Workshops & Consultations

Workshops & Consultations intro

Bring Group Works to Your Group

Would you or your organization like to host a training, strategy session or other event using the Group Works cards? Our team would be delighted to support you in integrating group pattern language as an approach and tool. Our own workshop designs are highly experiential and interactive, offering an opportunity to learn the patterns and how to use them by applying them to your real-life needs and dilemmas. And it's fun! Or we would be pleased to help you design an exploratory session or event of your own incorporating Group Works, and, if you want, we can facilitate, or co-facilitate with you.

We ask that organizers handle logistics and location management, invite people to attend, handle event registration and payments, provide meals and/or refreshments if needed for the group, and make any other necessary arrangements. We will negotiate with you a workshop fee (if a representative of Group Works attends) including reimbursement for any travel expenses. Workshops that we have designed can range from short sessions of an hour or two up to multiple-day events, and we are open to participating in events of your design regardless of duration. To discuss your ideas and wishes with us and explore possibilities, please contact us.

Both project core team members and some identified members of our wider circle are available to help make your event using the Group Works pattern language a success. We do not vet or certify practitioners; however we are very happy that people are picking up this open source tool and making it part of their offerings. Here's a list of who in the Group Works community is currently willing to offer workshops and other events using the cards. For more information on these people and others in our circle (including full bio's for any that are cut off in this view), visit the Community Members page

Core Team Members

Tree's picture

Kavana Tree Bressen

Location:
Eugene, Oregon, United States
I have been blessed for many years with a calling supporting groups to function well, which is fulfilled through teaching, facilitation, and organizational design. I work primarily with groups in my geographic region. I founded the Group Pattern Language Project in 2008, and since publication in 2011 have been joyfully watching it make its way around the world. I think the most powerful implementation of the Group Works deck happens when organizations integrate it into their day-to-day operations and culture. As of this writing (early 2017), i am passionate about possibilities arising...
Dave's picture

Dave Pollard

Location:
Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada
Dave resigned from paid work in 2010, after 35 years as an advisor to small enterprises, with a focus on sustainability, innovation, and understanding complexity. He is a long-time student of our culture and its systems, of history and of how the world really works, and has authored the blog How to Save the World for over ten years. His book Finding the Sweet Spot: The Natural Entrepreneur’s Guide to Responsible, Sustainable, Joyful Work, was published by Chelsea Green in 2008. He is one of the core team members of Group Works: A Pattern Language for Bringing Life to Meetings and Other...

Other Community Members

johnabbe's picture

John Abbe

Website:

elan Bailey

Location:
Vancouver, BC, ca
Organization:
UpLevel People Partners
elan Bailey (small e is intentional) works with mission-driven organizations to design, facilitate and coach leaders and teams to evoke transformational leadership, adaptive performance and breakthrough impach. elan is an inspired catalyst with a big vision, broad and integrated business experience and a deep understanding of how to bring out the best in people. She has a master's degree in Leadership and Organization Development and 12 years experience as a designer, facilitator and coach of transformational learning and people development programs.

Catherine Barnes

Location:
Staunton, VA, us
Organization:
EMU Center for Justice & Peacebuilding + Consultant
Dr. Catherine Barnes has worked for conflict transformation and social justice for more than thirty years. She is an affiliate faculty member of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University and a freelance practitioner and researcher. Catherine has extensive experience facilitating conversations on challenging topics, in locations ranging from the UN General Assembly Hall to village gathering places. She focuses on whole-of-system deliberative dialogue processes and training other practitioners in these skills.

Daniele Cibati

Location:
Madrid, MD, es
Organization:
Creo Común
raines's picture

Raines Cohen

Organization:
Cohousing California
Website:
Community Organizer and Cohousing Coach, co-creating Cohousing California and East Bay Cohousing, building on the deck to create Cohousing Cards, selections with additional guidance specific for these intentional neighborhoods. I love to visit places and do workshops with the cards and help people think about them in new ways (including just figuring out what to do with the cards). As of early 2019, I believe I've done the most reselling of decks, bringing them to conferences and communities in the course of my travels. I'm planning on doing some conference calls and webinars to explore applications of the cards.
werner.danda@aon.at's picture

Werner Danda

Location:
Handenberg, OOS, at
Organization:
Wirtschaftsbalance
I was an active supplier in the OEM and Industry Business and developped different fastening solutions in the production process of these companies. Our new products required a high understandig of the customer's needs and potential benefits. This comes from efficient group work between supplier and customer, high trust and open mind. The same I experienced in the different market entrance tasks in many countries with our organization. International project management in medical equipment devices needs to have also collective wisdom.of all participants for succesful completion on both sides. Today I`m retired and still active in creating a partizipatory leadership in complex environment and in conflict resolution as a official certified mediator and a AoH practicioner, I'm interested to take advantage from your high level experience in partizipatory group works and I would like to apply this valuable deck and cards. I'm applying the german language version in my workshops to strengthen the selfconfidence of the participants. In talking about the selected patterns we show the importance of their personal contributions in developping the required topics of the workshop, meeting.
d1doherty's picture

