Harvest Cycle
Learning isn’t what we collect. It’s what connects us.
Why the Harvest Cycle?
Events spark deep conversation, insight, and connection. But too often, that energy fades when the room empties. What’s left is a pile of notes instead of a pulse of shared learning.
The Harvest Cycle keeps the learning alive.
We help organizations transform moments of collective insight into lasting movement, capturing not just what was said, but what was sensed, realized, and set in motion.
Where most event summaries freeze knowledge in time, we treat it as something alive - relational, evolving, and full of possibility. Our process is sensemaking-driven, insight-focused, and future-oriented. The outcome isn’t a static report; it’s a learning artifact that deepens understanding, strengthens relationships, and fuels strategy long after the event ends.
Our Human-Centered Approach
We treat learning as a living practice, one that depends on attention, curiosity, and care. Our approach honors collective intelligence and helps discern what to capture, what to carry forward, and what to simply experience. The goal isn’t to document everything; it’s to surface meaning that can grow.
Our Harvest Cycle process includes four essential steps:
Co-Create Learning Priorities: Before the event, we clarify what matters most to notice and learn, setting shared intention before the event.
Be Present & Document Insights: During the gathering, we listen deeply, to words, tone, energy, and emergence, to capture the nuance of what’s said and what’s sensed.
Facilitate Collective Sensemaking: Afterward, we gather core staff and partners to lift up key themes, discern their significance, and decide what meaning to carry forward.
Craft a Learning Narrative: We weave the threads into a narrative that moves from observation to insight to action, designed to be revisited, reinterpreted, and reused.
This isn’t notetaking. It’s pattern recognition, story weaving, and contextual intelligence; a human art of seeing the system at work.
What You Gain
Collective Knowledge: Move from scattered impressions to shared understanding that reflects lived experience.
Strategic Clarity: Turn emergent insight into grounded direction.
Field Connection: Share stories that link people, ideas, and action across your ecosystem.
Lasting Resonance: Turn an event into a living resource that continues to inform, inspire, and align.
Who It’s For
Foundations & Funders seeking to surface and share learning across grantees and partners.
Networks & Coalitions wanting to strengthen shared understanding and weave knowledge across initiatives.
Organizations & Conveners who want their gatherings to have enduring impact, not just good energy.
What is a Learning Narrative?
A Learning Narrative is a synthesis that doesn’t just summarize. It reinforces participant learning, informs next steps, and positions your organization, coalition, or network as a thought partner in your field.
It’s not a record of what happened. It’s a story of what’s becoming.
How to Engage
There are different ways to engage with the Harvest Cycle, from a light touch where we join your already planned event to a deeper collaboration where we help to design and facilitate the content. Our spectrum of services includes:
We join an event you already have planned
We design and facilitate the event content with you
We design and facilitate the event content for you
We engage additional partners to support capturing insights (e.g., graphic facilitation)
Each of these examples will result in a Learning Narrative that is customized to meet the needs and vibes of your context, content, and collaborators.
Our Team
We compile teams that are best suited for the context and topics. Our frequent collaborator is Elizabeth Grim of Elizabeth Grim Consulting.