From Crisis to Systems

My path to founding The Calyx began in some of the world's most volatile environments. From managing emergency flood responses in Pakistan to navigating the complex machinery of the U.S. CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic, I learned a singular, hard-won truth: The success of any mission is determined by the invisible architecture supporting it.

I’ve seen firsthand how even the most brilliant leaders can be stymied by fragmented systems. I learned that while relational capital is critical, visionary charismatic leadership is essential, an inability to translate that into ‘how we do things round here’ ends in heroics that don’t outlast the challenge at hand.

I’ve also seen first hand how resourcing doesn’t solve the problem either. I’ll never forget in February 2020, when I was the Deputy on the COVID-19 International Task Force at the CDC, and my colleague who’d lived through the Ebola response said, “Get ready. The money’s going to arrive like a tsunami and it’s gonna be complete chaos.” All the money in the world can become a curse and reshape communities for the worse if the systems aren’t designed to put it to good use.

Without tending to the design of the human systems - teams, organizations, institutions, coalitions - that drive meaningful change, we quickly burn out or flood out. This will not do.

Tending the System

In botany, the calyx is the green, protective frame that holds a bud. It is the structure that allows the petals of collaboration to flourish. Without a healthy calyx, the flower cannot bloom.

The calyx is a metaphor for the system conditions under the surface that we have to design with intention.

Whether that’s how we meet, make sense of our world around us, set strategy, who we include, how we make decisions, how we share information, how we learn and innovate together, how workflows are designed, how we hold each other accountable: there are literally thousands of levers we can pull to seek a different outcome.

That’s what led me to The Ready, a best-in-class self-managing organizational design consultancy, the complete opposite end of the spectrum from a sprawling, rigid, federal bureaucracy. I founded our Public Sector practice and wrestled with how to apply a host of philosophies and practices to public institutions responsible for the common good.

Common Good & Connection

I’m most deeply motivated by the common good, thanks to growing up in New Zealand - a country recognized worldwide for innovative collaboration and protecting the social fabric. After a decade in the American South, in Atlanta, the City Too Busy to Hate, I’m arrested by the simple truth that Gregory Boyle, founder of the largest gang intervention in the world, shares:

We belong to one another. No exceptions.

We have to figure out how to live together. Despite our differences.

We have to learn to collaborate and cooperate.

We have to take seriously our responsibility towards the common good, whatever form that takes.

We can’t afford not to.

—

Lucy

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