Hi.
I’m Greg.
For the past 20 years, I have been a coach, facilitator, and collaborator who supports individuals, leaders, organizations, and teams at the threshold of transition. A big part of my work is helping people better navigate challenging spaces, whether that’s conversations about race, gender, and relationships, or just life (or work) stuff. My goal is to support people to be with what’s challenging and not turn away from it. I believe that life is about having the fullest experience possible; that our capacity to feel joy and pleasure is in direct proportion to our ability to experience the most difficult things.
Familiar with The Office?
I sometimes like to think of myself as a Michael Scott of sorts—if Michael Scott had real maturity, boundaries, and a smidge of propriety (and, let’s be honest, was written at a time when misogyny, fatphobia, and racism of all kinds was as frowned upon as it should be).
But I share his determination to make work a joyful place, his genuine care and concern for others, his focus on relationships above all else, and his emergent way of speaking and living life. To me, productivity is only as valuable as our work is meaningful and fulfilling. I aim to help people engage in livelihoods that are actually life-affirming for themselves and others.
I do things a little differently.
Here are some principles that guide my work and life:
I prioritize relationships and community over individualism.
Coaching tends to hyperfocus on the individual’s “personal development” instead of helping people to build relationships. We’ve somehow got this idea that we have to figure things out on our own.
We think we’re islands and therefore disconnected from one another. But islands are just pieces of land sticking out of the water. Taking a larger view, we can see that they are actually connected — there’s more to them than what we can see above the surface. They only look separate because we experience them that way.
Through my own experience of being in community, I’ve found that working with others beats isolation and that building relationships is the real path to transformation.
In fact, we can’t address our issues alone. We need others to help us disrupt the patterning and conditioning that got us where we are.
It’s this disruption that leads to creating more harmonious lives (not to mention work experiences).
2. I prioritize process over outcomes.
Focusing on outcomes is important in a lot of contexts. But when we focus 100% on that, it negates the full spectrum of our lived experience.
We can be myopic about getting somewhere instead of seeing the power of sitting with each other and having our unique expression reflected back to us.
This is actually what cultivates understanding and growth, and it’s something that only happens when we slow down.
3. I make time for Truth
I find that the place of growth often lies in conversations about what makes us come alive—what’s in our heart, what we want to do in our lives, what we want to bring forward.
Again, this is about slowing down, as opposed to barreling forward.
This is the invitation that I bring to my clients—let’s make space to have the conversations that reveal something that our fast-paced lives don’t.
We have a way of seeing “professional” environments as places of compartmentalization. To be “professional” we must put parts of ourselves away or on hold—or at least, try to.
For many of us, the bulk of our lives are lived at work, which means we are spending the vast majority of our time squashing the immense scope of our authentic experience in the name of “professionalism”.
In doing so, we not only compromise our potential and functionality as leaders, organizations, and teams, we cheat ourselves out of living the fullest lives we could possibly live.
Even high-functioning teams are living, breathing organisms and they need care and adjustments. You could drive your car every day for years but if you don’t get it looked at on a regular basis, things will shut down or implode. It’s not a perfect analogy, but teams (and individuals) are the same way. We have to stop every once in a while and say “How are we?” or we will eventually face problems that we can’t overcome.
I see the workplace as a crucible for transformation.
I believe that the artificial lines of “personal” and “professional” don’t actually exist – and that when we foster connection and transformation within leaders, organizations, and teams, we, in turn, build richer communities and have deeper experiences in and out of our jobs.
I partner with people who are trying to find their way, consciously thinking about their lives and their work and wanting to make a positive impact.
As a life-long learner, I’m always on the lookout for ways to deepen the skills I’ve been developing in my career. In 2009, I received a certificate in Integral Transformative Leadership from Pacific Integral's Generating Transformative Change program. In 2015, I returned to that program as an alumni-mentor. In 2021, I completed the anti-racist facilitator training led by Holisitc Resistance. In 2022 I completed training in Restorative Justice Peace Circles with Dr. Pamela Taylor and Dr. Stephanie Sarantos.
In addition to this coaching practice, I also collaborate quite a bit. I do a lot of my organizational work with my good friend and colleague Shannon Patterson at Connection Works. When the two of us do work with teams, we almost always use the Team Elements® model, app, and methodology. I count Ben Bratt, founder of Team Elements, a close colleague, and friend. I partner with Whitney Peper of Whitney, LLC on the Men Connecting: Understanding Whiteness program. I couldn’t do that work without him. I’m also on the team of anti-oppression coaches and consultants at Holisitc Resistance, working with white-bodied folks who are interested in a deeper dive in their anti-racism work.
I’m held in support by a remarkable collection of colleagues, collaborators, and friends. These include the folks listed above, as well as Jordan Giarratano of Team Builder Dojo, my amazing cohort from the Holistic Resistance facilitator training, a wonderful network of friends that’s been built over the last thirty or so years, my wife (a passionate and amazing communications expert, not to mention partner and friend), and many, many more fellow humans.
Me with Buckley (who is pretending he’s not getting his photo taken)
When I'm not working, I'm doing other things! I live in the Seattle area with my amazing wife and our neurotic, wonderful dog Buckley. I do as much as I can to enjoy the beautiful place we live—hiking, camping, and getting out on the water. Live music and theater are huge loves of mine, as are small dinner parties and long meandering conversations. Mostly, I enjoy spending time with the people I'm close with. I’m also a big reader and I love to write.