I help small to mid-size nonprofit leadership teams navigate strategic changes intentionally, effectively, and confidently through coaching engagements. My mission is to weave together the fabric of people for a stronger community.
Share
Your hands may tell a story your words can't - May 2026 from B3
Published 4 months ago • 3 min read
May 2026
Hi Reader,
A few weeks ago, I floated over the pyramids at Teotihuacan in a hot air balloon. Years ago, in a meditative visioning exercise, I drew hot air balloons — something about lift, about rising high enough to see the whole shape of something. And there I was, finally in one.
But what stayed with me wasn't just the view. It was what I learned afterward at the National Museum in Mexico City.
The Teotihuacan we walked through isn't ancient ruins. The city burned around 750 CE. What we see now is a reassembly — what archaeologists believe existed, built over tunnels that are still being excavated. History is more layered than the surface suggests.
Teams are always navigating these layers — what's visible, what's being excavated, sometimes consciously, and many times not.
For Team Leaders
What does thriving look like for your team?
Maybe you even describe it as flow. Moving together, thinking together, generating something none of you could have reached alone.
Often, teams need some prompting to think of what this looks like. Some even need a little willing suspension of disbelief to think it can happen. When work is abstract, the stakes are high, and conversation alone keeps circling the same ground, that flow state can feel far away.
So get creative. Bring in another part of your brain. LEGO Serious Play. Oracle cards. Any tool that invites teams to work in metaphor rather than analysis.
Not because the work isn't serious — but because the serious work sometimes needs us to activate different neural pathways.
The energy teams feel when something gets unlocked is a step towards flow.
Is your team circling the same conversation? Let's talk about what a more creative, generative path might look like.
And what do coaches surface often in that reflection? Losing presence in client sessions.
We get in our heads. Thinking about the framework, the intervention, whether we're doing it right. All that thinking pulls us out of the room.
So while I use creative pathways in my coaching — LEGO, oracle cards, somatic practices — I also use them in supervision to invite expansiveness. When coaches step into metaphor or embodiment themselves, it opens portals for exploration.
A coach draws the client system. Pulls a card. Builds something. And suddenly the analysis drops away. They see what they couldn't see when they were trying so hard to see it.
Presence lives in spaciousness[PA2.1], the flow state. And metaphor has the power to invite that — not by forcing it, but by creating the conditions where it can emerge.
My next supervision group has 3 spots left. If this resonates — reply and let's talk.
When I meet a likeminded thinker — someone equally invested in the inherent creativity and genius of teams — I have to share what they're up to.
I got to meet Daniel Weinzveg briefly at PEAK Grantmaking, and then we really connected at Nonprofit Culture Fest. His book, Generating Group Genius, is full of practical ways to bring fun and creativity to teams trying to solve hard problems.
What I love about it: he gives you process. Actual agendas you can pick up and use. Like Renee Rubin Ross's Inclusive Strategic Planning (which I shared last month), this isn't theory — it's tools.
If you're looking for ways to help teams think differently together, this one's worth your time.
On a Personal Note
Emerging
The apricot tree is blooming. The hot sauce is in the fridge. Mexico City is still with me.
Especially one thing.
The Teotihuacan we saw is a reassembly, an interpretation — what archaeologists believe exists. And I wrestled with this, wandering above the excavation, thinking about the tunnels that existed 1,300 years ago. The juxtaposition of the reconstruction over the original tunnels makes me think of the constant as we try to understand our world: the story we (re)create over the story we unearth.
What's being excavated in your work right now — something that's been there all along, just not yet visible?
I help small to mid-size nonprofit leadership teams navigate strategic changes intentionally, effectively, and confidently through coaching engagements. My mission is to weave together the fabric of people for a stronger community.
July 2026 Hi Reader, I just got back from three days alone at the coast — my once-a-year retreat to think hard about the year ahead. I went in expecting to plan. What I actually did was notice how much had shifted under me while I was busy keeping things moving. I kept circling around the word coherence. Not "am I doing enough," but "do the pieces still hold together?" It turns out that's the question I keep hearing from the people I work with, too — both the teams and the coaches. Which is...
June 2026 Hi Reader, Since we last talked, I've been to San Diego, Riverside, Puerto Vallarta, and all over the Bay Area. I love the whirlwind — the variety, the people, the energy of being in many rooms at once. And I'm also craving something rooted. Ground under my feet. A morning that doesn't start in a different zip code. I'm sitting with both of those things right now, without trying to resolve them. Which, it turns out, feels very on-theme for this month. For Team Leaders The burnout...
April 2026 Hi Reader, April arrives with blossoms and a full calendar — and I'm here for all of it. This past Wednesday, I hosted a Passover seder for over 30 people. Joyous and a little chaotic, steeped in tradition and entirely full of human connection. My favorite moment: watching people notice how easy it was to meet someone new that night, how everyone felt like they'd been friends forever. Both new and familiar at once. I love that particular polarity. This month I'm thinking about...
