BUSINESS + INDIGENOUS RELATIONSHIPS · HUMAN INFRASTRUCTURE · GOVERNANCE
The work that interests me most lives where complexity, relationships and responsibility meet.
I am a syilx and Secwépemc business leader, strategic advisor, author and speaker. My work spans business, Indigenous relationships, governance and systems change in Canada.
For more than two decades, I have worked across Indigenous communities, governments, business and institutions, advising leaders, building businesses and intellectual property, and working through complex relationships, decisions and systems.
I am the creator of Cultivating Safe Spaces and Human Infrastructure Practice, a body of work focused on strengthening the human capacity underneath leadership, organizations, governance and systems.
My work has taken me through Indigenous communities, business, politics, governance, government and institutions. Today, much of it sits at the intersection of business, Indigenous relationships, governance and human infrastructure.
I am particularly interested in what we are building, who gets to participate and own, how decisions are made, and what kind of relationships and human capacity are required to make those things work in practice.
Building what’s next in a changing Canada.
THE WORK
Business + Indigenous Relationships in Canada
I work with businesses, Indigenous organizations and leaders navigating relationships, decisions and opportunities that have become complex.
Sometimes the strategy is clear, but the relationship isn't. Sometimes different expectations, histories or perspectives are getting in the way. And sometimes the people involved know something isn't working, but aren't sure what needs to change.
I help people understand what is happening underneath, strengthen the relationships and human capacity around the work, and find a practical way forward.
My experience building businesses and working across Indigenous communities, governments, corporations and institutions allows me to see both the organizational and human sides of the problem.
Cultivating Safe Spaces + Human Infrastructure Practice
Organizations can have good strategies, policies and structures and still struggle when the people inside them are under pressure, relationships are strained, or difficult issues keep resurfacing.
Through Cultivating Safe Spaces and Human Infrastructure Practice, I work with leaders, teams and organizations to strengthen the human capacity underneath the work: how people understand themselves and each other, navigate conflict and different perspectives, make decisions, build trust and move through complexity together.
Cultivating Safe Spaces provides the framework. Human Infrastructure Practice brings that framework into complex organizational, leadership, governance and systems work.
Governance + Complex Systems
Some of the hardest challenges don't sit neatly inside one mandate, organization or decision. Governance, leadership, relationships, competing priorities and organizational pressures can all become tangled together.
I work with leaders, boards, organizations and institutions to understand what is actually happening, identify where things are getting stuck, and create the conditions for better decisions and a way forward.
My approach brings together governance experience, systems thinking and Human Infrastructure, recognizing that complex problems rarely require only a technical solution. They also require people who can work across perspectives, relationships and responsibilities.
Better relationships build better decisions
Strong relationships create the conditions for good governance and sound business and more sustainable outcomes. That requires more than strategy. It requires human capacity, clear expectations, accountability and a willingness to do the hard work.
I work across systems because the most important challenges do not live in one place.
I have spent my career moving between community, politics, governance, government, organizations and business.
I have advised leaders and senior decision-makers, built businesses and intellectual property, worked with governments and corporations, and developed Cultivating Safe Spaces.
That range has given me a particular way of seeing problems. A business challenge may also be a governance challenge. An Indigenous Relations issue may actually be an internal leadership issue. A strategy can be technically sound and still fail because the relationships and human capacity required to carry it were never built.
My work is grounded in Indigenous knowledge, lived experience and a deep interest in how we build things together.
Writing + Books
Writing has always been part of how I make sense of the world.
Over the years, I’ve written books, articles, curriculum, planning frameworks and learning resources that explore leadership, governance, Indigenous knowledge, human capacity and systems change. Much of my writing comes from the same place as my work: paying attention to what happens between people, within systems, and in the spaces where change becomes difficult.
My books are available at many Indigo bookstores and on Amazon, or you can ask your local bookstore to order them.