No one should hate work.
So lets fix it.
Leadership Development
Got a team member you just can't figure out? A dynamic that's vexing? Want support taking on a new project? Let's hop on the phone, either as a one-off or on an ongoing basis. Available as an individual service or to teams.
Retreats & Workshops
I'll design a series of hands-on experiences for teams and leaders looking to to evolve, build empathy, or grow closer. Think breakthrough connections and insights - with a fully curated experience (lodging, food, etc...) taken care of.
Culture Operations
People forget that operations is culture - everything else is a perk. From onboarding to organizational design to decision making, we'll support with buzzword-free, time-tested approaches to organizations.
Learning Experiences
From designing a training experience for the team, revisiting stale sessions, or trying to repackage old materials in more intuitive ways, our learner-centric approaches will make learning fun again.
a principled approach
The world of "messy human stuff" is vast, and full of buzzwords and consulting services that sound the same. I try to approach things a little differently, by focusing less on a specific philosophy you need to adopt, and more on research-based evidence for how people work together. My formal educational training is in science - just because we're working with people doesn't mean we throw out quality ways of knowing.
You can effectively run a project, manage a group of people, or communicate a message lots of different ways - the challenge is ensuring there is (1) alignment on the approach and (2) there are systems of reinforcement in place. As I often remind my coaching and guiding clients, there are no right answers (though there are some wrong ones). That means when you work with me, you can bring your own philosophy, values, or approach - my job is to work with you to ensure they are working for you. I do so by following a few core principles:
ALIGNMENT
There are many ways to run an organization or lead a group, and most can work - if everyone is aligned to the system. Philosophical agreement doesn't matter if incentives aren't aligned and processes aren't compatible.
CONSENT
Good organizations operate when power systems are aligned in a way everyone can live with. This isn't consensus, where everyone must actively agree to the decision. It's consent, where everyone agrees to the way decisions are made.
EXPERIMENT
Math has a right answer. People do not. We get farther by creative, strategic testing than by following a rulebook - we'll stand on the shoulders of giants, but we'll climb - or get off - when we need. It's the scientific method, made social.
HUMAN
These systems need to be run by humans, designed to take advantage of our genius while avoiding our foibles. That means emotionally aware (even if not emotionally driven), with enough redundancy to be reliable but not so much to be clunky.
CANDOR
Without the willingness to be frank, honest, and without reservation, you can't do any of the rest. So we'll practice honoring and owning our word with one another.
reviews & referrals
Joe Yuska
L&C College Outdoors
"Micah is a passionate educator and has the leadership ability to unite a group and focus them on a goal. People genuinely like him and find his charisma difficult to resist...truly a leader people like to follow."
Attendee Feedback
Wilderness Risk Management Conference
"Wow! This was amazing. Prior to attending this session I knew that I needed to revisit our staff training, but as we talked more and more in this session I started to get a grasp of what we need to re-work and how to make that effective in and out of the field."
Attendee Feedback
Leadership Workshop
“Our instructor was so clear about his visions for the workshop, he was receptive to feedback and very fun. I most liked his psychological approach and acknowledgement of human behavior and how that impacts our choices.”
fight for your LEARNER
We consider all of our programs "learner first," even if not explicitly about learning! All strategy is ultimately a function of learning - taking what data does exist, and turning into behaviors, systems, and plans for the future. As I often remind people:
Evolution has fundamentally shaped you into a learning machine, a creature honed by millennia to manage flows of data, filter, interpret, and come up with useful stories that you can share with machines that are almost just like you, but just different enough to take what you share and mess with it in some really interesting, sometimes frightening, and often deeply gorgeous ways.
Working together should be exciting. When I partner with you, we'll try to make sure we solve problems and have fun. Not the fun of mandatory ice breakers or forced happy hours, but the fun of authentically finding joy in solving real problems that will make life better for people.