Building TEAMS Where Trust, Mission, and Sustainability Meet
You started this work because you believed in something. But somewhere along the way, the gap between your vision and your daily reality keeps growing.
Your team is exhausted. Communication breaks down. Trust feels fragile. The conversations you most need to have—about money, power, hierarchy, burnout—keep getting avoided.
The good news is there is a better way.
What I Do
I help mission-driven organizations build sustainable, joyful, high-functioning teams. Teams that can navigate conflict, communicate with clarity, and create the conditions for people to thrive while delivering meaningful work.
This isn't about quick fixes or "5 easy steps." It's about doing the real, messy deeper work—freeing up the blocks around money, power, and burnout that keep organizations stuck. And building the trust and communication capacity that makes transformation possible.
combining heart and effectiveness
Over 20 years, as a founding member and co-leader of Clear Sky Retreat Center—a nonprofit in the Canadian Rockies—I've experienced firsthand what it takes to build and sustain a mission-driven organization. I've served as Board Chair and co-Executive Director, under the guidance of our head teachers, navigating near-bankruptcy to building a thriving, financially sustainable community.
Simultaneously, I spent 20 years in corporate leadership, pioneering mindfulness programs at IBM and SS&C Technologies that reached tens of thousands of employees.
This rare combination gives me an unusual perspective: I understand both the heart of mission-driven work and the strategic and operational excellence needed to sustain it.
Who I Work With
Nonprofits & Mission-Driven Organizations
Help your team move from burnout and dysfunction to sustainable, trust-based collaboration. Address the core systemic issues—money mindsets, power dynamics, communication breakdowns—while building the mindfulness and resilience your staff needs to stay in this work for the long haul.
For-Profit Businesses & Organizations
Bring mindfulness, purpose, and genuine human connection into your workplace. Shift from treating people as resources to creating cultures where teams can bring their whole selves and do their best work.
Faith-Based & Spiritual Organizations
Integrate operational excellence with your spiritual values. Learn to navigate money, governance, and decision-making in ways that support—rather than compromise—your heart-centered mission.
My Approach
Most organizational consultants come from either the business world or the nonprofit sector—but rarely both. And even fewer bring a contemplative practice foundation.
I integrate three essential elements:
Operational excellence but based on heart: Mission-centric approaches to strategic planning, governance, decision-making, and financial sustainability
Mindful leadership: Presence, resilience, and skillful communication as foundations for transformation
The real, messy deeper work: Getting into and freeing up the blocks around money, hierarchy, power, and burnout that keep organizations stuck
To change the world, we need to change how we work together.
Organizations must become places of genuine collaboration, where people can show up fully, navigate differences skillfully, and channel their collective wisdom toward what matters most.
Not by pretending the hard stuff doesn't exist—but by building the trust and capacity to work through it together.
— Duncan Cryle
ready to starT?
If you're leading a mission-driven team or organization struggling with burnout, team dysfunction, financial constraints, or the gap between mission and daily reality, let's talk.
Contact us for a free discovery conversation: