Hello, Changemaker.

Because you’re here, I know you are one. That goes for us at the Deeper Funner Change Project, too. This site is for all of us.

Backstory: for the past few years, I’ve been indulging a dream. I’ve scaled back on consulting work to take a learning sabbatical and do a doctorate in organizational change. This has taken me to unexpected places, including (1) the humid wilds of Disney World in August to collaborate at the Academy of Management with crazy insightful jazz improviser Frank Barrett and learning agility expert Pamela Meyer, (2) the high altitude of the Banff Centre with the marvelously talented Karen Dawson and Ian Prinsloo, incubating an approach to change as creating, and (3) a stark, stunning stretch of beach in the intricate ecosystem of Mexico’s Baja peninsula (if you can read and think anywhere, why not pick a place you can paddleboard?). These and other people and experiences have inspired digging deep to think about how leaders create the conditions for their organizations to thrive while engaging complex, emergent change.

A dear colleague, Tobey Fitch, inspired the smile-making concept of “deeper, funner” five years ago when he urged me to write the Deeper Funner Facilitation Cookbook. Well, now deeper funner has a bigger game in its crosshairs: deeper funner change. As the curator and a voice at the Deeper Funner Change Project, let me help define that: deeper means an approach to organizational change that is systems-based, and includes human development and culture. Funner is exactly that: energizing, collaborative, kick-in-the-pants ways of working that are a wildly good fit for complex, emergent conditions because they’re based on the very DNA of creating.

There are those that say yes, and there are those that say no. Those that say yes are rewarded by the adventures they have. Those that say no are rewarded by the safety they attain. There are far more no-sayers than yes-sayers. – Keith Johnstone, Impro

There’s a growing group of people bringing their talent to help leaders lead change in a deeper funner way. This is a home for what some of us think about, do and learn. Please! Graze, steal unabashedly if you see something you think will help you, chime in with juicy questions. Get the blog, and pitch your thinking into the mix. We’re glad you’re here.

~ Julie Huffaker, Curator