Organizational Death* Doula Services
*We interpret “death” to mean a broad range of new potentialities including but not limited to: the ending of an era, closing a chapter, emerging from the ashes, cleansing /clearing /weeding, or entering a period of dormancy or slowness.
We support organizations in crisis, especially those experiencing protracted conflict or complex dynamics involving power, founder syndrome, lack of transparency in decision-making, and tensions regarding social identities. We understand that factionalism, gossip, and competitiveness/backstabbing are features of the capitalist, white supremacist cishetero-patriarchal and colonial world order. We tend to interpersonal wounds while maintaining a clear analysis of power and dedication to justice and anti-oppression in all of its forms.It can be hard to let go.
Let us help you bring dignity, joy and purpose to circumstances that feel out of your control.
Sometimes a dramatic shift is necessary to sustain an organization. Other times, more gradual changes may be possible. And in certain cases, it may feel like it’s the time to let go. We are here to help you make this decision with as much agency as possible. We don’t want you to close your doors in shame or chaos, or because you feel there is no other way. Instead, we can support you to: Address underlying issues through dialogue, conflict mediation, verbal de-escalation, conflict coaching, restorative and transformative justice practices, accountability processes, and creative, arts-based methods of channeling hurt, rage, overwhelm, burnout, misunderstanding, oppression, and more.
Restructure from the ground up, if necessary, with the guidance of outside facilitators who strive to meet collective needs while also facing the impacts that people may be facing.
Use ceremony and ritual to honor the legacy of an organization and specific leaders, visionaries, and participants.
Equitably, joyfully, and creatively redistribute any resources that may remain at the end of an organization’s life.
We are uniquely positioned to steward these difficult processes because of the skills we have developed through navigating the hardest and most crushing circumstances in our personal and professional lives. All of us have engaged with life cycles in one form or another: birth, death, onset of disability, loss of pregnancy, breaking up with friends/partners/jobs, growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers in our gardens, composting, and clearing out clutter from our lives.
We know that you have this wisdom in you, too, and are humbled to offer a stable presence, witness, and facilitation structure that leverages what you already know to meet the task at hand.
We aim to reassure you. As Nelson Mandela says, “It always seems impossible until it's done.”
Reach out to us for an initial consultation, free of charge. We will listen, take stock of the challenges you are facing, and share some potential pathways to move towards a more desirable outcome. If we suspect that other people in your organization may have a radically different or opposing perspective than the person who first speaks with us, we may ask to confer with the other key parties before proposing a plan.
How it works:
info@collabchange.org
We realize that resources are tight for many of our people, now more than ever, and we want to make this work within your budget constraints. We also have experience applying and winning grant funding for this kind of work, and are some of the most imaginative, thrifty, gift economy and mutual aid-minded people out there that you’re likely to meet in the non-profit consulting world!
Cost:
We are inspired by what we observe in nature
Marcescence is the natural phenomenon when a leaf stays attached to the tree when it should normally be shed.
Why does this happen?
Some trees simply fail to produce the enzymes needed for an abscission layer that usually develops at the base of the leaf stem, causing the leaf to drop. As a result, the dead leaves stick to the tree despite the change in weather. Rather than falling and entering the soil as decomposing matter to nourish and continue the cycle of life, they wait.
The abscission layer is also called the “separation zone.” Some leaves produce it and some don’t. While people often assume that everything has an evolutionary purpose, this isn’t always the case. The dead leaves may help ice or snow accumulate, provide a protective cover for new seedlings, or it may do none of those things. Sometimes, a biological phenomenon may simply not cause any problem, so there’s no reason for it to change.
The leaves come off when it’s the right time for them to come off, without regard for how strange or shriveled up they appear. They hang on until they don’t.