A path for creating cultures of belonging and transformational strategies
What got us here, won’t get us there
To create transformational change in organizations, we can’t use the same factory-model that relies on dehumanizing lines of production and perfection.
Instead, a liberatory approach to racial equity calls on us to think in ever more expanding cycles of deepened learning, healing and growth.
reflect
Explore your own experiences and learning edges where you can grow and heal
connect
Build relationships that are equitable, reciprocal and transformational
listen + learn
Invite feedback and perspectives that will guide your work
manifest
Implement collective strategies
honor
Give tangible gratitude
deepen
Assess what can be amplified, innovated and interrupted to put down strong roots
Listen + Learn Popular education offers many lessons, including the power of storytelling, to inspire people towards activism and advocacy. Listening + Learning is an opportunity to ask those with whom you are in relationship to share stories about how they experience being in relationship with you and your work. It is an opportunity to invite loving witness while surrounding yourselves with support, tools, and spaces to process, heal, and dream through it. Listening + Learning is an opportunity to build a collective narrative of what has been working well that should be encouraged to grow, what has been harmful or ineffective that should be weeded out, and what seeds you have collected that could be planted in the next season.
Reflect The cycle begins by bringing curiosity and humility into an ongoing process of understanding our own stories and how they fit within the context of a larger collective story. This is where we prepare ourselves to be reflective, accountable, and courageous. This reflection work poses important questions for us: Where are we ready? Where do we tend to get stuck? What is our motivation? What are we afraid of? It is both personal and through the lens of our lived experiences; but it is also collective and only understood within the context of our collective history.
Honor Imagine a future in which the work has gained credibility, attention and platforms to connect to a wider audience in ways that have brought in more resources to support the work and pathways to even greater access. We pause and we ask who should we be honoring? Who are the people, the frameworks, and the experiences that were turned to for learning and support? Honoring asks us to think about how we bring the access, resources, and information we’ve gained back to our communities as an act of deep gratitude for all who have contributed to our journeys. It is how we recognize our work as part of a larger ancestral and collective legacy on the path to liberation.
Connect From this place of reflection, we build a container to support the long-term work of transformative change. Silos, communication gaps, and division are some of the barriers that can stand in the way of building towards change. When we encounter these conflicts and harms, trauma responses begin to emerge within our relationships in ways that are not always intentional or loving. We make explicit efforts to build relationships together that are rooted in shared values and a deep reciprocal desire to see change and to be changed by the work. We make intentional efforts to build relationships that are rooted in shared values for liberation, healing, and transformation.
Manifest Stories become patterns and studying those patterns will deepen the analysis that informs your collective action. At this point in the Spiral, we begin to identify emerging strategies – responses informed by the collective experiences, wisdom, and will of the people with whom you are connected and can begin to mobilize. These strategies are meant to be concrete, impactful, and actionable; but also emergent, responsive, and relational.
Deepen This phase of the Spiral Path invites us to explore what we’ve learned on our journeys. What new lessons have you collected along the way? What are the strengths that have grounded you in the face of new challenges? What is the medicine you have gathered that you will carry into your next cycle of growth? Because true to the Spiral, the cycle repeats itself. We gain momentum and create a gravitational pull around our transformative work where we not only hold to the center of our core, but also witness how our efforts are ever expanding and deepening. Each rotation comes with more profound reflection, connection, learning, manifesting, honoring, and deepening. The universe of people with whom we are working grows and expands. The tools and ideas we bring grow and expand. And it is in this way that we align with the natural order of change and growth and evolution. It is in this way that we accompany each other on the Spiral of Transformative Change.
Reflect The cycle begins by bringing curiosity and humility into an ongoing process of understanding our own stories and how they fit within the context of a larger collective story. This is where we prepare ourselves to be reflective, accountable, and courageous. This reflection work poses important questions for us: Where are we ready? Where do we tend to get stuck? What is our motivation? What are we afraid of? It is both personal and through the lens of our lived experiences; but it is also collective and only understood within the context of our collective history.
Connect From this place of reflection, we build a container to support the long-term work of transformative change. Silos, communication gaps, and division are some of the barriers that can stand in the way of building towards change. When we encounter these conflicts and harms, trauma responses begin to emerge within our relationships in ways that are not always intentional or loving. We make explicit efforts to build relationships together that are rooted in shared values and a deep reciprocal desire to see change and to be changed by the work. We make intentional efforts to build relationships that are rooted in shared values for liberation, healing, and transformation.
