Building relationships, not just engaging stakeholders
From transactional engagement to relational ways of working​
Much of what is called stakeholder engagement today is transactional.

People are consulted, insights are extracted, and engagement is framed as a step towards strategy, reporting, delivery, or change.
​
Even when intentions are good, this approach often leads to superficial relationships, community fatigue, and practitioners carrying tensions they are not supported to hold.
I work differently.
​
This practice begins with a simple but fundamental shift: We are always already in relationship — the question is how consciously we are working with it.
​
Instead of asking “how do we engage stakeholders?”,
I invite you to begin with a deeper question:
​
Who are we in relationship with in this place — and what does that ask of us?
What this practice makes possible
Working relationally supports a shift from consultation to exploring together, helping you to:
​
  • restore relationship before decision-making.
  • move beyond consultation towards shared sense-making.
  • create conditions for belonging, care, and trust.
  • work with complexity without rushing to premature solutions.
  • include human and more-than-human perspectives that are often excluded.

This practice is not about gathering opinions to validate pre‑made plans - it is about learning to listen differently, so that you can do things differently.
Practices for building relationships
This work develops through practice, not technique.

Relational mapping - not stakeholder mapping
​
Rather than categorizing people by influence or interest, we explore:
  • the web of relationships that shape a place.
  • histories, tensions, silences, and power dynamics
  • who carries responsibility, care, and lived knowledge.
  • who is visible, and who remains unseen.
  • how the more‑than‑human world is present — or excluded.

This supports a shift from mapping actors to understanding relationships.​
Creating spaces for shared sense‑making

​I design and hold spaces where you can:
  • explore lived experiences without pressure to perform.
  • surface assumptions and dominant narratives.
  • listen across difference and disagreement.
  • stay with complexity rather than simplifying it too quickly.

Here belonging is not assumed - it is practiced.​
Working with communities differently
​This means moving beyond consultation and engagement as extraction.
Instead, I'll explore with you how to:
  • engage communities as co-inhabitants of place, not audiences.
  • honour cultural, ecological, and relational knowledge.
  • enable intergenerational and pluricultural participation.
  • resist extractive engagement practices that exhaust trust.

The focus shifts from buy-in to shared responsibility and care.
Futures-Led Community Connection
When futures thinking is grounded in belonging, it becomes a way to deepen connection - not predict outcomes.
Using futures-led practices, communities can:
  • explore how the present has been shaped.
  • sense what is at risk of being lost.
  • imagine futures grounded in place and relationship.
  • notice what new forms of action become possible.

The outcome is not a roadmap.
It is a shift in how people relate to place, to each other, and to the living world.
What This Is Not About:
  • ESG integration or reporting requirements.
  • securing buy‑in for predetermined strategies.
  • extracting insight to accelerate delivery.
  • innovation workshops or ideation sprints.
  • consultation disguised as participation.

This is relational work — and it requires time, care, practice and continuity.
​When this work is most useful 
This approach is valuable when:
  • engagement feels performative or exhausted.
  • there is tension between organizational goals and community realities.
  • people sense the limits of transactional sustainability approaches.
  • questions of place, care, and responsibility are surfacing.
  • there is a desire to work differently but uncertainty about how.

So, I'd like to extend an invitation, if you are looking to:
  • move beyond transactional stakeholder engagement,
  • reconnect work with place and relationship,
  • practice belonging as a foundation for change,

​I would love to explore what this could look like in your context.
Together, we can work from different ground — and support the emergence of regenerative futures where people, places, and the more-than-human world can flourish.

Drop me an email - [email protected] 
CASE STUDY: UNECE - WHO EUROPE 6th SESSION OF THE MEETING OF THE PARTIES TO THE PROTOCOL ON WATER AND HEALTH, HIGH-LEVEL WORKING SESSION, GENEVA
Facilitating the
High-Level Working Session
to open the 6th Session,
​on behalf of UNECE and WHO-Europe,
for 300+ participants from 45 countries.
CASE STUDY: THE COIMBRA GROUP MEETS THE UN
Helping Rectors from the Coimbra Group of Universities, Heads of UN Agencies and Impact Investors, to explore collaborating for a future where the science-policy gap is closed to achieve the <1.5 GHG emissions trajectory before 2030. 
CASE STUDY: EMPOWERING MBA STUDENTS TO TRANSFORM THEIR WORKPLACES
Helping MBA students to explore the UN SDGs, and explore transformational change in the energy and transport sectors
I'd love to explore how I can support you
​to create flourishing futures
You can also become part of the Flourishing Futures Collective community, where we imagine, learn and explore more together. ​