Spontaneity in organisational life

My practice and my inquiry invite curiosity about what enables and constrains people’s capacity to act and speak, to find their voices, and to move into new possibilities that open, in circumstances that are sometimes in flux and sometimes feel stuck. How do we sustain the ability to respond spontaneously to the day-to-day scenes arising in our lives as participants of organisations?

This question arose for me after long years working for multinational corporations, wondering why certain meetings felt so dead, so automatised, so rehearsed. 

The first step in a new direction was a Master’s in Economics for Transition at Schumacher College. Having since returned to Brazil, my home country, I’m currently leading Escola Schumacher Brasil, an educational collective that offers courses, gatherings, and projects with organisations promoting transformative educational experiences for a sustainable life. Across the different initiatives I join within Escola, I constantly pay attention to—and draw others’ attention on—how we gain and lose our capacity to act spontaneously, in response to the scenes we’re part of in the daily life of organisations.