Feel Whole
Behavior and culture change for leaders and organizations who want to do good, better.
Leaders,
Organizations,
and the World of Work
have a responsibility to contribute
to the process of
Becoming Whole
But deep patterns of disconnect are standing in the way of what might be.
-
One of the first lessons we learn as newborns is how to listen to and respond to our body's cues. As we grow into adults, many of us are taught (implicitly or explicitly) how to suppress or ignore those messages in favor of “doing whatever it takes to get the job done”, contributing to repetitive cycles of self-sacrifice, burnout, and stress. Bringing back online our ability to detect, interpret, and act on the messages and rhythms of our body enables us to stay grounded in the pacing and activities that challenge us to grow in productive (vs harmful) ways.
-
Increasing polarization has led many of us down the path of othering & breaking in our relationships. The act of perceiving someone as not just different but as lesser (othering) leads us to sanction systems and practices that deny the humanity and complexity of the “other” (breaking). We have a responsibility to center our “sense of self” in our kinship with other beings — both human and more-than-human — as well as practice reaching across lines of difference to tend relationships and systems rooted in shared humanity, participation, recognition, and agency in co-creating the world we live in.
-
If you were raised in a Western-industrial culture, you were likely given myths that depicted the natural world as pristine, far-away, there-to-be-used, wild, primitive, untouched, and so on. But many indigenous traditions (i.e., those who have sustained human life in a place for millennia) carry Knowledges that challenge the idea that we humans are separate from the land, air, water, plants, animals, etc. at all. Instead, these Peoples remember and remind us what all of our ancestors at some point knew. Each of us has a ‘biological kinship’ with the waters that sustain us, the foods that fill our bellies, and the medicines that restore our health. This perspective assumes a reciprocal relationship of tending to one another (humans and more-than-human) through myriad interlocking forms of support. By re-establishing this connection, leaders can guide their organizations toward things like regenerative practice, seeking to sustain a harmonious tension between their economic endeavors and the health of our planet.
Join a global movement of leaders to repair these disconnects and transition our workplaces to become…
RESTORATIVE
RESILIENT &
REGENERATIVE
WELCOME to
Life-Centered Growth
Life-Centered Growth is in everything we do at Kapwa Leadership.
Through this lens, we help you go from wanting restorative, regenerative, and resilient ways of working and cultures to actually building them.
This is the future of leadership.
This is the future of organizations.
This is the future of our planet.
Join us in dreaming of a
not-too-distant future
We believe in a future where organizations have stepped off the sidelines, embedding social and environmental challenges into their business models.
We’re working with some amazing clients…
-
![]()
"Nick is an exceptional coach and human being. He is a deep listener and diviner of story and memory. He effortlessly weaves principles of kapwa - collective connection and belonging - with leadership principles and organizational dynamics. Our sessions have been personally and professionally transformational. I operate now from a deeper knowledge of my ancestry, connection to nature, and power."
Kristene C., MS, MA
Chief Program & Equity Officer
Center for Care Innovations -
![]()
“Prepare to look inward in order to create meaningful change outward. Trust the process, embrace vulnerability, and be willing to let go of assumptions about what’s true for the communities you stand beside.”
Toni Leaf-Odette, BSN RN, RNC-NIC
Director & Founder of All Kids Thrive -
![]()
“As a group we had a strong understanding of our ‘strategy,’ but found ourselves unable to realize the full potential of the strategy. Nick helped us hold up a mirror to push past perception and to see that our challenge was not about strategy but about accountabilities, team dynamics, and shared understanding. Sharing our own aspirations and what the strategy meant to us individually, allowed us to get on the same page and to strengthen our team bonds.”
Milen Mahadevan
President & CEO, 84.51, Kroger -
![]()
“There have been moments where Nick’s insights into my state of mind felt indistinguishable from mind-reading. This is where Nick’s magic is: by being truly, deeply present with you, he can point from where you’re standing to a new vantage point.”
