Living on the communist side of the Berlin wall, community and trust meant everything to me. And we thrived despite the oppression, tyranny. and challenges of day-to-day life. Then suddenly, like an incoming tsunami, life as I knew it was  swept away.

Our entire community was forced to adopt the West German way of life. We had no choice. No say in the matter. And we experienced the devastating emptiness of dis-empowerment - but at least we were free and I could pursue my dream of studying at university!  

But the importunity came at a heavy price. I lost my culture and my way of life. And the entire community of East Germany was shocked in to the reality of larger new Germany.  The arrogance of the West and lack of care and empathy during the transition shocked me.  

With two totally different political systems coming together, we had the opportunity to create a better world by learning from each other.  But nobody even wondered if our way of life had anything of value to adopt.  Instead, the West saw themselves as liberators and did not consider our values.

No one thought to ask a simple but powerful question: “How can we work together, and combine the best of both worlds to create a better way forward for everybody?”

And the opportunity to create a better world that leveraged the best of both systems was lost.

Two years later my new West-German Professor brought a fresh wave of thinking that would change my life trajectory forever. An insight that would have been extremely valuable when the West & East political systems collided.

Instead of dictating to us what he thought we should know, he took a collaborative facilitative approach.  He asked the same question that was burned into my mind two years earlier, and he encouraged active participation from all.

“How can we work together, and combine the best of both worlds to create a better way forward for everybody?

He became my mentor and supported me in learning the art of facilitation - the skill of inclusion & collaboration that I knew could have a profound impact on the world. Where everyone had a voice, and all contributions were valued.

During those years, I became part of something far bigger than myself; a collective unit that harnessed our individual strengths to create a united and powerful team.  And the culture of our collective made us extremely effective at achieving our goals & missions.
My experiences taught me that the  gold in the collective is the diversity of the individuals. Collective insight harnesses the collective intelligence that we only can access together and through skilful facilitation.

My take-away from all this is that the collective’s effectiveness is amplified when individual strengths are leveraged, like drops of water coming together to form an ocean. Since then, my life’s mission has been to enable leaders to experience the power of being part of a collective of empowered individuals.

The key to harnessing the power of such a collective is to create an environment and culture where individuals can freely and openly contribute ideas to the cause. Only once such a culture is established can the collective insight and collective intelligence be harnessed and directed toward a common goal.

Establishing and maintaining this environment is the role of a facilitator.

If learning how to create dynamic & cohesive teams that are primed for innovation and change is your mission, or you’re looking to triple the effectiveness of your organisation, let’s speak about how we can make this happen.

Join me in creating a world where we can meet these challenges, and harness the energy and potential of collective insight.