We often picture collaboration as a harmonious exchange of ideas, a well-oiled machine churning out success. But beneath the surface, unseen forces can disrupt this dynamic. Trauma, whether a past event or chronic stress, can leave its mark on our nervous system, impacting how we interact with colleagues. In this blog post, Matthias Ryffel discusses how trauma can impact collaboration at the workplace and how a trauma-informed approach can foster healing processes for a better work environment.

Jose Antonio Gordillo Martorell is the founder of Cultural Inquiry, and Catalyst from the Catalyst Lab cohort 2023–2024. With this blog post, he shares his personal experiences that have brought him to where he is now, and how the Catalyst Lab has empowered his personal growth along his journey towards change.

Ever had those moments at gatherings where you left feeling like you didn't really learn anything about how people are doing? Or spent countless hours with family, yet still feel like they don't truly know you? In some social circles, it's always the same voices dominating the conversation, making it exhausting. 😓 And meeting new people? Breaking through the ice can be tough.

Im Jahr 2020 überstieg die Masse von Menschen geschaffener, unbelebter Objekte – die anthropogene Masse - zum ersten Mal das Trockengewicht allen Lebens auf der Erde, einschliesslich Menschen, Tiere, Pflanzen und Pilze und sogar Mikroorganismen. Dabei betrug sie im Jahr 1900 erst 3% der Biomasse. Sie hat sich seither alle 20 Jahre verdoppelt…

Our vision is that organisations in Geneva and beyond leverage their full potential to use innovation to respond to societal needs by transforming their employees into intrapreneurial leaders, connected to a wider community of changemakers and disruptors that are paving the way for the new economy.

Having never founded my own NGO or worked in anything other than a commercially oriented company, I’m somewhat an outlier in this year’s Catalyst Lab. As collaboratio helvetica’s mission is to fundamentally change how we work together I was often asked what the difference is between working my day job and supporting the Catalyst Lab team in my communications role. Well then, let’s try to find out.

Along my participation in the Catalyst Lab, I have experienced an inner shift in the past months. The Catalyst Lab journey has provided me with valuable insights, a new understanding of my role in my system and deep connections with the most inspiring people. In one of the last modules one of the Catalysts mirrored back to me how he perceived me at the start of the journey and now. It resonated a lot and his correct assumption that I became more open towards other views and in some way more vulnerable allowed me to get into action and activate my ecosystem.

Unser Engagement und unsere Intention für eine andere Welt ist oft nicht messbar und doch deutlich spürbar. Dies erschwert die Kommunikation darüber und erfordert noch mehr Selbstvertrauen in unser Wirken. Mich interessieren mittlerweile genau solche, langsamere Prozesse für die noch kein Messgerät erfunden wurde und unsere innersten Werte, Menschlichkeit, Herzens-Intelligenz und Intuition die Richtungen angeben. Das Catalyst Lab hat mich in dieser Demut und Geduld bestärkt, um das Grössere, Verbindende schätzen zu lernen, systemische und strukturelle Verbindungen zu sehen.

„Ich denke an die Zukunft. Ich weiss, dass wir so längerfristig nicht weiter machen können. Wir brauchen einen Wandel. Unsere Zukunft und die der zukünftigen Generationen liegt mir unglaublich am Herzen. Irgendwie habe ich mir das alles besser vorgestellt, als ständig an diese nicht so vielversprechenden Aussichten zu denken. Ich habe dieses Gefühl in mir, dass das alles nicht gerecht ist, und wir das doch ändern können, auch wenn es nur kleine Erfolgsschritte sind...”

Dedicated attention to a personal and ongoing practice is more of a necessity than a luxury in these times of navigating unprecedented changes. In this blog, we share a 5-fold approach to personal care in order to nourish our inner wellsprings and maintain a sense of groundedness and calm during these times.

In a short time, life has dramatically changed. Will we go back to the way things were or is this a #newnormal? We have entered into the unknown. Uncertainty is omnipresent. No one knows how things will turn out.

Triads are a dialogue tool to share experiences and insights, witnessing and offering feedback in groups of 3.

A Medicine Walk is a conscious time for diving deep into a specific question, to enter a state of deep listening and to be in touch with nature as a powerful mirror.

A facilitation method for hot topics and transforming the field of collaboration.

In this blog we want to introduce a very simple and practical tool to measure your X on your internal abilities skills map. It shows you your strengths and your weak spots so that you can decide where to focus your next learning steps as a space holder on.

The Pareto principle, also called the 80/20 rule, states that roughly 80% of results come from only 20% of efforts or causes. In the best of cases, applying this principle allows us to achieve more with working less, because we are smarter about how we invest our time.

Guided journaling is a self-reflective process, allowing participants to access deeper levels of self-knowledge, based on a set of prepared questions. The reflection is spontaneous and happens through the writing itself, by just writing down what emerges in the moment (instead of first thinking and reflecting, and then writing down the reflections).

Why do many people who try to make a difference often feel frustrated or angered because the world isn’t changing fast enough for them or that some people do not share their awareness about an issue?

Collective Story Harvesting is a storytelling process that enables us to deeply connect with and learn from the experience in our community, team or organization. It builds our capacity for targeted listening, group learning and therein for collective meaning making. Collective Story Harvesting takes learning to a deeper level as it surfaces insights that exist beneath the surface of our stories.