Practices
A shared body of stories, tools, and processes drawn from real-world experience—supporting people working in communities, organizations, and systems in transition.
What connects them is a commitment to building the relationships, capacity, and shared understanding needed to move forward—together.
Why This Exists
Learning That Doesn't Make It Into the Report
Much of the most valuable learning in complex work never gets shared.
It lives in:
- what didn't go as planned
- the tensions that had to be navigated
- the moments of uncertainty and course correction
- the insights that emerged through experience, not design
Too often, this kind of learning is edited out—replaced by polished narratives of success.
But transformation doesn’t happen through perfect execution.
It happens through practice.
Here, practitioners share:
what they tried
what worked and what didn't
how they adapted
what they would do differently
A Living Commons of Practice
PRACTICES gathers and shares real-world experience from across NewStories’ work and wider networks.
Rather than a toolkit or a fixed methodology, it is a living body of learning—grounded in context, shaped by experience, and evolving over time.
This creates a space where learning is honest, transferable, and alive.
Areas of practice
Eight Areas of Practice
01
Working with
Power and new patterns of relationship
02
Working with
Storytelling, synthesis, and pattern-sensing
03
Working with
Self-organization and principles-aligned change
04
Working with
Learning processes that grow collective wisdom
05
Working with
Nature's patterns and living systems
06
Working with
Inner and outer dimensions of leadership
07
Working with
Re-Storying as a core approach
08
Working with
Relational space and dialogue
How to engage
Stories as a Way In
At the heart of PRACTICES are story-based examples.
These are not case studies in the traditional sense.
Lived accounts of:
- what unfolded in a specific context
- the decisions that were made along the way
- the challenges, tensions, and breakthroughs
- the learning that emerged through the process
Through these stories, people can:
- recognize patterns across contexts
- adapt ideas to their own work
- deepen their own practice
A different kind of learning
From Expertise to Practice
PRACTICES reflects a different approach to knowledge.
NOT
BUT
NOT
BUT
evolving understanding
NOT
isolated expertise
BUT
collective wisdom
No single person or organization holds the full picture.
Across many contexts—through honest reflection and shared experience—something larger begins to emerge.
The outcome
What Becomes Possible
Through PRACTICES, people working in complex systems can:
- Learn from real-world experience rather than abstract theory
- Navigate uncertainty with greater confidence
- Adapt approaches to their own context
- Build capacity over time through reflection and iteration
- Contribute their own learning to a shared commons
This strengthens individual efforts and the broader field of practice.
Part of a Larger Ecosystem
PRACTICES is informed by and contributes to all areas of NewStories’ work. In this way, practice and learning continuously inform one another.
Re-Storying Disaster & Community Work
Insights surfacing from communities navigating recovery and long-term change.
Great Transition Stories & Illumination
Patterns surfaced through storytelling and collective sense-making across the wider field.
Consulting & Facilitation Partnerships
Learning that emerges through direct accompaniment with organizations and networks.
Resourcing Flow Initiative
Experimentation in regenerative resource flow—surfacing new patterns and possibilities.
Join the practice
Bring Your Practice Into the Commons
If this resonates—whether you have learning to share, questions to explore, or work you’d like to connect to this commons—we welcome conversation.