Daniel Doherty

Organization:
Reciprocity Publishing
I am a learning and group process facilitator certified in several methodologies, currently upgrading my visual/graphic facilitation skills. I run courses that use the GroupWorks deck as the 'text book.'

jodi engelberg

Location:
miami, FL, us
Organization:
The Value Web
I came to this work later in life and knew immediately that I had found my home. Everything that I had done before had prepared me to facilitate critical collaborative conversations. I started at Vanderbilt University working with Matt Taylor at a center dedicated to healthcare reform using the medical center as a test-bed. It was divine! And, we co-created electronic medical record, on-line physician ordering and much more. I moved to Switzerland after that and was the co-founder/founding President of The Value Web, a social business/association for ~ 35 practitioners who come together to change the way decisions are made in important gatherings. I love the cards. I am hungry for a broader group of players. Thank you for creating them!

Jacob Erlich

Location:
Ota-ku, Tokyo, , jp

beth gignac

Location:
Sarnia, ON, ca
Organization:
Gignac-Groulx Inc
Dive in, follow the energy and trajectory will be made clear!

Jose Gordin

Location:
Montevideo, MO, uy
Dgouthro's picture

David Gouthro

Location:
West Vancouver, BC, ca
Organization:
The Consulting Edge
A seasoned (but not too spicy) facilitator who for the last 30 years has been working with groups in organizations to help them collectively work towards solutions to grow the capacity of their teams and organizations to succeed in a complex and ever changing environment!
susanhasty's picture

Susan Hasty

Location:
Raleigh, NC, us
Organization:
360 Profit Masters
I'm utterly fascinated by how our language structures possibilities for creating the future and love facilitating inspiring conversations. My training includes coaching, NLP, Structural Consulting (Robert Fritz, Inc) Clean language,Clean Interviewing and Platform Design Facilitation. I'm excited to discover this group as I have a great appreciation for "open source" collaborations that make the world a better place. Please reach out to me if you'd like to discuss an alliance, share resources or a cup of coffee on zoom or if you are in or just visiting the RTP North Carolina USA area!

Hemani Jayaswal

I work with individuals for amazing transformations to happen . They happen when they voluntarily come in touch with their being . Humbled to be a part of this amazing journey

Kamaldeep Kaur

Location:
Noida, UP, in

Bhavin Kothari

Location:
Ahmedabad, GJ, in
Organization:
National Institute of Design
Website:
I am happy go lucky person. Professor of Strategic Design Management at National Institute of Design in India. Like to deal with people and group. It works, it helps, it gives enjoyment.
JanLelie's picture

Jan Lelie

Location:
The Hague, , nl
Organization:
mind@work
Friend of facilitators, autonomous facilitator, involved in innovation, change and emergence. Worked for over 25 years as a catalyst of processes. I
daniel's picture

Daniel Lindenberger

Location:
Langley, , United States
Organization:
Group Pattern Language Project, Connection Deck, Source Facilitation Collective
In both both my life in the Cohousing world and my work as a facilitator I make regular use of Group Works with colleagues, clients and communities generally for understanding issues, developing processes, and debriefing sessions. I'm also currently working on Connection Deck, an offshoot of Group Works geared towards kids and the parents, educators, caregivers and others who work with and love them. I'm currently exploring the "Language" aspect of pattern language, and pattern language development as a practice.
carloslopezodgers's picture

Carlos López

Location:
San Pedro de la Paz, BI, cl
Organization:
Instituto Chileno de Permacultura

Curtis Michelson

Location:
Orlando, FL, us
Organization:
Minds Alert, llc
I'm a long time community activist and organizational change facilitator working a lot with educational institutions. I love using the cards for a variety of scenarios and find they always bring levity and depth to group work everywhere.
HumanWell's picture

Donna Mills

Location:
Coeur d'Alene, ID, us
Organization:
HumanWell
Donna Mills lives in the aesthetically stunning Pacific Northwest, specifically in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She is a woman committed to all things that elevate human consciousness. She is a practitioner of the healing arts, an advocate for civil conversations, and a community educator. Donna is the founder of HumanWell Integrative Healing and Wellness where she sees private clients healing through trauma and grief. On the community consulting side of HumanWell, Donna designs integrative workplace wellness programs for large and small businesses. The name HumanWell was created out of her unwavering need to know “How do we human well? We can see where we are missing the mark in society, but where and how are we getting it right?” Donna is a certified caring economy advocate and partnership practitioner through Riane Eisler’s Center for Partnership Studies. She is a fierce advocate for a new narrative of economic justice that elevates our collective human wellness and ability to thrive. Donna is a social healing practitioner, a narrative disruptor, and a cultural change agent. She is here to invite society into a deeper conversation about civility and connectivity. She believes that, “and justice for all” means just that. For all.
pat's picture