Listen + Learn Popular education offers many lessons, including the power of storytelling, to inspire people towards activism and advocacy. Listening + Learning is an opportunity to ask those with whom you are in relationship to share stories about how they experience being in relationship with you and your work. It is an opportunity to invite loving witness while surrounding yourselves with support, tools, and spaces to process, heal, and dream through it. Listening + Learning is an opportunity to build a collective narrative of what has been working well that should be encouraged to grow, what has been harmful or ineffective that should be weeded out, and what seeds you have collected that could be planted in the next season.
Manifest Stories become patterns and studying those patterns will deepen the analysis that informs your collective action. At this point in the Spiral, we begin to identify emerging strategies – responses informed by the collective experiences, wisdom, and will of the people with whom you are connected and can begin to mobilize. These strategies are meant to be concrete, impactful, and actionable; but also emergent, responsive, and relational.
Honor Imagine a future in which the work has gained credibility, attention and platforms to connect to a wider audience in ways that have brought in more resources to support the work and pathways to even greater access. We pause and we ask who should we be honoring? Who are the people, the frameworks, and the experiences that were turned to for learning and support? Honoring asks us to think about how we bring the access, resources, and information we’ve gained back to our communities as an act of deep gratitude for all who have contributed to our journeys. It is how we recognize our work as part of a larger ancestral and collective legacy on the path to liberation.
Deepen This phase of the Spiral Path invites us to explore what we’ve learned on our journeys. What new lessons have you collected along the way? What are the strengths that have grounded you in the face of new challenges? What is the medicine you have gathered that you will carry into your next cycle of growth? Because true to the Spiral, the cycle repeats itself. We gain momentum and create a gravitational pull around our transformative work where we not only hold to the center of our core, but also witness how our efforts are ever expanding and deepening. Each rotation comes with more profound reflection, connection, learning, manifesting, honoring, and deepening. The universe of people with whom we are working grows and expands. The tools and ideas we bring grow and expand. And it is in this way that we align with the natural order of change and growth and evolution. It is in this way that we accompany each other on the Spiral of Transformative Change.
Enter
The Spiral
Instead, the Spiral invites us to honor the rhythm of nature by breathing, living, and healing into transformative change. This is a practice – not a product.
An invitation to practice
The Spiral Path is an ancestral invitation to be in right relationship with ourselves, each other, and our impact in the world.
Equity work is a lifelong commitment we make towards healing, connecting, experimenting, and evolving—from the personal to the collective. We are healed through a cycle of learning and growth that connects us to each other and to a vision of liberation.
Reflections from our partners
"The tools that Tamiko and Marisol have given us are now the touchstones of our decision making. The equity efforts that they have inspired are not boxes to be checked, but seeds that we plant, tend, and harvest in an ongoing process that has made us a more confident, just, and successful organization."
“From the first conversation with Tamiko and Marisol, I was confident that they were the right partners to lead us through a transformational, equity-centered approach to strategic planning. They are supporting us in generating a people-centered organization, both for our staff and for the organizations we support. I highly recommend this incredible duo.”
"Marisol and Tamiko's partnership with us has been instrumental in deepening our team's understanding of racial equity. Their wisdom, frameworks, and hands-on support have also helped us navigate organizational challenges, build supportive learning spaces for our staff, and shape what we imagine as being in right relationship with one another and our communities."
"Working with Tamiko and Marisol through their Spiral of Transformative Change was exactly what our Board needed. Working with them supported our ability to create better onboarding for new board members, give greater attention to relationship building, and develop a conflict transformation process. Our equity lenses are much clearer thanks to this dynamic duo!"
"We reached out because we needed a consultant that could honor our unique history, multi-layered relationships, and complex identities. We are in deep gratitude for the care and integrity Marisol and Tamiko have shown us while guiding us through our Chrysalis process. Every interaction was a clear indication of the intentionality and thoughtfulness behind their approach."
"I am particularly grateful for the ways Tamiko and Marisol have brought a trauma-informed lens to this work, giving our team shared language and shared understanding for identifying our own trauma responses and engaging with one another about the ways that trauma responses show up in our work together."
"Working with Marisol and Tamiko was an incredibly important part of our organization's ongoing process of deepening our understanding of, and commitment to, transformative change for social justice. Their facilitation was clear, professional, caring, insightful, and deeply change- making in our team. We will work with them again as soon as we have the chance!"
We work in community with visionary organizations
