to really connect with our present and turn to fully face the future, but like anyone, they need support with that shift. They know there are risks involved in leaning in, and they know there are greater risks if they don’t. They know they have to try new ways of working and to listen to lesser heard voices.

Imagining and creating a brighter future requires age old and fresh new ways of visioning and doing dialogue. My practice equips my clients to do this in a potent way.

I provide change makers with:

• The relief of moving from inertia to forward movement 

• A plan to enact their role in our chaotic present / future

• Confidence to lean into and have the needed / ongoing / complex conversations 

• Pathways to transform business-as-usual and navigate global disruptions for good 

They feel proud because they know they’re aligned with what this time asks of us.

I facilitate dialogues that unearth diverse views and result in genuine buy-in. I leave groups feeling confident to communicate in ways that allow courageous ideas to surge to life and with a clear and actionable plan. 

Amidst uncertainty, I create thoughtful and game-changing dialogues. I can facilitate the conversation for them, coach them to facilitate it for themselves, or work through the conflict that’s preventing them from even beginning a conversation.

How I got here

In my late teens I took part in a grassroots campaign to support Traditional Custodians along the Dungala (Murray River) to have joint management of their Country. I began to unlearn the lessons we are taught, such as that there’s one way to be, that there’s a truth. That was the beginning of two decades of work to date to have lesser heard perspectives amplified and ‘different voices’ hear each other. 

This experience and more like it led me, in my early twenties, to realise the work that lights me up – facilitating conversations that allow people to discover for themselves what they need to do to achieve significant and critical change in the world, and how to do it with others. 

I spent the next twelve years living in what were for me perspective shifting places – Darwin, Timor Lorosae, Arnhem Land and Mparntwe (Alice Springs) – invested in social change work, facilitating and mediating. I travelled ‘to the coast’ and internationally to facilitate dialogues to support advocacy campaigns and coach people how to facilitate (ah, when flying was cool and socially acceptable…). 

Aspects of this felt exilerating but … I got weary of the limitations of the conversations between, and actions of, purpose driven people surmounting in only incremental change, and not geniunely making a dent in shifting power. It was so clear that unspoken tensions between people thwarted progress. 

Eight years ago, curious to sense how other people are envisioning and shaping the future we need, I began facilitating dialogues for leaders of think tanks, social movements, boards, political parties, all levels of government, civil society, artists, Traditional Owners, business, higher education, start-ups, tech and community groups. The pattern of great passion for positive change and unspoken tensions rippled across.  

Today I facilitate future visioning for many of these groups and often at the nexus of many of these groups. I prepare them to be confident to have the conversations that they need to have, and need to keep having, so they have the best chance to experience their vision.  

I live a short walk on a sandy path to a beach on the lands of the Wadawurrung people, with my partner and two children. In almost all of my engagements I continue to learn from the patient and generous teachings of First Nations people. I pay my deep respects to their Elders and people past, present and emerging, to their knowledge, strength and resilience. I strive to honour what I’ve learnt from them in my work.