Pat molla

Location:
olivos, B, ar
Organization:
Ideas Dibujadas
Graphic recorder, teacher, visual thinker, español
Stefan Morales's picture

Stefan Morales

Location:
NowHere, , xx
Organization:
Working Together
I am a lifelong learner, and I do my best to share my learning with others and create the conditions for learning within the groups, systems, and communities I connect with. I practice this in a lot of different ways, and I fail in a lot of different ways too. Today I am excited about taking my learning in more challenging directions for me: like applied math in the form of programming, data science, and more scientific areas like carbon capture, etc. I want to see if there's a way that I can connect everything I've learned so far as a social scientist, political theorist, facilitator, process designer, digital marketer, etc. with these more robust ways to understand and operate with reality, so as to help us address the extremely serious challenges we collectively face. I'm interested in the intersection of group work in this combined space of group practice, digital tech, science, and complexity, and I'd be open to exploring connections with anyone who is also working in this way at the edge of the future. More about me, specifically, here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefan-morales-a336ab10/ and more about one of my key projects here: httpe://www.togetherworking.com/about. Soon I will also share a co-op I am in the process of developing amongst other consultants. Stay tuned!
Betsy Morris's picture

Betsy Morris

Organization:
Cohousing California
Website:
Community development planner/researcher and experiential educator seeing a world of possibilities for the GroupWorks deck! www.ebcoho.org

Ted Newcomb

Location:
Phoenix, AZ, us
Organization:
EnliveningEdge
Happily retired grandfather with two grandchildren, living in Phoenix. Partner with EnliveningEdge. Interested in PLN's, Knowledge Gardens, collaboration and cooperation, life-long learning. Trying to be a good digital citizen and keep up with the times.
dplouffe's picture

David Plouffe

Organization:
City of Calgary
Website:
David is an award-winning facilitator and community development practitioner, who has also worked in cultural planning, informal education, and executive assistant the Director of Planning for the 3rd largest city in Canada. David uses his twenty years of creative and civic government experience to lead teams on how to engage citizens, employees, and customers so to make better decisions. David was Engage Lead City of Calgary’s Cultural Transformation Project from August 2012- September 2014, helping the city’s administration define a Corporate Culture that can help build an organizational culture capable of fulfilling the one-hundred-year vision of imagineCalgary. As part of this work, David used the Groupwork cards to help consult with over 8000 city employees t – the largest employee consultation in the city’s history. AWARDS using the cards Facilitation Impact Awards - Platinum Award - International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Organization of the Year - International Association For Public Participation (IAP2)

Rachel Lyn Rumson

Location:
New Gloucester, , us
Organization:
Royal River Permaculture
Consultant: Learning systems facilitator, program director for Cooperative Design Lab, permaculture design and education, lover of participatory leadership engagement, systems thinking, action research...homesteading

federico sanchez

Location:
Buenos aires, B, ar
Organization:
Gobiernos de la ciudad de buenos aires

Aude Simon

Location:
Paris, , fr
Organization:
Groupama

Ricardo Valderrama

Location:
Leon, León, Spain
Hello Can i use the cards in a workshop ? In some weeks i will have a workshop about groups process and your cards would be very usefull

Damien Vasse

Location:
Bordeaux, , fr
Organization:
Graines des qui-libres

Chris Weaver

Location:
Asheville, NC, us
Organization:
One Purpose Design
I am a teacher, a designer of educational processes (from brief learning experiences to entire schools), and a group facilitator, based in Asheville, North Carolina, USA. I love the pattern language approach of Group Works. I am designing a pattern language for a learner-centered K-8 or K-12 school. I am a trainer and co-owner of the international Genuine Contact program. I am also designing a new K-8 school, the Olivette School, which will open its doors in 2018 in the mountains of North Carolina. I am particularly interested in connecting with others who are using the Group Works approach to design schools and other educational organizations.
Sue's picture

Sue Woehrlin

Location:
Seattle, Washington, United States
Organization:
Antioch University Seattle, Group Pattern Language Project
My passion is designing, facilitating and teaching about participatory processes for learning and change, whether organizatiionally-based or community driven. My anchor job is as a faculty member at Antioch University Seattle, where I teach mid-career adult learners. I also offer independent training and consultation to those interested in developing more collaborative approaches in their work, most especially the patterns in Group Works! My general approach is to nurture self-organizing, organic and emergent processes that embed greater authority with those at the grassroots level.

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