Best Practices and Insights for Facilitating Creativity, Alignment & Organizational Results

The Grove is experiencing one of our busiest years in a decade, and we are serving more international clients than ever. This, alongside the recent EuViz conference in Berlin and our growing number of global partners, is prompting an increased focus on how we can best support this worldwide evolution of visual practice and interest in Grove methods.

Global Visual Practitioners Converge at EuViz

In August The Grove’s David Sibbet, Rachel Smith, and Gisela Wendling...

How do you embed Team Performance within a global company? W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. is showing the way. Human Resources (HR) at Gore is “going big” with The Grove’s Team Performance offerings to support its 10,000 associates worldwide.

Setting the Context

The culture at Gore prioritizes innovation and “the power of small teams.” Although Gore is best known for its Gore-Tex® waterproof outdoor gear, its wide-ranging products are in use...

The Grove’s Rachel Smith and Kaiser Permanente recently created a graphic recording movie about ALL-PHASE, Kaiser’s simple yet effective protocol to prevent heart attacks and strokes in diabetics age 55+. This video is now being used for patient education at 85 participating community clinics nationwide.

Project Background

Diabetics are two to four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Yet many high-risk patients are not receiving preventive treatment...

The Grove’s Laurie Durnell facilitated a multi-stakeholder process with all of the public-land management agencies for Mt. Tamalpais. The resulting collaborative will sustain the well-being of the mountain on which Laurie grew up.

Seeds for a multi-agency collaboration were planted back in 2003 when The Grove facilitated a watershed visioning process for Muir Woods. This culminated in a March 21 signing ceremony that launched the Tamalpais Lands Collaborative. (1)

Located...

The Unity Council was born in challenging times. In the 1960s, a freeway cut through the heart of Oakland and, as in many American cities, the result was an era of urban decline and poverty. During this time, the civil rights movement was gaining strength.

Latino activists from several organizations joined forces in 1964 to form The Unity Council, with the purpose of having a stronger, collective voice for their unrepresented community.

A Mural Project Is Born

With the...

On October 7, 2013, David Sibbet was a featured speaker at the National Organization Development Network (ODN) Conference in San Jose, California, where he received ODN’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The following article is adapted from his conference presentation and his remarks at the awards ceremony.

I was invited by several ODN colleagues to share with you some of the shaping influences underlying my work and The Grove Consultants International’s methods. It’s an...

Safe, nurturing environments and excellent instruction have been found to result in higher academic achievement and better preparation for college, career and community life. (1) Based upon these findings, Oakland Unified School District (Oakland Unified) is working a seven-year plan to transform the educational experience of its students using Social and Emotional Learning principles.

Roots of a Social and Emotional Learning Journey Map

Over the course of a year The Grove...

The Grove has worked with Family, Schools and Community Partnerships (FSCP), part of the Oakland Unified School District, to envision the department’s journey over the next five years and think about possible concrete steps to strengthen its work.

FSCP, the Oakland public school system’s largest department, addresses all non-academic support for students and families, partnering with external community agencies as needed. The department’s goal is to create full-service...

Recently The Grove’s Rachel Smith graphically supported an online event that addressed the complexities of higher education in a digital age. Using a tablet, illustration software and web-conferencing technologies, Rachel created visual notes during each of the gathering’s three featured online events.

The event was hosted by EDUCAUSE, a networking and resource hub for IT professionals working in higher education. The three-day online Sprint featured an interactive mix of...