TENDING ORGANISATIONS
Leadership development and organisational culture consulting for purpose-led organisations
We work with organisations navigating complexity, conflict, and change.
Developing the grounds for flourishing teams and cultures by cultivating the internal and relational capacities that matter most.
We tend to the grounds.
The rest will follow.
Like soil that has been worked too hard for too long, we see many teams and cultures becoming depleted; losing capacity for genuine creativity, relational coherence, and individual wellbeing.
Regenerative agriculture teaches us that sustainable growth requires attention to the health of the ground itself: Healthy soils, healthy ecosystems. The same is true of organisations. When we tend to what lies beneath - the automatic strategies for dealing with uncertainty, the unconscious relational patterns, the emotional life of each individual - a new kind of vitality can emerge.
Our work draws on interpersonal neurobiology, mentalization and metacognitively based therapies, ecological ways of knowing, developmental psychology, embodied and somatic practices. As we bring more awareness to patterns that keep us stuck, develop capacity to be with difficult emotions, and open more authentic connection between team members, organisations unlock their deeper potential.
Book a Workshop for Your Organisation
Equip your leaders and employees with the mental skills to maintain wellbeing and to be adaptable, resilient and compassionate in the face of life’s challenges. Our workshops are practical, evidence-based and delivered by our highly qualified and experienced psychologists. Book virtual or face to face workshops or talk to us about tailoring a special event or program to suit your needs.
For Leading in Uncertainty and Change
A workshop for developing the inner capacities to meet uncertainty, pressure, and change without collapsing into unproductive strategies. When we are overwhelmed, our larger perspectives and creative capacities give way to old habits such as control or narrow solutions. Drawing on metacognitive and mentalization based practices, we address complexity and systems thinking from the ground up: Establishing the psychological capacities to hold more complexity.
“TG delivered a connecting and enriching workshop for a group of young people on Relational Leadership: Weaving Cultures of Belonging for Self and Society. They facilitated and held the group with sensitivity and grace, and covered subjects that allowed for vulnerability, self reflection, and openness. We would love to get them to come and work with our staff on a similar topic.”
For Conflict and Relational Intelligence
A workshop for developing the relational skills necessary to shift conflict, avoidance, or difficult conversations towards collaboration. Many teams remain stuck due to the unspoken challenges or louder frictions between people. As a gentle entry into this often challenging topic, participants learn to recognise their own patterns, regulate emotional responses, and communicate in ways that invite safety, connection and collaboration.
“IE Digital worked with Al to create both team and individual activities to build awareness for Mental Health Week. Al was extremely flexible to work with, from organising the workshops to executing them. He was able to adapt and tailor his workshops to suit our needs. IE team members had only positive feedback, especially regarding the Psychological Safety workshop. IE Digital will definitely look to work with Al again soon.”
For Scattered Attention & Burnout
A workshop for practicing skills that bring inner coherence, regulation and stability amidst the overwhelm of our endless to-do lists. During our time together, we will delve into some ‘bottom-up’ practices which focus on somatic, emotional and nervous system regulation. We will also learn some ‘top-down’ practices focusing on metacogntion, self-awareness, and mindfulness.
Looking for something more bespoke?
From multi-session, sequenced programs tailored to the specific challenges, culture, and context of your organisation, to co-designed, produced, and facilitated leadership off-site retreats…
Designing, creating, and facilitating spaces for new ways of being, thinking, relating, and creating is what we support organisations like you with.
Our Areas of Focus
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Leadership as stewardship - working with patterns and interdependence rather than force, and cultivating practices that genuinely nourish the systems we inhabit.
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Building the relational ground to navigate difference in a generative manner. Exploring the personal, social and cultural grounds of diversity, authenticity and collaboration.
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Restoring embodied connection to purpose. Developing the psychological and metacognitive capacities needed to navigate ambiguity without losing direction.
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Working with unconscious motivational patterns and emotional reactivity so leaders and teams can show up with more presence and considered choice.
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Using creative and contemplative practice to unlock new thinking, deepen collaboration, and move beyond habitual patterns.
Our Guiding Principles
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Like living systems, organisations have patterns, histories, and health — or the lack of it. We approach organisations the way we'd approach any living system: with curiosity, humility, and attention to what's actually happening, not just what's meant to be happening.
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How a leader holds themselves shapes how a team holds itself. The quality of attention in the room determines the quality of what's possible there. We take seriously the inner dimensions of leadership — not as a soft add-on, but as the ground everything else stands on.
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Culture doesn't change because the strategy is right. It changes because people — in real relationship with each other — start to show up differently. We work at the level of relationship: the quality of listening, the capacity for honest dialogue, the conditions that make trust possible.
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We work somatically — attending to what's held in posture, breath, nervous system, and gesture. In a culture that privileges the rational and verbal, this is often where the most significant learning is waiting.
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The challenges organisations face today don't yield to tighter planning or clearer metrics. They ask for leaders who can tolerate not-knowing, hold multiple perspectives, work creatively with conflict, and stay present under pressure.
Our Facilitators
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Al is an integrative psychotherapist, group facilitator, leadership trainer, community builder, writer, and storyteller; guided by his ongoing quest to restore a life-affirming culture.
Combining his education in Social Entrepreneurship, Mindfulness-Based Leadership, Integral Facilitation, The Way of Council, Human-Centred Design, Regenerative Practice, and most recently, Integrative Psychotherapy, he seeks to create spaces for individuals and groups to find resilience and agency amidst complexity.
He was listed in the Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 in Australia twice in a row and has since become a trusted guide to a number of for-purpose teams and leaders. In 2022, he was also awarded the National Award for Clinical and Academic Excellence for Integrative Psychotherapy at IKON Institute.
As a queer man, Al’s love for integrating the diverse and transgressive is alive in all he touches. Whether he’s guiding through words or the spaces between them, Al’s deep appreciation for both ancient and emergent ways of knowing shines through in all his ways.
You can connect further with Al at www.aljeffery.com.
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Vadim is a group facilitator, education designer, and artist whose work explores how learning experiences can support deeper human development.
He holds a degree in Physics from The University of Melbourne, and has trained in interpersonal group psychotherapy, group facilitation, systems thinking, and regenerative practice with organisations including Human Synergistics, Regenesis Institute and The International Bateson Institute. Vadim has worked across diverse contexts, from contributing to the redesign of the medical degree at The University of Melbourne to facilitating intercultural and interfaith dialogue.
He is currently collaborating with Integrative Psychology & Medicine to develop an integrative framework for human development and mental health.
Learn more about Vadim here.
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Mike Lowe is a facilitator, trainer and mentor with over 30 years experience in leadership and community development. During the 90s he developed and led training programs for young leaders in the former Soviet Union (including two programs for Ukrainian MPs) focusing on the importance of trust-building and the skills and mindsets required to build trust. He has facilitated reconciliation workshops for former combatants in Solomon Islands and run skills training programs in how to have difficult conversations in India, Indonesia and Australia.
Our Collaborators & Partners
Be in touch to partner with us for a workshop or bespoke program.
Please fill out the form below, and we will be in touch to discuss the next steps.
If you have any questions, please email orgs@turningground.com.au
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