Navigating Complexity. Illuminating and Transforming Human Ecosystems.
We work alongside leaders of complex, multi-stakeholder organizations, first to make their human ecosystem visible, then to support the shifts that move it toward what it’s meant to do.
Why do some things stay stuck, despite all the time and money invested?
Leaders in complex, multi-stakeholder organizations know the pattern:
- Alignment that doesn’t hold
- Change that doesn’t scale
- Innovation that doesn’t land
- Partnerships that stay aspirational
When no single party owns the outcome, more effort and resources rarely shift it. What’s usually missing is a clear, shared view of the human ecosystem holding the pattern in place: the boundaries, relationships, and value dynamics affecting boards, funders, partners, and teams.
Not sure where you’re stuck?
The 5-minute Navigational Intelligence Diagnostic maps where you’re navigating well and where things are stuck, so you know where to begin.
Four Pathways Into the Work
Navigational Leadership Workshop
A custom two-hour workshop for leaders and teams in complex multi-stakholder organizations, built around a challenge you’re facing now. A focused way to experience ecosystemic thinking in action.
Ecosystem Illumination & Transformation
Making the ecosystem(s) visible, then working alongside you as you shift it toward what it’s meant to do.
Systems-Aware Strategic Planning
Translating ecosystem insight into strategic direction, governance clarity, and aligned decision-making.
Innovation at Ecosystem Scale
Designing services, experiences, and structures that function within the real system, not just the org chart.
The Ecosystem Project
Co-authored with Rob Brodnick, The Ecosystem Project is a practical guide for leaders of complex, multi-stakeholder organizations.
Inside:
- A method for seeing and transforming human ecosystems
- Just enough systems and complexity theory to ground the practice without overwhelming it
- Case studies that show the work in action
- A toolkit you can put to work in your own context
In Practice
Ecosystem thinking applied in real contexts.
Reframing Product Value Through Systems-Aware UX
Using the Four Orders of Complexity to expand how a team understands the value of UX and of the product itself.
Strategic Renewal in Higher Education
Bringing faculty, staff, students, and leadership of a private art and design school into a participatory, systems-aware process that shaped its five-year direction.
Hudson Valley Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
Illuminating and strengthening a seven-county entrepreneurship ecosystem to support innovation, economic diversity, and long-term regional vitality.
Meet Karyn Zuidinga
Founder of NextWAVE Innovation and co-author of The Ecosystem Project
Karyn’s practice grew from decades in UX research and design into ecosystem-level work, helping leaders of complex, multi-stakeholder organizations see the systems they’re part of and shift them toward what they’re meant to do. She also co-hosts the Positive Turbulence Podcast with Rob Brodnick.
AMI Board Chair
She also serves as Chair of the Association for Managers of Innovation (AMI), a pioneering nonprofit dedicated to advancing creativity and innovation in organizations and society.
Where Does the Work Begin?
With a conversation about what you’re navigating right now. Rather than arriving with a template or a framework to apply from the outside, we start by listening carefully to your ecosystem and making visible what’s already shaping your decisions. From there, clarity becomes possible.
The Next Wave
Systems thinking is the new design thinking. Monthly notes for leaders in complex multi-stakeholder organizations.