— Dr. Michael Applebee, retired Vice President of Organizational Development, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.

Lawrence Ellis and Ivy Sea's Jamie Walters have collaborated for nearly 10 years, holding one another in high regard. Each feels genuinely and completely confident referring the other in his or her area of expertise.

"Lawrence is among the most skillful, thoughtful, and lovely people I know, and is the first who comes to my mind when someone asks about systems and practices for skillful organizational transformation," says Jamie.

Lawrence Ellis is Founder & President of Paths to Change, a network of activists, business people, scientists, spiritual teachers, thought-leaders, and other change-agents who are applying the disciplines and practices of Organizational Consulting, Engaged Spirituality & Lived Philosophy, and Strategic Activism to catalyze individual leadership capacity and to create highly effective groups, teams, organizations, communities, and social-change movements. In particular, Paths to Change focuses on how to most skillfully address the unprecedented environmental and social crises of our time, particularly where environmental and human rights concerns intersect.

Lawrence is an Oxford-trained complexity-science consultant, and a spiritual activist. He studied the application of Satyagraha (Gandhian militant non-violence) to individual and large-scale change while on a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, in an interdisciplinary masters degree weaving several fields including Asian religions & ethics, psychology, the change-practices of theoretical physicist David Bohm, and others. For several years he served as a Senior Associate, and later Director, with Interaction Associates, one of the oldest consulting & training firms in the world specializing in managing organizational and community change. For two years he was a Senior Consultant with the Organizational Effectiveness Department of the Northern California branch of the American Automobile Association (AAA), a multibillion-dollar insurance, travel and road service company.

Throughout his formal "paid" career, Lawrence maintained a parallel career in spiritual activism — bringing spiritual and activist perspectives & practices to a range of social-change & environmental movements. Much of this occurred through formal training and work in spiritual communities and activist campaigns. A Buddhist Teacher, Mr. Ellis co-founded the Mindfulness, Diversity & Social Change Sangha (Buddhist practice community), and is mentored by meditation master and popular author Jack Kornfield.

Of African American & First Nations (Cherokee, and probably Haudenosaunee) descent, he is a Two Spirit person active in the movement to return Two Spirit people to their rightful leadership and other traditional roles in First Nations tribes — after 500 years of systematic attempts to destroy them. Related to this undertaking is the endeavor to provide the world with models of exceptional gender, sexual orientation and spiritual diversities that are wholly integrated into societies – as embodied in the Two Spirit traditions. He is increasingly active in similar movements in African Indigenous spiritual communities.

Also, at the invitation of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, he represented the U.S. in a yatra (journey) in India commemorating Gandhi and Martin Luther King. He has used his status as a spiritual teacher and leader to organize and mobilize for justice and sustainability on numerous issues — from engaging in civil disobedience to win back wages and benefits for exploited low-wage urban workers, to encouraging human rights organizations to weave ecological considerations into their actions and campaigns. For two years he served as the Buddhist Peace Fellowship representative to the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) in the San Francisco East Bay area.

In the consulting arena, for nearly 20 years Lawrence has worked with community-based, corporate, non-profit and public service organizations using a blend of organizational development & complexity science approaches. He specializes in the areas of organization redesign, complex adaptive systems, leadership coaching & development, high performance teams, and other complementary areas of focus. He also serves as an event facilitator and workshop trainer. In the private sector his clients range from small businesses to numerous Fortune 1000 firms and have included AT&T/SBC, Blue Shield, Charles Schwab & Co. and Sematech. On a regular basis over several years he was a lead trainer of consultants for Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and McKinsey Consulting.

Whether as the consulting-lead on the redesign of a major division of a socially responsible multibillion-dollar corporation, the facilitator of dialogue between polarized political groups, the guide helping a team of hospital executives to develop a new system-wide vision, or a spiritual activist weaving ancient wisdom & mastery traditions into successful approaches to contemporary problems, Lawrence’s approach to organizational and community change is consistent.

He focuses on assisting customers/clients and community members to stay true to mission, vision and values while addressing challenges such as internal conflict, increasing complexity, growth, mobilizing constituents, and tougher competition. In particular, he seeks to bring more humane, just, interconnected, sustainable and spiritually-fulfilling approaches and results to groups, organizations, communities and movements.

