About David Sibbet

Founder of The Grove 

David Sibbet began his practice as an organizational consultant and process and information designer in 1977. He is retired from active graphic facilitation and shifting his focus to Leadership Coaching, teaching about The Grove methods, and writing Point-of-View articles (see below). He frequently lends his facilitation and design expertise to Grove project teams in online settings.

He is author of John Wiley & Sons’ four-volume Visual Facilitation Series, as well as many of The Grove’s leading-edge group-process tools and models for facilitation, team leadership and organizational transformation, he has a passion for sharing good tools. 

His foundational experience was seven years with the Coro Center for Public Affairs in San Francisco where he was Executive Director and Director of Programs as well as a subsequent Board member two different times.

David studied the Theory of Process with Arthur M. Young for eight years in the late 1970s, finding an operating system which has guided The Grove's process work since. In 2009 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Organization Development Network.

Gisela Wendling, Ph.D., David's long time colleague and spouse, is now CEO of The Grove. They co-authored Visual Consulting and continue to collaborate on new tools and methods that can support realizing visionary futures.

David currently works from his home studio in Petaluma, California, where he does coaching and visioning work. He is on the Board of California Poets in the Schools and the International Forum of Visual Practitioners Institute and is active with The Grove's Global Learning & Exchange Network. A recent project is helping create Gather Petaluma—a not-for profit organization initiated by the United Church of Christ to create a multi-purpose hub for events and services to the community. 

Point of View: Writing from My Lived Experience

David is now offering ongoing interaction and support through a new premium writing platform. He is committed to interacting through comments with persons who become Contributing Members, which is a new way to engage him in ongoing learning about the various topics he is pursuing. 

David was training in magazine journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School and after time at the Chicago Tribune, has authored many networking communications over the years. He has written steadily for over 50 years, and many of these writings are on this new site.

For free, check the writing tab to see all the areas he is sharing. The premium posts and new book writing will then be for Contributing Members.