examples of my work

Sustainable Palm Oil Dialogue 2023

Moderating conference of 300 persons, including 4 panel discussions

..with speakers from the OECD, German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection (BMUV), scientists, retailers, traders and civil society organisations with foci on small producers, human rights and biodiversity...

With the new EU Deforestation Directive coming into force, all companies importing or selling products related to forest (clearance) are required to ensure sustainable origin. Due to complex supply chains, coming together as a sector and discussing challenges and ways forward, like the palm oil sector here, is key. Good work, Organisers Forum Nachhaltiges Palmöl, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, Sustainable Supply Chains Initiative and idh Sustainable Trade Initiative!

Project Management - best of agile and classic approaches -

Training given to the StEB - Cologne WaterWorks

Distilling key aspects of classic and agile project management approaches and relating them to day-to-day work. What is the mindset and intention of certain methods, artefacts, and tools? How can that be translated to a communal service provider?

For so.komm, supported a distributed team at Daimler AG to strengthen collaboration and adapt to change.

Changes from outside and within the organisation require new ways of collaborating - Arbeit 4.0. - best developed and recorded as a team agreement.

Design Thinking and related approaches

empathy with the 'user' by exploring their world + a diverse group of passionate individuals + safe space for new ideas and failing = the basis for innovative solutions

Sensing Journey to Tblisi's Impact Hub to learn about Georgia's Public Service innovation inspired by UNDP's Innovation Expert Khatuna Sandroshvili using User-centred Design & Reverse Engineering. With Mahinakhon Suleymanova and Uluk Kydyrbaev

Faculty at the Alanus University of arts and social sciences for the courses:

Co-Creation and social Effectiveness - in German the term "Wirksamkeit" has additional connotations of creating, impacting, manifesting

Module of the programme PerformArt

Rewilding the Soul - how immersing mentally and physically-sensually in natural systems can support the transformation towards a sustainable society

Module in PHASE Philosophy, Arts & Social Entrepreneurship

Facilitating the annual meeting of the ESD-Expert Net in Puebla, Mexico.

Members are experts on Education for Sustainable Development from India, South Africa, Germany and Mexico. The secretariat is run by Engagement Global.

Amazing work, synergising across countries to ensure Education for Sustainable development is not merely an add-on subject, but a basis for education fo the next generation!

Facilitating during 3 Climate Forums in Bonn with 150 participants, 100 randomly selected, the others from initiatives and the City of Bonn, to co-create a citizen's climate action plan. Bonn4Future commisioned by the City of Bonn

Dialogues on Customs Unions in Africa

with the inspiring Presencing Institute Facilitator Martin Kalungu-Banda, high-ranking officials from all over Africa and WTO-negotiators & EU representatives

... actively listening, sharing experiences and reflecting about pathways forward

Several workshops with UNFCCC's Eastern African Alliance on Carbon and Climate Finance bringing together the Private Sector, as well as facilitating a Corresponding Adjustment Trainings in the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties

IDEENGARTEN: Integrating a Design Thinking format for 200 people in an Open Space works!

Creativity happens when enabled to follow your impulse: participants chose however to spend the time - classic group discussion, theater improvisation, or just having coffee.....or within a structured Design Thinking format - wonderfully co-facilitated by Alanus students I had trained.

Open Space setting for collaboration & networking: starting with market place of topics, then working in DT working groups and 'free formats', and finally presenting all ideas to the forum. Visualising contacts for an asynchronous Sounding Board & Seed Crowdfunding of the amazing WOLANG conference team!

Bürgerräte - Citizen Councils, Citizen Cafés / Fora and accompanying process consultation of the cities

As part of the Losland project of Mehr Demokratie e.V., the Research Institute for Sustainability - Helmholtz Center Potsdam (former IASS) and supported by the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (federal agency for civic education), I accompanied the cities of Gütersloh, Homberg and Coesfeld in their courageous initiatives to invite citizens, drawn by lot, to come together and develop recommendations for a sustainable city of the future.

More information can be found in the final Losland publication.

YOUrban Conference: practitioners - potential - perspectives

Facilitation of conference for in-depth exchange and networking between practitioners, researchers, and students on the topics of urban development, urban design, and related disciplines, with Panel Discussions, Speaker Corners and interactive open spaces.

Women Leadership Training with 21 amazing women leaders from anglophone and francophone Africa!

Two weeks of exploring the depths of collaboration and leadership, on a personal, organisational and societal level... engaging with women leaders of all ranks: CEO of multinational company, farmers, directors of an association - supported by women interpreters, assistants and even bus driver - what an empowering experience!

Climate Change Communication

How can we inspire positive feelings when "climate change" feels so 'cold', abstract, distant or bewildering?

Inspire community by appealing to intrinsic motivation, emotions and stories about win-win solutions that solve more tangible issues...

