Francis Laleman

Francis Laleman is an educator, permaculturist, and facilitator who studied Sanskrit and Pali and spent time as a Buddhist monk before moving into organizational consulting. For Francis, change isn't a problem to be managed, it's simply the natural state of life, and the real question is how we make peace with that rather than resist it.

He returns again and again to nature as proof rather than metaphor: a tree isn't static, it's fully alive, constantly shedding old leaves and growing new ones while it transforms itself. He speaks about why organizations get stuck in a "culture of preservation" instead of real transformation, because the people inside have too much at stake to let go, and why chasing a fixed "why" can actually trap people into only ever exploring what they already know.

Drawing on Gregory Bateson's idea of the "participant observer," Francis describes the real skill of a consultant as mindful observation: helping people inside an organization see what an outsider already sees. He's also refreshingly candid that the deepest leadership training doesn't come from an expensive course, it comes from parenting, from tending a garden, from building an actual whole life outside of work.

Francis is also a published author, with books spanning facilitation, a reframing of Scrum as a framework for any collaborative process (not just software), and a collection of his own poetry and photography.

🔗 Connect with Francis on LinkedIn
🔗 Watch Francis on The Adaptive Edge Podcast