Ivy Sea and Lawrence Ellis & Associates collaborate at every opportunity because we hold one another in high regard and feel completely confident referring the other. Here are a couple of reasons why Lawrence and his firm top our list:

Lawrence Ellis founded Lawrence Ellis & Associates as a vehicle for individual and collective transformation. This consulting and educational services firm helps individuals, groups and organizations stay true to their mission, vision and values while addressing challenges such as internal conflict, growth, increasing complexity and tougher competition. In particular, Lawrence Ellis & Associates seeks to develop collaborative organizations and communities that balance the desire to achieve outstanding results — using clear and efficient processes — while maintaining a healthy climate.

The team has broad experience and state-of-the-art expertise in the management of organizational and community change. They apply and transfer to clients strategies, frameworks, skills, and technologies for organizational effectiveness and operational efficiencies, diversity, ecological sustainability, economic justice in workplaces and society.

Lawrence declined a Harvard National Scholarship to study at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on the "baby Rhodes," the John Motley Morehead Scholarship, where he earned his BA in philosophy. He was also awarded the Rhodes Scholarship and received his MA from Oxford University with a focus on individual and large-scale change.

His professional training is in change management, organizational development, and community- and movement-building. He consults to community-based, corporate, nonprofit and public-service organizations in the areas of large systems change, organization redesign, organizational development, high performance teams and leadership development. For more than 14 years he has worked with a broad mix of client groups — from CEOs and line staff to community activists and governors.

Learn more about Lawrence and Lawrence Ellis & Associates at www.pathstochange.net or contact Lawrence directly at le@dnai.com.

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

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.