Minding the Invisible by Cultivating Coherence
Facilitating Organizations & Leaders in Cultivating Alignment within Complexity
Working at the nuanced intersection of the Human Rights and Technology, I create dynamic organizational cultures in which people can thrive and thus make greater contributions to the planet. I often act as the interface between individuals and the systems within which they work, fostering the development & thriving of both.
“I have never met anybody with better people skills. A deft facilitator of people and process, universally trusted and capable of having tough conversations with grace and compassion, in her time with us Gayle dramatically strengthened the Wikimedia Foundation. Working with her was a joyful experience.”
— Sue Gardner, Former Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia), named to World’s Most Powerful Women list by Forbes.
WHY
The New Collective Story
“Liminal” means to occupy a position on both sides of a boundary or threshold. We need to see beyond where we currently are, to orient beyond certainty because in times of rapid change, certainty is at best like “standing on fishes” as Rilke puts it. We need to live longer in, and expand, the gray areas, of neither this nor that, of holding what may seem like opposing tensions or poles apart long enough for wider horizons and deeper solutions to emerge.
For the leader, working with culture is like understanding the role of dark matter in the universe—it’s everywhere, it’s influential, yet impossible to detect with the naked eye. If you want to understand the universe or want to deliver on a mission, you must mind this invisible force. As the former Chief Cultural and Talent of Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation, a foundation that works with hundreds of thousands of volunteers around the world to create content and give it away, culture was how we scaled. To mature it, it took more than clarity about the mission, the values, the norms, the mindsets. I had to work with the mythic and the mundane in every moment. I had to uncover the invisible stories and unconscious narratives that we told about ourselves to know how and when and why to intervene.
“Gayle brings an improbable mix of empathy and intellect to her work, giving her the ability to perform at the highest level of leadership, while experiencing a felt understanding of each individual along the way. She is graceful in an emergency, confident in a conflict, and patient in the moments when you want to rip your hair out. With Gayle, you feel like you’ve known her forever after just meeting. She’s free of bullshit and full of energy. I couldn’t recommend her more.”
— Evan Walden, CEO, ReWork
WHAT
Trans-Disciplinary Offerings
From Organizational Consulting to Philanthropic Activism Offerings, weaving together a diverse background of trainings, toolkits and methodologies.
HOW
Enlivening the Moral Imagination
Fostering the developmental thriving between business & social good, mythic & mundane, intimate & scaled, poetic & pragmatic, human-centered & technology-assisted polarities of organizational culture.
“You walking, your footprints are
the road, and nothing else;
there is no road, walker
you make the road by walking.
By walking you make the road,
and when you look backward,
you see the path that you
will never step on again.
Walker, there is no road,
only wind-trails in the sea.”
— Quote Source