What lies behind...

For years now, I’ve been fascinated by systems, relationships, eco-systems - how things and people are connected and intertwined.  It was encountering The Point People in 2010 that gave voice to this ‘systems approach’, alongside post-graduate study questioning the narrative of the ‘heroic’ social entrepreneur and a deepening connection with the more-than-human world.

I feel the heaviness of the times we are living. The natural systems on which we all depend are stretched and straining under the pressure of our modern human lives.  Shifting from a mindset of ‘separation’ to one of ‘interconnection’ feels ever-more urgent and vital. 

With The Connectorship Project and my nature-based work I hope to play some small role in this shift.  Bring more awareness to connection and interconnection in general.  Open doors to different ways of thinking and perceiving. Prioritise opportunities for re-engagement with places, people and the great, grand sweep of the rest of the natural world.

I’m continually exploring and developing new tools and techniques to support this shift:

• fostering systems awareness

• enabling 'longer now' and ‘bigger we’ thinking

• feel at ease with complexity and uncertainty

• nurturing connectedness and connectivity in human systems

To find out more, get in touch

Recommended reading...

I love books and I love recommending books.  Here are a few that have had a big impact on my approach and my work.  

The Faraway Nearby & A Field Guide to Getting Lost – Rebecca Solnit
Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that won’t stop talking – Susan Cain
Walk Out, Walk On & Leadership in the Age of Complexity  - Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants - Robin Wall Kimmerer
Presence - Peter M.Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers
Landmarks, The Wild Places and Underland - Robert Macfarlane
Lost Connections - Johann Hari
The Art of Gathering - Priya Parker
Sand Talk - Tyson Yunkaporta
The Good Ancestor - Roman Krznaric
Gather Together - William Matheson
The Songs of Trees - David George Haskell
Sum: Tales from the Afterlives - David Eagleman
Doughnut Economics - Kate Raworth
The Nature Fix - Florence Williams
The Overstory - Richard Powers
Deep Adaptation - Jem Bendell
If Women Rose Rooted - Sharon Blackie

And listening…

I like to listen too.  Talks and podcasts I keep coming back to include:

Wild - Sarah Wilson
The danger of a single story - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
All power to the polymath - Ella Saltmarshe
Don't be an entrepreneur, build systems - Marc Ventresca
Abundance within planetary boundaries - Johan Rockström
Griefcast - Cariad Lloyd
Ologies - Alie Ward
The Long Time Academy - in 2022, I hosted an Australia-New Zealand based ‘listening party’ for this one

I contribute regularly to conservation efforts via John Muir Trust, the World Land Trust, Forest and Bird and Zealandia.