Aaron Williamson
Williamson Legal, Principal Attorney -
![]()
"If you’re a culture practitioner, transformation leader, or organizational change agent who’s tired of surface-level interventions, Nick will challenge you to architect for real systems change. Get ready to be disrupted in the best way. Nick is my mirror, my guide, my anchor, and he sits on my Personal Board of Directors because he doesn’t let me stay comfortable. He brings disciplined structure that draws out the best in my intuitive practice. He’s not interested in performative action or quick fixes. He rises to facilitation and coaching with disruption in mind - not to destabilize, but to grow and heal."
Victoria Rodgers
Centered Soul Consulting -
![]()
"My sessions with Nick are always powerful and profound. He reaches far beyond the threshold of a typical coaching experience. His work is more like craft and artistry melded with the discipline of practicality. We go on broad and deep journeys together and yet, still arrive at a clear next step towards tackling that central problem. His work at times feels like magic - which has mostly to do with his level of mastery at integrating his knowledge and skills into a robust process that is so uniquely specific to his clients. It's almost unbelievable. He is a master at meeting you where you are, following your way while at the same time illuminating the path around and just ahead of you. I always feel incredibly seen, heard, grounded and on my way towards the most important thing ahead of me to experience or take action on after our sessions. Though it may sound hyperbolic, I truly feel special to have had the gift of experiencing his brilliance and care through some of the most difficult periods of my life so far. I am forever grateful for his time and investment in my healing, growth and development. Working with Nick is a unique opportunity that I strongly encourage anyone ready for this work to seriously take on.
Candice Crawford-Zakian, Psy.D.
Psychoanalytically oriented consulting psychologist and executive coach
Harvard Graduate School of Education -
![]()
"Nick and I have served as members of the same board of directors for more than 5 years. Nick is an extraordinary advisor, board member, thought partner, and more. He has strong strategic and operational acumen and excellent instincts regarding leadership and organizational management. But what makes him stand out most, above every other person I have ever worked with, is his incredible depth of emotional and psychological wisdom and insight. He always remembers that the leaders and teams he works with are full humans - with hearts and souls, with needs and wants - and he helps those he works with to remember that also, which leads to powerful insights for deeply authentic, meaningful leadership. "
Meredith Kellner
Independent strategy consultant, interstitionary
Board Chair, History Co:Lab -
![]()
"After working with Nick I feel like I’ve grown roots into a soil that connects us all. His practice is deeply authentic and human. If a friend asked what it was like to be coached by Nick, I would say it is like being wrapped in a warm blanket while sitting at the beach, looking into the stars. You see a new horizon, you feel the cold air challenging you. The blanket is your protection and gives you the courage to stay looking out. Nick draws on relationship theory and wisdom to build organizational strategy. It is startling, with Nick coming from a background of cognitive first innovation-oriented bean counting, and knowing that Nick is someone who has the raw cognitive capacities and operational capacities of only few people I have ever seen, to see him relying on a completely different set of senses and inputs is amazing."
Fernande Raine
Founder & Co-Lead , the History Co:Lab -
![]()
"Coaching with Nick is a learning journey of self discovery, moving through current learning edges and climbing to new ones. Nick is an exquisite listener and approaches each conversation with openness, wonder, compassion, and joy. That reverberates in the work—in both the coaching work and the work that follows. His tool chest is deep and his methods are thoughtful, grounded, and nurturing. He doesn’t shy away from the tough questions and he holds space to support the wrestling of them."
Susan Rivers
Co-Lead & Chief Scientist, the History Co:Lab -
![]()
“After Nick taught me about the Four Levels of Listening I realized that I am almost always at level 2 listening: open mind: there are things I know, but there are also things I don’t know and want to learn more. While I feel being at level 2 has allowed me to be open to new ideas and information, I have been more intentional about moving up to level 4 listening: Open Will- understanding that listening is something we do together. All parties are open to what might happen in listening to each other. Listening itself is a form of conversation- all parties give and take from the experience.”
Amy Horstman, MPH, CHES
Community Health Planner
Health Department of Northwest Michigan
Work Redefined.
