Author Archive for: Abby Straus

Abby is a pioneer in the field of strategy and leadership for complex environments. She partners with individuals, communities and organization systems as a facilitator, workshop leader and coach, helping people develop plans of action and methods of interaction to collectively create a more successful future.

Organizations that have benefited through collaboration with Abby include the Cleveland Clinic, General Dynamics, Petrobras, the International Center for Complex Project Management, the State of Vermont, Defense Acquisition University, Canadian National Defense, the American International School of Rotterdam and the New Jersey State Library.

Abby has co-developed a cadre of practical, systems-based tools that support her clients in proactively leveraging possibility and creating their preferred futures in the midst of complexity, ambiguity and rapid change. With Maverick & Boutique partner, John Findlay, she has developed applications of the science of complexity that provide both a context and processes for innovation and collaboration across the boundaries of professional disciplines, world views, cultures and organizational structures.

She holds a BA in cultural anthropology and a master’s degree in divinity and works with a number of tools including Polarity Thinking and the PACT™ Assessment for Continuity and Change, Appreciative Inquiry, the Leadership Circle Profile 360 and Culture Survey and Maverick & Boutique’s Complexity Model of Change. Abby serves as a board member of the Northeast Economic Developers Association.

She is the proud mother of a twenty-three-year-old son, an avid yoga practitioner and musician. She lives in the Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts.