transition and organizational accompaniment

I work with individuals and organizations navigating periods of transition, overload, and uncertainty – when familiar structures no longer hold, but new directions are not yet clear.  In these times of change and crisis I consider broad perspectives from the personal to the planetary.

Drawing on over 25 years’ experience across the UN system, multilateral institutions, and civil society, I have a growing specialization in transitional literacy: helping people recognize what phase of change they are in, avoid premature closure, and create the conditions for coherent next steps.

My work is particularly suited to contexts where:

• multiple changes are converging

• strategic clarity is demanded before it is fully available

• leadership or teams feel stretched, fragmented, or fatigued

• values and purpose need re-articulation

I combine analytical synthesis, facilitation, and careful listening to provide accompaniment rather than prescription.  My role is not to impose solutions, but to help organizations and individuals see more clearly, name what might be ending, and identify what is emerging.

Forms of engagement include:

• reflective conversations with leaders or teams

• light-touch observation of meetings or processes

• facilitated sense-making sessions

• short written reflections or decision-support notes

• interim accompaniment during periods of transition

My experience spans development, education, environment, health, humanitarian action, migration, and governance, including over two decades working with six UN organizations within the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), supporting strategy cycles, leadership processes, and organizational change.

Alongside this work, I founded and chair Plenna, a Geneva-based association focused on individual preparedness and reflection around dying and death.  I am also the author of the forthcoming book The Punctuation of Loss which explores personal and collective transition.

My style is rigorous yet human: grounded, reflective, and attentive to culture, power, and process. I work with integrity, discretion, and humour, and am available for short- or longer-term engagements in Brussels and internationally.

See David's LinkedIn profile and SHORT CV

Contact David