Who is Deep Democracy USA?
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WHO IS DEEP DEMOCRACY USA?
We are a team of highly experienced facilitators with more than 60 years of experience in helping clients deal with multidimensional dynamics and find breakthrough solutions to complex situations. We are all accredited by Lewis Deep Democracy founder Myrna Lewis. We participate in ongoing supervision and keep our skills fresh through continuous learning.
Maya Townsend
Maya Townsend, Founder, Partnering Resources, LLC
Maya Townsend believes that the complex challenges facing today’s organizations and coalitions require collective, connected action. She brings to her work a deep faith in the power of people, an ability to see beyond individuals to systemic patterns, a pragmatic orientation that prioritizes what works, and a commitment to helping groups work through differences to find innovative solutions. She helps clients create adaptive strategies, develop networks, navigate change, and resolve conflict.
Maya Townsend, Founder, Partnering Resources, LLC
Maya Townsend believes that the complex challenges facing today’s organizations and coalitions require collective, connected action. She brings to her work a deep faith in the power of people, an ability to see beyond individuals to systemic patterns, a pragmatic orientation that prioritizes what works, and a commitment to helping groups work through differences to find innovative solutions. She helps clients create adaptive strategies, develop networks, navigate change, and resolve conflict.
Maya is co-editor of Handbook for Strategic HR: Best Practices in Organization Development from the OD Network (AMACOM, 11/2012). Maya’s articles have been published in strategy + business, People & Strategy, Nonprofit Quarterly, CIO, and other online and print media. She wrote the chapter on “Organization Network Dynamics and Analysis” for The NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change. She serves on the Editorial Review Board for OD Review, the premier OD practitioner journal in the United States.
Maya earned a Master of Science in Organization Development from American University / NTL Institute. She is certified in the Lewis Method of Deep Democracy – CoResolve. She is also a qualified ValueNet Works practitioner and certified in OrgMapper INFLUENCER, the Drexler-Sibbet Team Performance Model, the Center for Creative Leadership 360 assessment suite, the LJ Map Values Identification System, MBTI, and DiSC. She is pursuing a doctorate in Leadership and Change through Antioch University. She can be contacted at maya [at] DeepDemocracyUSA [dot] com.
“Maya is a phenomenal resource to organizations and leaders. She brings warmth and accessibility combined with the ability to see the big picture as well as the details. A year or so after having worked with Maya on a comprehensive, organization-wide strategic planning process, I hired her to plan and facilitate a 2-day leadership team retreat. I knew that we needed her strategic and thoughtful approach to planning the retreat and her warm yet structured facilitation during the two days. As expected, Maya was very thoughtful about creating and evolving the design, in partnership with each participant, to ensure that we had a clear set of shared goals and a plan for meeting those goals. During the retreat, she helped us to have complex and challenging conversations by utilizing a variety of relevant and productive facilitation methodologies. Maya is a master at balancing structure with flexibility, adjusting based on the needs of the participants and the direction of the conversations and decision-making. Everyone on our team loves working with Maya and we view her as a true organizational partner.” – CEO, Talent Services Company
“Working with Maya exceeded our expectations. Her process was a great fit with our goals and she led the process beautifully. Maya is a talented and well-respected facilitator who brought a clear plan to each session but was able to flex as needed. She quickly built trust with our team and along the way, team members often said “trust Maya’s process.” We did, and we are thrilled with the results!” – CEO, Professional Services Company
Paul Horton
Paul Horton, Partner and Principal Consultant, The Athena Group
Paul is a leadership and strategy coach and organizational change professional with over 20 years of experience working with the public, private, non-profit, and higher education sectors. He is keenly aware of the pressures decision-makers and leaders are under to deliver in the face of rapid change, uncertainty, budget, and time constraints, and increasing demands from stakeholders. Paul sees his work as helping leaders navigate complexity and change, lead with clarity, and achieve internal alignment and coherence. He also works with groups to help them become more adaptive and resilient and build and sustain a culture of trust, mutual respect, and ongoing learning.
Paul Horton, Partner and Principal Consultant, The Athena Group
Paul is a leadership and strategy coach and organizational change professional with over 20 years of experience working with the public, private, non-profit, and higher education sectors. He is keenly aware of the pressures decision-makers and leaders are under to deliver in the face of rapid change, uncertainty, budget, and time constraints, and increasing demands from stakeholders. Paul sees his work as helping leaders navigate complexity and change, lead with clarity, and achieve internal alignment and coherence. He also works with groups to help them become more adaptive and resilient and build and sustain a culture of trust, mutual respect, and ongoing learning.
Paul’s work is grounded in both a theoretical and a practical understanding of systems thinking, organizational theory, and group (or “process-oriented”) dynamics. He specializes in using dialogue-based, participatory approaches to engage diverse perspectives, build social capital, and improve organizational outcomes. Paul is skilled at facilitating meetings where there is a high degree of difference or divisiveness, and that generate personal insights and uncover innovative possibilities for moving forward.
Paul received his Master’s in Leadership in Complexity & Strategic Sustainable Development from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. He earned a Certificate in Sustainable Business from Pinchot Graduate School. Paul is certified in Deep Democracy CoResolve. Paul can be contacted at Paul [at] DeepDemocracyUSA [dot] com.
Ipek Utun
İpek Ütün, Founding Partner, Tribe Dialogue Change Leadership
Ipek’s passion is to contribute to a world where people dare and commit to live and lead with their full potential, with love and strength. In this regard, she sees conflict and tension as a major signal and fuel to make the necessary shifts in the systems, an opportunity for growth and expansion. However complex, stuck, or polarized it might seem, she has experienced over and over again, when people show the faith, courage, and commitment to go there, shifts happen. It is her joy to support leaders, relationships, and teams in this journey using a variety of different approaches.
İpek Ütün, Founding Partner, Tribe Dialogue Change Leadership
Ipek’s passion is to contribute to a world where people dare and commit to live and lead with their full potential, with love and strength. In this regard, she sees conflict and tension as a major signal and fuel to make the necessary shifts in the systems, an opportunity for growth and expansion. However complex, stuck, or polarized it might seem, she has experienced over and over again, when people show the faith, courage, and commitment to go there, shifts happen. It is her joy to support leaders, relationships, and teams in this journey using a variety of different approaches.
She is an ICF accredited PCC level Professional Coach, ORSC accredited Organizational Relationships and Systems Coach, accredited Shadow Work Group Facilitator and Personal Coach and Deep Democracy Facilitator, Trainer, and Elder. She has extensive experience in coaching, mentoring, and training senior executives, leadership teams, women leadership groups, and facilitating small to big group processes which hold emotional charges, polarization, and divisiveness. Daimler, Unilever, Siemens, Pfizer, Bayer are some of the multinationals she works with.
Ipek’s differentiating edge is her positive energy combined with a capacity to see and work with deeper patterns driving any complex situation and thus enabling personal or systemic transformation. Ipek can be contacted at ipek [at] DeepDemocracyUSA [dot] com.