Quiet Innovation
for a noisy world
Even in uncertainty, when we notice what is real and moving, living patterns as well as new possibilities become visible. This moving, shifting, and shaping, calls us to respond in ways of relating to each other which then stimulates a ripple effect to great circles of
people, economies, and nature.
Quiet Innovation
for a noisy world
Even in uncertainty, when we notice what is real and moving, living patterns as well as new possibilities become visible. This moving, shifting, and shaping, calls us to respond in ways of relating to each other which then stimulates a ripple effect to great circles of
people, economies, and nature.
Who We Work Alongside
Leadership in multinationals • Cross-sector programme teams • Development agencies • Technical specialists & researchers • Government Partners • Rural SMMEs • Young people entering the job market • Women in agriculture • Creative professionals working with access & inclusion • Entrepreneurs in local economies • Master coaches supporting SMMEs • Biotrade communities • Indigenous cultural leaders • Wild harvesters • Line Management • Organisational Divisions • Organisational teams in HR, Communications and Sustainability • Associates and collaborators working on wider societal and meta-challenges •...
Who We Work Alongside
Leadership in multinationals • Cross-sector programme teams • Development agencies • Technical specialists & researchers • Government Partners • Rural SMMEs • Young people entering the job market • Women in agriculture • Creative professionals working with access & inclusion • Entrepreneurs in local economies • Master coaches supporting SMMEs • Biotrade communities • Indigenous cultural leaders • Wild harvesters • Line Management • Organisational Divisions • Organisational teams in HR, Communications and Sustainability • Associates and collaborators working on wider societal and meta-challenges •...
What We Do
For years, people have described this work as "magical". Not because anything flashy or extraordinary happens, but because something real comes into view—something people often felt but couldn't put words to.
When people slow down together — allowing silence, stillness, and spaciousness — we start to pay attention to what is actually happening. New possibilities form... often quietly, often unexpectedly.
Much of our work grew in this way: word of mouth, trust.
For a long time, we didn't have a language that conveyed what we do. Learning from various projects, we feel ready to speak to it more openly—to name what we do and how we work.
We tend to the conditions for people, organisations, and communities to notice what is real. We bring people and ideas into relationship where momentum can form.
From this place, it becomes possible to make sense of what is happening and to take wise, practical steps. This approach strengthens people's ability to make decisions for themselves, respond to uncertainty, and support betterment.
Place: Namibia Photo Credit: Luke Brouwers Photography
What We Do
For years, people have described this work as "magical". Not because anything flashy or extraordinary happens, but because something real comes into view—something people often felt but couldn't put words to.
When people slow down together — allowing silence, stillness, and spaciousness — we start to pay attention to what is actually happening. New possibilities form... often quietly, often unexpectedly.
Much of our work grew in this way: word of mouth, trust.
For a long time, we didn't have a language that conveyed what we do. Learning from various projects, we feel ready to speak to it more openly—to name what we do and how we work.
We tend to the conditions for people, organisations, and communities to notice what is real. We bring people and ideas into relationship where momentum can form.
From this place, it becomes possible to make sense of what is happening and to take wise, practical steps. This approach strengthens people's ability to make decisions for themselves, respond to uncertainty, and support betterment.
Place: Namibia Photo Credit: Luke Brouwers Photography
More About What We Do...
More About What We Do...
New Possibilities in
Living Systems
We work with people who are navigating tough dynamics that are hard to shift, often without clear solutions — at least not within a single project or even a lifetime. Our work creates the conditions for people to pause, notice what is real, and find steps that open momentum.
Wild harvesters
A recent collaboration brought together wild harvesters, community members, and sector partners to strengthen harvester participation by foregrounding local ecological knowledge as a vital expression of indigenous knowledge.
Bio-stewarding
We cocreated practical economic options with local communities and Wild Harvesters, using the Bio-Stewarding Circle to bridge long-standing epistemic gaps.
Wild-flower youth network
We created an apprenticing environment where young people tested safe-to-try income ideas that reconnect us with nature and grow local, creative economic activity that is good for people and the environment.
New Possibilities in Living Systems
We work with people who are navigating tough dynamics that are hard to shift, often without clear solutions — at least not within a single project or even a lifetime. Our work creates the conditions for people to pause, notice what is real, and find steps that open momentum.
Wild harvesters
A recent collaboration brought together wild harvesters, community members, and sector partners to strengthen harvester participation by foregrounding local ecological knowledge as a vital expression of indigenous knowledge.
Bio-stewarding
We cocreated practical economic options with local communities and Wild Harvesters, using the Bio-Stewarding Circle to bridge long-standing epistemic gaps.
