Zand Craig

I work with leaders, teams, and networks who are navigating complexity in fields like climate innovation, public health, peacebuilding, and systems change. Many of my clients hold roles where technical expertise meets relational tension—policy leads, learning partners, and change agents seeking more coherent, values-aligned ways of working.

I’m often invited into systems in transition, where people are aware of the limits of control and certainty, and are ready to lead with more clarity, collaboration, and care.

One example is my ongoing work with the World Green Building Council’s Building Life initiative in partnership with the IKEA Foundation & Laudes Foundation. I co-designed and facilitated an annual learning and sense-making cycle that supports 12 national teams across Europe to reflect on and learn from their policy advocacy work. These cycles are embedded into a broader Results, Sense-making, and Learning (RSL) framework, which I helped design to enable adaptive management across the initiative. Through participatory workshops and reflective facilitation, we’ve cultivated shared insight across diverse country contexts, helping the initiative stay responsive to real-world shifts and evolve its strategy in alignment with changing policy landscapes. This work reflects how I blend strategic design with developmental facilitation to support complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives.

Clients describe my presence as calm, grounded, and clear. I aim to create spaces that are honest and spacious, where trust is built intentionally over time. I listen for what’s alive in a system and help people orient toward what matters, especially in moments of uncertainty.

My role blends design, facilitation, coaching, and sense-making. I support leadership retreats, multi-stakeholder dialogues, and long-term learning cycles, maintaining a light but intentional presence that fosters coherence without rushing. I aim to support outcomes that matter, and growth that lasts.

My work has been shaped by learning in contexts where complexity, conflict, and community meet. Early grounding came through experiences with Corrymeela, TIDES, and Dialogue for Peaceful Change. These were spaces where I learned to host dialogue, navigate differences, and build relational capacity in post-conflict and organisational settings. The Art of Hosting helped deepen a participatory stance, and the MSLS program introduced a systems-level lens rooted in sustainability and transformation.

These foundations continue to evolve through roles with EIT Climate-KIC, where I led the cultivation of sense-making practices in Deep Demonstration initiatives; Roller Strategies, where I facilitated Social Labs in Zimbabwe, Chicago, and Oxford; and MSLS, where I co-designed and delivered the Leading in Complexity track. Alongside these, I’ve run my own facilitation company for over a decade. What shapes me most now is deep partnership, humility, and a commitment to serving what matters.

At Cultivating Leadership, I contribute as a multistakeholder process designer and facilitator. I partner with colleagues on long-term client engagements that span leadership development, complexity-informed change, and learning architecture design. I’m often invited into projects where strategy, emergence, and relational dynamics meet. I value the depth of companionship and reflection that CL offers, both in our client work and in how we show up to each other.

My practice draws from participatory and developmental methodologies, including the Art of Hosting, Theory U, Social Labs, and complexity frameworks like Cynefin. I use dialogic methods to surface wisdom in groups and support reflection in individuals. Often, I blend structured design with emergent facilitation to help people stay grounded and responsive, especially in dynamic, multi-stakeholder contexts.

When I’m not working, I’m a parent and partner living in Northern Ireland, where I find rhythm in family life, shared meals in community, and time outdoors. Much of my time is spent walking the cliffs with my golden retriever Islay, cooking with friends, and being with my young daughter. I try to keep my days grounded and spacious – even when life is full – making time for reflection, reading, and music alongside the everyday work of life. These rhythms shape how I show up professionally: with attentiveness, patience, and a strong sense of what matters.

I’m most helpful in spaces where there is openness to learning, emergence, and change. I work best when curiosity is valued over control, and when people are willing to sit with complexity rather than rush toward resolution.

While I care deeply about inner development, I’m not a therapist, and I’m clear about the distinctions between coaching, facilitation, and therapeutic support. I tend to step back from projects that are purely performative or closed to genuine co-creation.