Facilitating the Labour Solutions Forum of the Forest Stewardship Council in Geneva

Holding the space for a dialogue among 50 representatives of unions, employer-associations and trans-national companies, certification companies, social and environmental organisations...from the Global South and Global North

Leadership for Civil Society Organisations from francophone Africa

Leadership pour Organisations Non-Gouvernementales (ONGs) de l'Afrique francophone

Facilitating in the virtual world - with relationship, focus and committment - "Begleitung von Online-Treffen – mit Beziehung, Fokus und Verbindlichkeit in der virtuellen Welt facilitieren "

Honoured to be training at Jutta Weimar's Facilitation Academy (Berlin) where we explore how we can enable relationship, focus and committment in groups.

"This is the first 3h meeting I have experienced where I don't feel exhausted afterwards!"

Faculty at Virtual Collaboration Campus

Enjoyed my sessions with great participants and co-facilitators on

Visualising in Online Calls
Best practise in Online Facilitation
Collaboration with Microsoft Teams - an introduction
Using Planning tools like Trello or MS Planner for team cohesion (and conflict prevention!)
Collaborating across timezones

Leading Distributed Virtual Remote Teams incl. in fragile contexts

Online, Blended and On-premise training courses

Team development, team leader coaching

Team support in the application of digital technologies to support effective team processes

Digitalisation is a Change Process!

...that is closely connected to new ways of working #Work 4.0

...involving fears, resistance, different speeds of adoption, new language and behaviours

Supporting organisations through e.g.

...training of team leaders, department heads, assistants / secretaries and other target groups

...consulting on the processes of introduction to bring staff with you

...team workshops to develop agreements on digital collaboration

Applying a user-centric approach: where is my target group at? What are their needs? Where are their fears and pains? ... and letting them develop where the gains can be!

Co-facilitating the Design Thinking-based "Festival der Taten" at the Malzfabrik in Berlin.

400 young adults developing inspiring ideas for linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - giving me hope for the future!

International speaker at a conference in Delhi with 800 farmers

on sustainable trade approaches, together with IFOAM's Bernward Geier, Jose Bové, Vandana Shiva and others

Training of Trainers in Leadership and Management in the context of decentralisation in Tunisia

Formation des Formateurs en Leadership et Management pour soutenir la décentralisation en Tunisie

Appreciating the effort to come to our training in Bangkok on the 39th floor: On the Check-in question "How are you here today?", participants from Laos, Cambodia, Malawi, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq and other places told us how many forms of transport they took, including a boat!

"Collaboration & Coordination of Teams" for team coordinators without direct reports have the chance to practise what works best anyway: lateral leadership and peer collaboration combined with the best of classic and agile project management.

Working with participatory processes - 'analogue' and digitally

The best agenda and 'harvesting' is one that enables participants to prioritise and give meaning themselves. Story-telling, working with cards, post-its or digital interactive software allows participants to initially not limit themselves and openly share and listen to what is arising...and then go into a process of bringing it into shape - strategy, action plan, collection of tools...

First-time team leaders

Often advancing their career due to specific expertise, first-time team leaders find themselves spending most of their time with management and team leadership, with little training in that field. In addition, they need to find their identity in the new role, suddenly regarded as 'the boss' or a representative of 'the employer' by peers.

Training: Facilitation of Multi-stakeholder Consultations

Achieving tangible results while enabling everyone to feel heard

Facilitating listening to those "you may not agree with, like or trust" (Kahane, A.) in a respectful dialogue whilst recognising valid differences in perspective

Multi-lateral Forum organisation with World Bank and GIZ

"Frontiers in Leading Change" with Peter Senge, Dave Snowden, Robert Hanig and many other thought leaders on change leadership

Online Facilitation

Facilitating and training for online or blended Workshops, Conferences, Webinars, E-Learning

...it's all possible: virtual large group conferences, world cafés, Fishbowl dialogues, guided tours in gallery walks, Open Space session, brainstorms, stand-ups, reflective exercises, employee talks, conflict resolution, games (charades;), design sprints, co-working and co-creating!

Innovative Methods: toy constellations for exploring a 'SYSTEM'

after initial scepticism also enjoyed by high-ranking officials

Who is where? Why? Do you all agree on the setup? What does it look like from the other side? What happens if we move this piece? What do we want our ideal future to look like?

Flexibly adapting to the circumstances

teaching on the floor...

...as international faculty in a course of Vandana Shiva's Navdanya project in northern India

Multilingual Stakeholder Consultation

with producers, traders and organisational representatives from all over anglophone and francophone Africa, outside of Nairobi

...facilitating with translators and bilingual materials and visualisation...

managing to achieve understanding and a group feeling despite the language barriers!

Outside and physical activities

to re-energise our bodies during workshops

to experience situations in a profound way

and get out of our heads!

Social Media Consulting & Training

Digital competencies for team leaders, community management of alumni, dealing with shitstorms, bots and algorhythms - and - the beauty of virtual communities of practise

Needs Assessment for a leadership programme in Central Asia with participants from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, including a module in Georgia

.... lucky to witness a Buzkashi game on horseback in Kyrgyzstan at -20° C