Wild-flower youth network
We created an apprenticing environment where young people tested safe-to-try income ideas that reconnect us with nature and grow local, creative economic activity that is good for people and the environment.
Cultivating Wisdom
Cultivating Wisdom through Hosting, Peer Learning and Apprenticing
We begin with humility: we do not arrive with the answers — or even the questions.
We find the questions with the people who live the reality.
In the spirit of Ausbildung — a way of learning through doing that reshapes how a person sees the world — we design processes that support these learning principles. Perspectives soften and widen. People discover they can hold the tensions of their world with greater coherence and care.
Friends of honeybush
Across contexts — from large organisations, multi-stakeholder landscapes to rural communities — our work creates the conditions for people to slow down and reconnect with what holds meaning. What is moving? What matters here? What are we noticing together?
Singing to saplings
We invite story-telling and valuing of stories, a young woman, named Kim spoke about singing to saplings as she tends to them. This widened our perspectives into conversations about our relationship with plants, the land, attention, and creative expression.
Community hosting
A significant part of our work is designing processes where people learn to host conversations in their own locality, and in ways that make sense to their lived context. Hosting, and peer learning is central to our work.
Place: Tsitsikamma
Photo Credit: GIZ ABioSA, Brett Eloff
Cultivating Wisdom
Cultivating Wisdom through Hosting, Peer Learning and Apprenticing
We begin with humility: we do not arrive with the answers — or even the questions.
We find the questions with the people who live the reality.
In the spirit of Ausbildung — a way of learning through doing that reshapes how a person sees the world — we design processes that support these learning principles. Perspectives soften and widen. People discover they can hold the tensions of their world with greater coherence and care.
Friends of honeybush
Across contexts — from large organisations, multi-stakeholder landscapes to rural communities — our work creates the conditions for people to slow down and reconnect with what holds meaning. What is moving? What matters here? What are we noticing together?
Singing to saplings
We invite story-telling and valuing of stories, a young woman, named Kim spoke about singing to saplings as she tends to them. This widened our perspectives into conversations about our relationship with plants, the land, attention, and creative expression.
Community hosting
A significant part of our work is designing processes where people learn to host conversations in their own locality, and in ways that make sense to their lived context. Hosting, and peer learning is central to our work.
Place: Tsitsikamma
Photo Credit: GIZ ABioSA, Brett Eloff
Knowledge and Communication Flows
Stewarding Knowledge: A relational approach to emergence and useful form
Knowledge is something living
Knowledge moves — it gathers, drifts, settles, and re-forms. We work with it in many shapes: conversation, imagery, music, and words — each opening a different way of experiencing.
This includes the long arc of history, indigenous knowing, and the grounded understanding held in local contexts.
Working with what emerges
We go out to find the questions. They reveal themselves in context, in relationships, and in the grounded knowing people already carry.
Stories — personal, communal, ecological, economical — are treated as living. They shift with conditions, carry memory, and help us sense what matters.
Our communication stays warm, invitational, and close to lived experience.
Helping knowledge travel further
We take time to review what has emerged, so the knowledge can keep moving. Many things hold brilliance but remain hard to use or pass on — even when written or translated into tools.
We help shape what is learned into forms that can travel: practical enough to apply, engaging enough to stay alive, and clear enough to diffuse into wider practice without losing their texture or meaning.
Knowledge and Communication Flows
Stewarding Knowledge: A relational approach to emergence and useful form
Knowledge is something living
Knowledge moves — it gathers, drifts, settles, and re-forms. We work with it in many shapes: conversation, imagery, music, and words — each opening a different way of experiencing.
This includes the long arc of history, indigenous knowing, and the grounded understanding held in local contexts.
Working with what emerges
We go out to find the questions. They reveal themselves in context, in relationships, and in the grounded knowing people already carry.
Stories — personal, communal, ecological, economical — are treated as living. They shift with conditions, carry memory, and help us sense what matters.
Our communication stays warm, invitational, and close to lived experience.
Helping knowledge travel further
We take time to review what has emerged, so the knowledge can keep moving. Many things hold brilliance but remain hard to use or pass on — even when written or translated into tools.
We help shape what is learned into forms that can travel: practical enough to apply, engaging enough to stay alive, and clear enough to diffuse into wider practice without losing their texture or meaning.
Copyrights 2025 | InnovationCircle Consulting Africa (Pty) Ltd and Quiet Insight LLC.
Copyrights 2025 | InnovationCircle Consulting Africa (Pty) Ltd and Quiet Insight LLC.