- Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Local Time:–:–:–
Yotam Schachter
I help people lead from their thriving brain (creativity, connection, curiosity, and courage) even when challenges are pulling them toward their survival brain (reactivity, self-protection, and over-simplification).
I work with organizational leaders, especially in tech, biotech, and professional services, who understand that excellent results emerge from excellent team/organizational cultures.
I recently taught Polarities to a group at Google. We explored how two things feel contradictory, but still both are true. When two things are both good or important, but feel like they’re in tension, there’s an art to leaning one way in one moment and leaning the other way in the next.
What I love about teaching Polarities is the way it helps people empathize with themselves. When the model lands, people can say “Oh THAT’S why this has been so difficult.” They stop giving themselves a hard time for failing to achieve the impossible, and they’re immediately more empowered to achieve what is possible. I think what makes me great at it is that they can see me fully appreciating both sides of the polarity and the struggle between them, so each part of their own experience is respected.
In the back of my mind, I’m always thinking about thriving and survival. Survival brain pulls us off balance into the worst of each side of a polarity map, but seeing the whole map helps us float back into thriving.
One-on-one I primarily use Growth Edge Interviewing and Internal Family Systems coaching, both of which can be infused with a lot of somatic awareness.
In groups, I tend to facilitate about polarities, Adaptive Leadership, and wayfinding in complexity.
I sampled a lot of different careers before what I do now, including rabbi, investment analyst, massage therapist, and sales operations supervisor. My work is inspired by each of those explorations as well as Adaptive Leadership, Integral Theory, Shadow Work, IFS, Immunity to Change, complexity theory, mindfulness, and somatics.
As these influences come together today, I show up with enormous respect for the forces shaping each client system – be that an organization, a team, or an individual – and the potential that emerges when those forces can come into alignment.
ANONYMOUS“Yotam has a rare skill as a facilitator. He can look deep into you as a human, and instead of creating a sense of vulnerability and inadequacy, he can help ground your hardest fears, and work with you to turn them into the launching pad for your biggest dreams. Where most facilitators polish your presentation, Yotam frees your soul. Without him, our company would not be where it is today.”
FOUNDER OF several successful small business start ups, now operating in multiple countries
I provide coaching, training, and group facilitation.
I write a lot of our internal faculty guides, taking pride in my ability to document facilitator best practices without unduly constraining my colleagues’ responsiveness to the moment.
I also teach open-enrollment classes about coaching, self-coaching, and shifting into thriving brain.
My wife and six-year-old son are both autistic, which profoundly shapes our family life. We homeschool him, and my wife is active in building neurodiversity acceptance. My son has taught me to love Minecraft, and we spend hours together building ‘mods’ for the game. I read books on physics, biology, and cognitive science, as well as science fiction and fantasy novels and historical biographies.
I’m not a therapist and I’m not a strategy consultant, but if you draw a line from one to the other, I’m most of what you’ll find in between.
