My vision

A world vibrant with creative energy, deep care for all (including the nonhuman world) and trust in human nature, and a Scotland that is a beacon for the rest of the world for its governance structures, its ability to attend to everyone’s needs in a systemic and bottom-up way and its relationship with the land which nourishes body, mind and soul.

My purpose

To support visionary leaders and groups to nurture "islands of love, hope and sanity" as live experiments in living and working interdependently

Why I am attracted to and qualified to do this work:

  • I have years of experience facilitating groups, delivering trainings and coaching individuals. I love teaching and hosting transformative learning spaces   
  • Over my decades of living in Scotland, I have developed relationships with a number of people who are anchored in community work, and have an extensive network of people deeply committed to making Scotland a thriving place
  • I have worked alongside people from marginalised communities for years and lived in a poor neighbourhood since 2004. This gives me lived access to concrete rather than aspirational principles
  • I am actively involved in a global and self-managed organisation (NGL). Its aim is to develop and share practical solutions to quicken our capacity to resolve thorny issues, across divides of power, privilege and access to resources, and in a way that fosters trust and visionary leadership. I therefore have intimate familiarity with the obstacles that exist on the path of collaboration, as well as context-related blueprints, tools and principles to bring about this reality
  • My work is anchored in a broad set of skills, approaches, and practices that offers versatility in matching resources to needs
  • I am committed to maintaining a conscious relationship with my privilege and inviting others to do the same in support of everyone’s liberation
  • I am deeply committed to nonviolence. This fuels my capacity to learn and share the art of collaborative leadership
  • I have a dedicated practice of stillness, embodiment, loving compassion and truth seeking/telling. This supports my personal liberation and inspires others on their journey
  • I have a chronic health condition which has taken me on a challenging but rewarding journey on how to face loss without giving up hope and agency
  • I love being in and nurturing community in support of overcoming patterns of separation and deepening into trust, connection and relationship
  • I have an unwavering trust in the value of practice. This serves many needs including aligning ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ (values and purpose), and learning new ways of being and working together
  • I endeavour to bring joy, presence, and depth wherever I go. This relaxes those I work with and inspires trust. It's also fun
  • I have come to love Scotland, its culture, landscape and people. It feels good to be here and serve

Values

  • Living truthfully
  • Persevering no matter what
  • Bringing a systems-lens to everything
  • Engaging in learning, ceaselessly
  • Caring

Mission/Goals:

  • To support the development of the NGL community through various projects
  • To coach individuals, teams and organisations to engage in a process of vision, purpose and values alignment and develop a culture of collaborative leadership 
  • To support the development of NGL community through various projects and activities
  • To make my contribution more visible (including the skills I have) amongst people who have vision and perhaps struggle to create high functioning teams around them
  • To strengthen the intellectual anchoring of my work through reading, writing, teaching and broad-ranging conversations
  • To continually engage in ‘experiments with truth’ with myself, in relationships, in communities I belong to and as part of the work I do
  • To resource myself to do this work from a place of integrity, sustainability, experience and resilience