Sometimes, despite knowing that the way we're working together is no longer serving us, we can't find our way to solutions. We may even be aware of solutions, but the stakes feel too high or the capacity seems too low, or for reasons we're not aware of, we're just not getting there. How leadership works in organizations is often one of these stuck places. 

Maybe there's no shared map of what else is possible. Maybe individual feelings about accountability run deeper than the conversational level at which possibilities are discussed. Meanwhile, the organization's natural leadership capacity stays locked out by a structure that was never aligned with its culture.

This can create frictions you may recognize. Those in leadership feeling the weight of carrying too much, sensing that others could step up. Some people wanting to contribute more fully who aren't structurally able; others viewing leadership as a burden to avoid, based on the current model, who would thrive in other models not yet considered.

Big Waves can help you read the scene and all of its potentials. Drawing on the many and diverse approaches to leadership that are working well in cultures like yours today, as well as your own inherent wisdoms, we'll explore together what leadership, hierarchy, and responsibility is meant to look like for you. You'll plan your path to get there, and decide how you'll know when to adjust and when to stay the course.  

With Big Waves

  • Read Your Current Terrain. Surface the values, practices, and natural flows already present in your organization: the intrinsic strengths any new structure must preserve and build from.

  • Map Possibilities. Explore alternative structures, role designs, and accountability agreements that have made the difference in organizational cultures like yours.

  • Reality Testing. Take stock of risks and concerns, as well as likely difficulties, in order to ground plans in diligence. Take stock of strengths and non-negotiables, ensuring plans build from these.

  • Transition Mapping. Identify how wisdom and care can support everyone as they enter new relationships and expectations.

  • Caring For the Change. Choose a pace and a rhythm for changes that will create beats you can see health in: health of the changes, the work and of those doing the work.

This support can look like a workshop, a conversation, a change project, or other custom engagements.

Joanne Kerrigan

Having led transformational change from the inside, Joanne Kerrigan brings deep understanding of organizational complexity to her work. She loves to "find the thing underneath the thing": the conditions beneath the symptoms, and the moments an organization begins to see itself more clearly. She has also guided learning across classrooms and online cohorts, and loves what she calls learning magic.