SPEAKING & WORKSHOPS
Three ways in, depending on how much time you have and how tired your team is.
A keynote changes the story and the possibilities people work within. A workshop builds the skills that great challenges demand and puts the new story into practice. A full day gives a team time to come back to itself, reconnecting people, purpose, and possibilities.
American Psychological Association · Brown University · Butterball Farms, Inc. · California Academy of Sciences · Chambers for Clean Energy and Innovation · Conferences for Women · Cornell University · Earth Knowledge · FrameWorks Institute · Human Rights Campaign · Packard Foundation · Protect Our Winters · San Francisco Chamber of Commerce · Southern Poverty Law Center · Woodwell Climate Research Center · and others.
ORGANIZATIONS I’VE WORKED WITH
SELECT MEDIA APPEARANCES
ABC · BBC · C-SPAN · NATIONAL PRESS CLUB · NPR ·
WHERE THIS COMES FROM
More than 250 leaders and experts interviewed or reported on — from the Dalai Lama to Sully Sullenberger — and Ecoliterate, co-authored with Daniel Goleman. Plus, 15+ years of leadership experience in purpose-driven organizations.
KEYNOTE - 45 - 60 MIN
Savor the World
WORKSHOP - HALF DAY
Purpose Under Pressure
TEAM DAY - FULL DAY
A Day of Inspiration
THE KEYNOTE
Savor the World
45-60 minutes, plus Q&A
20 to 2,000
Best for a conference opener, an all-staff gathering, or the first session of a retreat — anywhere a room needs a deeper sense of connection and inspiration to kick things off.
OUTCOME
A shoulder drop, a new sense of possibility, renewed connection.
“Lisa is able to create completely new ways to engage audiences such that they can listen, hear and then internalize.”
LISA RENSTROM
Cofounder and Executive Director, Values Advisor
When challenges feel bigger than us, we need a shared story that can actually hold us.
For decades, purpose-led work has run on urgency: the weight of what is at stake, the size of what must be saved. It moved a generation. But it is now exhausting the people who carry it. The more overwhelming the challenges, the more perspective narrows — and when the story is only about loss, possibility closes with it.
This talk offers a story better suited to these times: that the power to make a difference is not the power to save the world, and that staying close to what you love is what makes long work survivable. As Bernie Glassman put it — just because things are overwhelming doesn’t mean they have to overwhelm you.
WHAT AUDIENCES TAKE AWAY
— Relief from the overwhelm that clouds judgment and decision-making
— Freedom from reactivity, so people can respond with intention instead of autopilot
— Renewed engagement and the agency to keep showing up for the work
OTHER WAYS IN
— Change the Story.
— Strengthen Staying Power
—Elevate Agency
THE WORKSHOP
Purpose Under Pressure
Half-day or two shorter sessions.
8 to 30 people
Built for teams advancing important missions and facing ongoing challenges.
OUTCOME
A new collective story and the skills to keep meeting outsized challenges without depletion.
“Lisa has an incredible talent for guiding conversations in a positive, forward-looking direction while ensuring everyone feels heard.”
ANACRON ALLEN
People and Culture, California Academy of Sciences
The session opens broadly—acknowledging the challenges of advancing missions amid a polycrisis—then narrows to what this team will do differently. A half-day goes after clarity and agency: what they are actually seeing, what they will stop carrying, and where their real power lies. Interactive throughout, and groups leave with something written, not just a good feeling.
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PART ONE
The bigger picture
What is happening to purpose-driven people everywhere right now, and why? People arrive braced to be told to try harder, and discover the room already understands.
Whole group, then a first pass in pairs.
PART TWO
The turn
Why urgency stops mobilizing, why struggle is a sign of being in the work rather than failing at it, and the difference between false power and the power a team actually has.
Short teaching, one model on the wall.
PART THREE
Making it theirs
Now it gets specific. Where this shows up in their own work, what deserves focus, and what the team will stop carrying — the part groups rarely give themselves permission for without an outside voice in the room.
Small groups, on their feet, reporting back.
PART FOUR
What we take back
Commitments in the team’s own words, and the practices that keep them alive after the room empties. Written down and sent to the group, so there is a record.
Individual, then said out loud to the room.
A Day of Renewal
Full day.
In person.
For offsites, retreats, and times when a team has been through a hard period and needs more than a morning to come back to itself.
The day moves between full-group work, small groups, solitary reflection, and, where possible, time outdoors.
THE TEAM DAY
OUTCOME
People, purpose, and possibility —reconnected.
“Facilitation is an art and a science, and Lisa has both elements in abundance.”
CHRIS SPENCE
Former EVP, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
A reset day for the times.
Stories that once inspired can lead to depletion and disengagement if not updated for the conditions people face. This day helps teams find their own inspiration to move forward and strengthen the skills that will get them there.
The more overwhelming the challenges, the more our perspective narrows. Expansion comes from seeing reality and possibility at the same time—which is not optimism and not denial, but something more real than either.
The work here is reframing difficulty: recognizing that struggle is part of the story.
Clarity
Grounding
WITHIN TOGETHER BEYOND
A team can sit through a briefing on what is being lost and feel nothing, or feel everything and shut down. Neither leaves them able to act. The work here is staying in contact with hard things without going numb or hardening.
Then the harder half: the conversations a team has been avoiding, had well. Steadiness in a fast-changing world comes from what does not change — self-awareness, connection, and purpose.
Agency
RECLAIM CHOOSE MOVE
False power — the kind that imagines we can save the world — undermines the real power we have to make a difference where we can. Feeling responsible is not the same as being powerful, and carrying the weight of everything is how capable people end up doing less.
So the team gets right-sized: what is actually ours, what we will not focus on, and where to move. Reactive power burns the people using it. Generative power sustains them.
The shape of the day is built based on your needs.
What it’s like to work together
“Lisa is the calm in every cultural storm.”
ELIZABETH BIRCH — Former Executive Director, Human Rights Campaign
01 · A CONVERSATION
Half an hour, no cost, no pitch. What is happening in your organization, who will be in the room, and what you need to be different afterward.
02 · A PROPOSAL
One page within a week: the shape of the session, what it costs, what I need from you. Simple enough to forward to whoever approves it.
03 · MORE LISTENING
Before I design the session for you, I talk with a few people who will be in the room, or send a short set of questions. Your language ends up in the work.
04 · AFTER
A short written follow-up with what the group said and committed to, so the day does not evaporate. I am reachable afterward.
What is going on with your team?
I’d be happy to listen and share some thoughts.