I finished my education in systemic coaching in February 2023. Since then I have coached quite a few individuals from all walks of life: a professional musician struggling to keep practice discipline to a person who had difficulties to draw and communicate boundaries. What those had in common: they all liked the experience - and each ended with specific next steps (s)he would take to improve their situation in ways that felt authentic to themselves.

I facilitated a one-day workshop with 40 female leaders who aimed to form a network to promote women within a large company. The day covered clarifying the goals and purpose of their collaboration, an initial exploration of strategies for implementation, and the development of an inclusive organizational structure to support achieving the goals and executing the strategies.

Over the following years, the network has provided significant momentum on topics such as hiring policies, pay, promotions, and assessments.

At the initiative of a friend, we organized an unconference in Frankfurt for alumni of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung) on the topic of planetary boundaries and the good life for all within them. I took the lead on developing the format, facilitating the event, and framing the four-day gathering — with feedback from my co-organizers.

This event brought together everything I had learned: liberating structures, playful elements, Joanna Macy’s teachings and moral imagination, and connecting intellect, body, and heart—each with options for participants to choose the intensity of their involvement and immersion.

Thirty incredibly wonderful people left Frankfurt with strength and enthusiasm to help shape our world.

With two colleagues from the climate movement, I designed and ran a one-day workshop for citizens looking to engage in climate action. It was embedded in a festival under the theme of power, and was appropriately named Mitmach(t)labor - 'take part em-power lab'. It was a great experience and feedback was very positive. The workshop combined elements of open space, trust-building and innovation methods.

As part of the central annual gathering of an organization that runs international volunteer exchanges, I designed and facilitated a full day dedicated to the topic of climate justice and the role of volunteering in it. I delivered a keynote address on the subject and incorporated elements from Joanna Macy's Coming Back to Life.

For three years, I was part of a team to enable business agility for a large company. Like 70% of such initiatives, this one did not deliver either. I learned a huge lot, both in terms of expertise - from HR topics to IT strategy - but also personally and in terms of what makes or unmakes such initiatives. I'm far from certain that I learned enough to tell you how to run your own iniative, but I sure as hell have a lot of observations and data on how to fail. My perspective is unique - and might be helpful - because I have had trustful and direct interactions both with loads of rank-and-file employees experiencing 'the change', as well as corporate 'leadership'. I facilitated lots of workshops with all kinds of goals and people, and learned a lot about organization.

I was host at an event on green development aid. While I have no problem speaking or keynoting in front of 200 people, and the feedback was fine, but I found the experience mostly daunting. I'm not a social butterfly. When I facilitate, I work best in groups of no more than 30 people, who want to get something done.

Since 2021, I have been involved in a grassroots group dedicated to a citizens' petition in my hometown. Because I have other active roles in this group, I have not worked as I would as a consultant. But I played my part in helping us adapt to ever-changing demands: transitioning from political work to signature collection and then to an organization that could lobby the city council and mobilize civil society. Working with and within this "collaboration network" of people with a shared mission is the most startling contrast to my experience with agility in the corporate world. Each type of organization has its own strengths and weaknesses, and each could benefit greatly from learning some lessons from the other. The mechanisms emerging for skill management, dealing with divergent views and knowledge levels, widely varying time availabilities and interests are fascinatingly different.