better is possible. collabyrinth helps leaders and organizations, individuals and teams pursue the transformative impact they want to have as they learn and problem-solve better.

learning is learning whether it’s something you want to learn yourself, something you want to learn about your organization, something you want to learn from your stakeholders, or something you want your stakeholders to learn. it all involves the same processes, skill-set, and outcomes. problem-solving is problem-solving whether it’s something simple, straightforward, and you just need to get your people in a room to work it out, or something complex, even intractable, that you can’t quite get your arms around and you need to excavate how deep it goes, while addressing its effects each layer of the way.

our expertise is finding the processes that produce the outcomes you say you want, regardless of subject matter. notwithstanding, the work of equity, community, social justice, spirituality, and the interactions between these strivings toward better are areas of particular passion for us.

get to the better you seek faster and with the assurance that when you arrive you’ll be ready to handle whatever you encounter. gain the strategy to turn your well-meaning into a well-doing that makes room for more and more stakeholders.  receive the advisory support (coaching, insight and resilience) you need to consistently show up as the courageous leader you want to be. our design services and tools will help you build the “muscle memory” for seeking equity (or whatever your desired outcomes may be) in any interaction.  our collaborative design processes, forums, and projects will help your community risk across differences to try on new stories and scripts (better ways of thinking and doing), solve problems, and create new possibilities.

not only is better possible, it can begin right now.

 

people

melvin bray smiling, a black man with eye glasses, a salt-and-pepper fro and goatee, and wearing a blue and white checkered dress shirt and a light gray windowpane plaid blazer (panes outlined in blue), and a pocket hanky; standing against a green leafy background.melvin bray and leslie w. bray are the principal consultants for collabyrinth. they are both incredibly skilled at helping cohorts get where they are trying to go. they bring to bear a unique designer, advisor, facilitator, and strategist skill-set that is indispensable in almost any innovative endeavor—particularly those that involve learning and problem-solving, community and equity.

learn more about leslie or melvin.

additional team members are assembled as needed, depending upon the nature, size, and complexity of a client’s project, from a community of learning and problem-solving designers/facilitators who practice the same applied philosophy.

 

distinction

we understand learning and problem-solving. actual learning and problem-solving work differently than most people think. in western cultures, we are taught both start in the head. we believe learning and problem-solving start in the hands.

learning and problem-solving require practice—that is, if your goal is to change the conditions under which a problem or deficit occurred. learning and problem-solving also involve proactive collaboration, which is to say that the earlier we can be involved in your project, the sooner we can help you get to better.

if changing the conditions under which your problems or deficits occurred—i.e., transformation—is not your goal. if the goal is simply to feel better about the situation or just to make the situation look better, then it probably doesn’t matter where or when you start.

so if your goal is to help your group learn, for example, how to be community for one another, which is a particular passion of ours, we wouldn’t start with questioning what you think about community, but rather, our question would be how do you practice community. from there, we could offer practices that strengthen the traits of community already present and tools to cultivate what’s missing.

on the other hand, if your goal is to solve the problem of persistently inequitable outcomes in your organization—another area of particular passion for us—we wouldn’t start by training you to be nicer to one another. we help you examine the structures and systems, practices and protocols that dictate the outcomes you get. from there, we would help you collaboratively design the better future you’d rather be a part of.

there are a lot of ways we could and have described our work—from the particular tools we use, to the specific methodologies we deploy, to our four primary services. instead, we choose to speak in terms of process and outcomes. learning and problem-solving are both the process and the outcomes of our work. what we have discovered is that they go hand in hand. because learning requires problem-solving and problem-solving requires learning.

 

methodology

at its founding, collabyrinth specialized in design-based collaborative problem-solving, using a justice-focused variation on a methodology known in corporate circles since the 1980s as DESIGNSHOP®. over the last decade, we have adopted, adapted, created other useful methodologies (e.g., Transformative Community Conferencing, Narrative Change, UnLearn InEquity Accountability Circles), but DESIGNSHOP® methods continue to inform our expanded suite of services.

the DESIGNSHOP® methodology is a collaborative use of indivisible processes, tools, environment and time that produces breakthrough problem-solving for participants on a consistent basis. based on the time-tested work of matt taylor, gail taylor, rob evans, and their many protegés, full DESIGNSHOP® facilitations take place over 3-4 whole days and require facilitation teams of three or more working around the clock.

preparation for one of our collabyratories, which utilizes the DESIGNSHOP® method, begins no less than 4-6 weeks out with a discovery day—a 3-6 hour deep dive–with the sponsor design team. the sdt is usually comprised of 3-8 individuals including authorizing executives, project implementation leaders, and other key stakeholders. at this session we explore the need for the collabyratory, develop objectives for the session, drill into the crucial questions that need to be answered, identify potential participants, plan the preparation needed for success, and deal with session logistics (timing, venue, etc.).

whether conducting a full DESIGNSHOP® or not, we approach any engagement with the same appreciative inquiry and collaborative focus as would be expected in a DESIGNSHOP®.