What is Flisrand Consulting?

Flisrand Consulting helps teams turn their goals into reality. We foster cities that work for all the people in them, with expertise in housing, sustainability, energy, and transportation. We’ve secured local and state policy changes,and designed implementation that achieves its goals.

Pitting Outcome against Process is Pointless

    People talk about Outcome and Process as though they are in opposition to one another. Today, I (again) argue neither works without the other. First, take a moment to reflect on how you approach your every day. Like eating breakfast. We all have low-process default solutions — habits — for outcomes that are part of every day. […]

Networks: The Associations of the Future?

This post is a departure from my usual content. With NEWHAB, we hired Management HQ to provide support to our network. They wanted to highlight how a network approach could be beneficial to their members and invited me to write an article for their newsletter. This is the article, cross-posted from their site.   In […]

I’m Working for a Healthy City

I focus my skills and time on making my city a healthy city, playing a supporting role to the countless others also doing that work. So what does that mean? I offered a preview of my future work in my previous sabbatical post. As I hinted there, my work will be local, it will explicitly foster “equity,” it will […]

Jump in! Inviting Work Group Design

    This is part of an occasional series on network design.  A network leader challenge is remembering the network isn’t most people’s first priority, and it shouldn’t be. That’s why designing work groups well is critical to meeting both members’ and the network’s needs. Over the years, goal-setting and iterative design have helped me develop work groups that make […]

The Basics of a Network Approach

This post shares  my own definition of a network approach, the organizational and cultural shifts that make it successful and more accessible today than it was a generation ago, and bonus benefits of using a network approach. I want to thank the many people who have informed my thinking and offered different ways to convey this. First, Beth […]

My Magical Network Map

This is cross-posted on Christine Capra’s blog. I’m nerd enough to love data, and I understand how much information isn’t available to me when I look around a room. I WANT TO KNOW! Knowing is magic. In my first practicum about network weaving, coordinated by June Holley and Kristin Johnstad, I learned about network mapping […]

Action = Permission + Ideas

This is part of an occasional series on network design.  One network leader challenge is remembering the network isn’t most people’s first priority, and it shouldn’t be. Another is navigating that the network has needs, too. Resources are limited, and finding ways to meet members’ requests without overburdening those resources is another part of network design. There are easy ways […]

New Ideas Emerging

On a recent Saturday, I offered a four-hour invitation to Come and Think About Hard Things in a facilitated discussion. Read to the end to find out what action I’m taking in response to their support and encouragement. I was honored that 20 members of my professional (and personal) community came out to support me. […]

The Power of the Invitation

  Invitations are powerful. Invitations signify who is invited, and powerfully indicate who is not. Invitations communicate who is valued, who is part of the in-crowd, and who is not. (Do you still remember that third grade birthday party you didn’t get invited to and how it stung? Or the friend who didn’t invite you […]

Seeking Clearness, Embracing Uncertainty

My big sabbatical goal is to get clarity in where and how I focus my work. As part of my process, I’m asking my colleagues and friends for help. Asking people to help is easy for me — unless I’m asking people to help ME. While it’s uncomfortable, the generosity and support of people supporting me in this […]