Core Beliefs

What We Believe

We believe building high trust, high performance cultures are worth the commitment because they increase success, meaning, and joy. In high trust cultures, the dignity, integrity, and humanity of each person is valued. We believe that performance excellence, equity, and trust are interdependent, co-creative forces—one is not possible without the other.

We believe that the wisdom and perspectives of different people, places, and moments in time make us and the teams we lead stronger and more creative. 

We also believe in two core ideas: water as teacher and consciousness is awareness. These beliefs are meant to be broad, poetic, and provocative. We use them to inspire wonder, curiosity and skillfulness in the people we train. A selection of illustrations, poems and quotes are woven throughout our training materials to stimulate creativity and invite reflection.

Our Theory of Change

Coaching our clients to meet the bottom and top line standards of their high trust, high performance culture by design playbooks changes the way they learn, work, live, play, and innovate together. We believe this makes the world a happier place.

These are the three core beliefs that underpin our coaching and culture design approach:

1. We believe societies and systems are highly relational and interdependent, simultaneously competitive and cooperative, and comprised of responsive networks that remain open across time as a continuous flow.

2. We believe societies and systems are the consequence of the interweaving of the intentions and actions of many people over time. Despite the fact that no one person controls an entire system—even though some individuals have more power and influence than others—the interplay of individual intentions, habits, decisions, and actions produces a pattern of behavior that tends in a particular direction.

3. We believe societies and systems are driven by culture which is the bedrock of society. High trust, high performance cultures produce healthy, high functioning, individuated, and socially responsible citizens. Citizens of values-driven cultures know how to participate skillfully with people they are not leading and among people they did not choose. In other words, they know how to be effective, contributing members of a group or team. By becoming an engaged citizen you discover how to belong, how to make meaningful contributions, how to work well with others, how to initiate and deliver effective change, and how to be part of something larger than yourself. In brave and real cultures, leaders are cultivated from among their community’s best citizens.