In May of 2005, I launched my consulting practice. This month, I celebrate seven years consulting (having now served 76 organizations!). I launched my career in 1997 and its wild for me to think I now have 15 years of professional experience. Whether serving as a consultant, executive director or board member, I’m continually drawn to issues related to leadership and organization development.

At my core, I’m passionate about urban sustainability, particularly in Los Angeles and Southern California. I believe that leaders working together under the umbrella of an organization function as one of the primary drivers of positive, social change. I’m attracted to questions like:

• What’s your mission and vision and how will you make that a reality?
• How does your leadership reach consensus and how will you decide?
• How will you build a stronger Board of Directors?
• Who will support your organization and how will you build relationships with them?

Over the last seven years, I have built my capacity as a facilitator, trainer and coach in the areas of strategic planning, board development and fundraising. While these are critical areas for any nonprofit organization and I will continue to build my capacity to deliver these services in a more effective manner, I find myself interested in a broader set of issues and questions such as:

• How do you manage a change process within an organization to change its culture?
• How do you build stronger teams, especially when personalities clash?
• How do you transform conflict and strengthen organizations?
• How do you promote an organizational culture of mutual learning?
• How do you effectively collaborate with a broader network of organizations?
• How do you evolve into a larger, more complex, effective and sustainable organization?

These are some of the questions I plan to explore as I continue to build my own capacity as a consultant over the next seven years and beyond. I look forward to learning best practices and theories over the next two years as I work towards a Masters of Science in Organization Development at Pepperdine University. This graduate program is geared toward mid-career, working practitioners like me. During the program, I look forward to applying the best practices I learn in the classroom into the boardroom of organizations I serve.

As I move forward, I hope to have the opportunity to build new relationships with a broader set of leaders like working on a variety of sustainability-related issues here in Southern California.  I have witnessed so much positive change over the last 15 years and am optimistic about what is possible over the next 15 years.

Onwards and forward!