We are more than our productivity. Envision a future where work centers life, letting individuals excel daily within supportive, purposeful networks that understand the natural rhythms of productivity & renewal.
Organizations Restructured.
Rising global mistrust in institutions points to a disheartening truth - they've let us down. Let’s steer toward a future where trust and trustworthiness are at the organization's center: power is democratically distributed, hierarchies flattened, and incentives truly aligned with long-term objectives.
Change
Remade.
Some of the most meaningful changes cannot be forced or controlled. Creating the conditions ripe for change in ourselves and our organizations makes us ready for entire systems to tip into new ways of being and operating.
Today…
Organizations (like many of us) are at a loss for how to navigate the so-called ‘polycrisis.‘ This is the age of interconnected systemic crises with no clear end in sight.
From the climate and mass extinction crises to future pandemics, “net energy decline” for fossil fuels, an unsustainable and unstable global food system, the simmering specter of far-right populism, the nascent threat of weaponized synthetic biology, and the destabilizing impacts of artificial intelligence on work, war, and human freedom, the list goes on. It can feel like organizations are either stumbling their way forward and/or pitching convenient narratives for the future that feel out-of-touch when we come home to our communities.
People want to be a part of organizations that aren’t just responding to these realities but actively adapting and experimenting with potential paths forward.
When the myths we live by are no longer based on consensual reality and/or empirical evidence, then a new myth must be found. It’s time to debunk the dysfunctional myths that give us ‘vision block,’ and are getting in the way of our collective ability to reimagine and redesign work & life.
Myths We Work With
-
Ecosystems demonstrate the complexity of interdependent relationships and the importance of diversity. They challenge the myth of self-sufficiency and highlight the need for collaboration and cooperation.
-
The entire purpose of organizing in the arc of human history is to do great things together. The larger web of life knows this. Social insects, such as ants and bees, challenge the belief that individualism is the most efficient way of organizing. They demonstrate the power of collective intelligence and collaboration.
-
Indigenous Knowledges (e.g., creation stories, language, land management, sustainable harvesting, decentralized governance) challenge the assumption that there ought to be a single-source-of-truth (i.e., Western scientific knowledge as superior, moral, and more valid). Instead, we are shown the possibility (and reality) that many different ways of knowing can be complementary, mutually respected, and valid.
-
Despite rhetoric from institutional strategic planning processes, social movements throughout history challenge the belief that change only happens through top-down approaches. They continue to demonstrate a range of tactics, such as grassroots organizing, redistributing power and resources, changing hearts and minds through education and shared experience, volunteering, resting / nonconsumption/nonproduction, and creating / innovating. Each of us contributes to change in big and small ways by determining what mix of these activities matches our morals and strengths.
-
Nature is neither an adversary, a set of resources to be taken from, or something we are apart from. It is a teacher that has been preparing us for generations to be ready to cope with the complexity we are facing today and that we know is coming. By restoring a reciprocal relationship with nature, we get to design sustainable commons in dynamic systems.
-
Many organizations, rooted in Western industrial notions of ownership, will view IP through one of two lenses (or a combination of both):
Protective Lens: Organizations use this lens to safeguard their creations to maintain competitive advantage, profitability, and market position.
Generative Lens: Organizations prioritize collaboration, openness, and contribution to collective knowledge. They share innovations through open-source licenses or partnerships to drive broader societal and environmental impacts.
In the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) tradition, one does not call oneself your pet’s owner. Instead, you are their Kahu. Kahu has many meanings, including guardian, protector, steward, and beloved attendant—someone entrusted with the safekeeping of something precious, something cherished.
At Kapwa Leadership, we think carefully about our relationship and responsibility to the Knowledges we steward. We want to work with you to mindfully balance the systems used to protect intellectual property with the responsibility we have to share openly to foster collective benefit (e.g., Creative Commons, Open-source Licenses).
-
Economic theories like de-growth and the circular economy challenge the myth of infinite growth and the idea that resources are infinite. It highlights the importance of sustainability and the need for a more holistic approach to economic development.