a mycelial practice

A Mycelial Practice is the name I have given to a way of working that has been emerging throughout my life and career.

Across social work, community development, systems change, leadership development and organisational transformation, I found myself returning to the same questions: What helps people build meaningful relationships? What enables collective learning? And how do we create the conditions for change in complex and uncertain environments?

Over time, I began to recognise that my role was rarely to provide answers or solutions. More often, it involved helping people notice patterns, connect across boundaries, learn together and develop the relationships, structures and capacities needed to navigate what comes next.

The metaphor of mycelium helped me make sense of this practice. Just as mycelial networks support exchange, communication and reciprocity beneath the forest floor, I am interested in the networks of relationship that help people, communities and organisations flourish.

Whether we are navigating personal transitions, organisational change or wider social challenges, the process often involves periods of uncertainty, experimentation, learning, grief, connection and renewal.

Over time, I've found myself returning to a set of practices that help people notice what is changing, stay in relationship with complexity and create the conditions for new possibilities to emerge.

This diagram maps some of those practices and their relationships to one another.

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