Learn more about Lawrence and Paths to Change at his web site: Paths to Change.

Who or what has influenced your career the most?

There have been several key people who have influenced me at critical turning points in my career. For example, the colleague who introduced me to the firm I joined when I exited grad school and my first mentor — both of these people made significant contributions that helped me leap forward.

However, it is the inspiration of literally thousands of people — some famous, such as author and consultant Meg Wheatley, some not so famous, such as the clients with whom I work — whose lives are dedicated to making the world a better place, that influences me most. I constantly learn from people who make the world a better a place.

What do you find most challenging about your career?

There’s something about constantly seeing the ways in which we repeatedly create destructive organizational cultures, even though it often only takes a small change to make a positive shift, that I find challenging.

Also, when I see the gap between what could be for a client system, and what is, I’m often challenged with having to go very slowly to facilitate change at an appropriate pace, despite knowing that the ideal is in close reach. This can be frustrating.

It’s also challenging to know that it often takes a major breakdown for organizations to invest in their culture and their people, whether that investment is in money, a different way of being or a different way of operating.

Most rewarding?

This is easy to answer: Making a significant impact for the good of an individual, group, organization or community. Some real-life examples: An individual leaving one of our workshops more confident in his or her skills; a team performing better than they ever thought they could; or one CEO being so affected by our work that he dramatically changed the company’s strategic plan to incorporate socially and environmentally responsible practices.

If you could pursue any other profession, what would you do?

Three professions stand out that are somewhat interrelated:
— an author,
— a spiritual activist, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi, and
— a teacher.

Then again, I could also see myself as a stockbroker, but only if I were a really successful one who had mastered his craft so that (1) I wouldn't have to deal with the stress associated with this career, and (2) I could give away all of my earnings to people and communities that I care about.

What’s the one item you have on your person most of the time?

Clothes…most of the time.

If you were a non-human object/being, what would you be?

Two things:

1. Water. I’d really like to be able to flow to so many places, evaporate, come back down, etc.
2. A particular species of gnat here in California. These types of gnats fly into my window, land on my desk, and just sit and watch me. They’re not pesky, and they don’t fly away easily when shooed. They just sit there — even though I’m hundreds of times their size. They bring out the "gentle giant" in me. Granted, I wouldn’t fancy being a gnat for very long — maybe a day or two.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people the permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own past, our presence automatically liberates others."

— From the 1994 Inaugural Speech of Nelson Mandela, attributed to Marianne Williamson

What type of person do you get along with the best?

People who are passionately active in changing the world for the better, and who also know how to relax, have fun, laugh at themselves, and immensely enjoy the wonders of life.

Name one of your pet peeves.

Losing umbrellas. I ALWAYS lose umbrellas. I have made millionaires out of people with stock in umbrella companies.

What’s the one question you’d like definitely answered?

Is there intelligent life on Earth?

— and —

Who really shot JR?

Of what are you most proud?

My friendship with one of my two best friends. I’m proud because it’s a relationship we’ve worked really hard to cultivate over decades and sometimes thousands of miles, with an occasional serious misunderstanding between us, and through the hardest times and the most exhilarating moments. We are each other’s anchors, best fans and tough-love critics.

(I haven’t known the other best friend as long, though this friendship is developing like a work of art!)

What was one of your favorite games as a child?

Handball. Where I grew up and when I grew up, handball was played by a lot of people of different ages; it was really social. Sometimes it could get competitive, but it was always sheer fun.

Also, while it’s not a game per se, the basement in the home where I grew up is where I played lots of different games with my friends. I think of this basement and recall good memories of secret places, whispers, board games and parties.

What’s your favorite comfort-food meal?

Banana walnut bread or, particularly for movies, air-popped popcorn sprinkled with tamari.

What book or books are you currently reading?

I’m nibbling from my "Reading List of the Decade."

Coleman Barks’ The Illuminated Rumi and The Essential Rumi have stayed on my coffee table for years, and I visit with them frequently.

The Cornel West Reader — the man is amazing!

Professionally, I’m reading works on organizational measures — boring, but necessary.

Finally, Joanna Macy’s Coming Back to Life. I’m adapting some of her exercises into my client work.