ABOUT SUSAN

I earned my MA in Organizational Development from Sonoma State University and wrote my thesis on humor as a tool for consulting and facilitation. It sounds lighter than it was. For that research I interviewed some of the people who built this field, including the late Edgar Schein and Peter Block, and what I learned from their decades of work still informs mine.

Since then I've facilitated sessions with the Socio-Technical Systems Roundtable, collaborated regularly with Roland Cavanagh, one of the authors of The Six Sigma Way — including participating in think tank conversations with industry leaders from all over the world about leadership, organizational culture, and the future of systems thinking. I've written articles on organizational culture, team development, leadership, and why you should be kind to your AI chatbot.

My work is grounded in OD principles and Lean Six Sigma thinking, and I hold a certification in Finding Good coaching framework.

One of my professors at Sonoma State described my facilitation style as "quiet authority that fosters feelings of safety and humanity." I've been trying to live up to that ever since.

I work with individual leaders, leadership teams, and organizations. I'm based in Napa Valley and have spent two decades building community here including serving on the board of Leadership Napa Valley while working with clients well beyond it.

BUT WHY?

I started NV Collaborative because I believe leaders deserve better support than most of them are getting.

Not someone who hands them a framework and sends them on their way. Not someone who reflects everything back as a question. A real thinking partner with honest perspective, genuine curiosity, and zero interest in making things more complicated than they need to be.

My coaching is grounded in Brian Fretwell's Finding Good framework and the best parts Alfred Adler's research, both of which point to something I believe deeply: that belonging, not fitting in, is fundamental to how humans thrive. And that most people, when someone finally helps them see clearly, are more capable than they've been led to believe.

I notice things. Patterns, undercurrents, the thing nobody's saying out loud. It took me a long time to understand why. I'm neurodivergent, and largely undiagnosed for most of my life. What that gave me, without my fully realizing it, was a finely tuned ability to read a room. To spot patterns before they're visible. To hear the sub rosa, the story beneath the story, while everyone else is still responding to the surface. Decades of navigating systems that weren't built for my brain taught me to watch people carefully, find workarounds that actually work, and eliminate waste wherever I see it. That's not a liability I've overcome. It's the thing that makes me unusually good at what I do.

I also coach neurodivergent leaders and parents of LGBTQIA+ kids, not as a specialty I market, but because these communities deserve support that genuinely understands their experience from the inside. If that's you, reach out.

I believe that good work should be energizing to those who do it — and that means different things to different people. A sense of humor about our work and ourselves helps bridge the gap between expectations and reality. A well-timed laugh does more for a stuck leader than another round of bullet points is a conviction I once defended in a master's thesis, so I'm committed to it. That inclusion isn't a program, it's a practice.

Bougainvillea von Floof "Boogie"

CBO - Chief Boogie Officer