ABOUT

I create the conditions for collaboration that results in enduring change

Sarah is standing in a bright room infront of a grey arm chair and rambling monsteria plant. She is wearing a white t-shirt that says "hasten slowly". She is smiling facing the camera.

I apply a relationship-centred approach to collaboration, helping people navigate power dynamics honestly, share risk and benefit fairly, and build the kind of reciprocity that sustains effort over time. I do this by:

Considering the invisible - power dynamics, competing interests, historical relationships and the unspoken assumptions that shape how people work together.
Centring experiences - using inclusive, human-centered methods that create conditions for diverse voices to contribute meaningfully, not just be consulted.
Surfacing missing perspectives - as an independent broker, I can see dynamics and opportunities that people inside the system often miss.
Focusing on what endures - building the conditions - relationships, capabilities and structures - that sustain change beyond any single project or partnership.

This approach comes from over 20 years working in government policy, strategic design, and cross-sector collaboration. I deeply believe that we need to be good ancestors, stewarding better futures for generations beyond us.

I help leaders and visionaries sense and understand the emerging dynamics in their collaborations so that they can pursue ambitious pathways toward enduring change.

Every engagement is different, but there's typically a rhythm to how we work together:

A hand drawn image of a line with an arrow on the end. The line is meandering and squiggly.

phase 1

Listening

I start by learning about your context, relationships and challenges. This might mean interviewing stakeholders, reviewing existing work or just sitting with you and asking the right questions.

PHASE 2

Planning

Together, we identify what's needed and create an approach that fits. This could be a partnership strategy, an engagement process, a playbook for collaboration or something tailored to your situation.

PHASE 3

Creating

I work alongside you and your partners to create the outputs you need. Sometimes I'm facilitating difficult conversations, sometimes designing and running multi-day engagements, other times providing strategic advice as things unfold.

PHASE 4

Sustaining

Change doesn't end when a project does. I help you think about the next steps and how to maintain momentum beyond our work together.

ways of working

I work with you to identify the format that will best achieve your goals.

One-on-one

Two organically shaped round figures are overlaid unevenly. One is shaded and one is an outline.

Spending time with you as a critical friend providing strategic advice, helping to sense-make, mentoring or supporting you with the right frameworks as you navigate complex decisions.

Working from the outside

A shaded organic shape resembling an archway with thick borders and a open portal in the centre.

Facilitating teams and partnerships from 2 to 50+ people, bringing an independent perspective to design, and leading collaborative processes that build alignment and momentum.

Working alongside you

A shaded organic shape resembling a leaf or a meandering lagoon with a central part and branches.

Stepping into your team or organisation for a period to provide ongoing partnership brokering, strategic guidance or leadership through a specific initiative.

Additional services

Complex partnerships and collaborations often benefit from complementary expertise. When your project needs it, I work with trusted specialists who can provide:

Graphic recording to visually capture your engagement process
Impact measurement and evaluation frameworks
Storytelling products (visualisations, videos, publications, communications)
Information sharing systems for ongoing collaboration

These services integrate into your project - you work with me, I coordinate the specialists.

I also offer 1-on-1 professional mentoring.

Ready to work with me?

A BIT ABOuT ME

I've spent 20 years working at the intersection of strategy, design, and collaboration - in government, architecture, and strategic consultancy.

I started in Australian government policy, managing programs like the Seasonal Worker Program and social inclusion initiatives. This taught me how change happens (and doesn't happen) in complex systems with competing interests and entrenched power dynamics.

I then moved into architecture and design, which gave me a completely different lens on how people experience the decisions we make every day. As a project architect in training, I learned to navigate multi-million dollar budgets, diverse stakeholder interests, and the gap between vision and reality.

In 2017, I joined ThinkPlace as a strategic designer and eventually became General Manager, leading systems-level change work in climate, energy, family violence reform, and international development. This is where I fell in love with facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and bringing diverse voices together to co-create solutions.

I founded The Good Cartel Consulting in 2021 to focus specifically on partnership and collaboration work with organisations actively engaged in climate and nature. I became an Accredited Partnership Broker in 2022 and continue to research how we can learn from unexpected places to mobilise collective action for good.

I'm a guest lecturer on citizen engagement, a facilitator with UNLEASH (the global movement mobilising young people for sustainable futures), and a TEDx speaker. My TEDx Canberra talk explores what we can steal from cartels to use for social and environmental good.

This work is deeply personal. I care about being a good ancestor - about stewarding futures that the next generation will want to inherit.

Let's connect

Sarah stands on a stage in an animated pose. She's wearing a cream jacket and yellow top. Behind her you can see a sign "TED"