Zam Lab

Experiential learning from the inside out

Welcome to the lab!

What is possible when we can harness wisdom from all the ways we know? Namely, how can new information and new perspectives shift our awareness and what impact would that have on our decisions and actions as leaders, social innovators, and mission-driven teams? 

My curiosity is rooted in how we can use our wider ways of knowing to solve complex problems for leaders and organizations within the societal change context. This inquiry is inspired by, explores, or builds upon the following concepts and approaches. See the links below to learn more about these innovative tools and access resources — articles, case examples, and sample exercises. 

Articles

Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change

Ritter, L., & Zamierowski, N. (2021). Systems Sensing and Systemic Constellation for Organizational Transformation: Building Collective Capacity for Navigating Complexity. Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change, 1(2), 101–115. https://doi.org/10.47061/jabsc.v1i2.1181

https://jabsc.org/index.php/jabsc/article/view/1181

Forbes

From Polarities to Collaboration: Using our Wider Ways of Knowing as a Bridge

Blogs

Experiments with sensing, visualization and mapping

Featured
From one’s own volition
From one’s own volition

Inviting in and creating space for new opportunities

Honoring self in a major transition
Honoring self in a major transition

Creating a sense of security in self, when everything else feels new or uncertain

Making more aligned decisions
Making more aligned decisions

Building an inner navigational resource when the steps on one’s path are not clear.

Featured
A New Orientation
A New Orientation

Experimenting with an experiential map as a learning and integration tool

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Disarming a Critic
Disarming a Critic

Making visible and dismantling our self-limiting beliefs: How visual tools can assist us in unpacking and mitigating the influence of our mental structures.

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Schooling from Space and Time
Schooling from Space and Time

Rewiring patterns to let creativity flow. Lessons from the elements of space and time.

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Building the Capacity for “Being With”
Building the Capacity for “Being With”

An image became a teacher helping me cultivate a capacity to heal

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A Cross-section of a Present-moment Experience
A Cross-section of a Present-moment Experience

An “experience strata” and systems-sensing exploration through a moment of intensity. Also, an excuse to play with the metaphor of a geological map.

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Sensing into voice, power, and belonging
Sensing into voice, power, and belonging

The learning is in the experience itself.

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Facing Fear
right-brained-writing, experiential, painting, map, self-study
Facing Fear
right-brained-writing, experiential, painting, map, self-study

First experiments with “right-brained writing” while facing my fear of the unknown and confronting mental structures

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right-brained-writing, experiential, painting, map, self-study
Map 1. How to Cultivate the Richness of Experience.
right-brained-writing, inquiry, experiential, map, synapses, self-study
Map 1. How to Cultivate the Richness of Experience.
right-brained-writing, inquiry, experiential, map, synapses, self-study

The first experiential sensing bike ride map.

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right-brained-writing, inquiry, experiential, map, synapses, self-study
Zam Art in 2001
Zam Art in 2001

Zam, what did you use to paint?

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Systems Sensing examples

Featured
Alignment toward a shared vision
Alignment toward a shared vision

Aligning “the what” and “the how” of mission-driven work

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Leaving the known and navigating uncertainty
Leaving the known and navigating uncertainty

Purpose: Navigating the unknown and liminal space

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Designing in service of the whole
Designing in service of the whole

How to evolve with and for community members

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Featured
Aligning effort and purpose
Aligning effort and purpose

Align the day-to-day decision-making, practice, and progress in action with purpose.

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New orientations toward purpose
New orientations toward purpose

Gaining a sense of orientation and direction towards one’s purpose.

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Cultivating leadership and identifying future growth
Cultivating leadership and identifying future growth

Being and becoming: Cultivating your unique leadership style and deepening purpose-driven work

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Why the lab?

My interest and intention for the lab is to share what I’m testing and learning as an invitation to learn together. Specifically, the lab is a space to:

  • Is it safe to try? Can we experiment — with an adaptation or in a new context?

  • What can be observed? What is working? What can be further developed and refined? And what can we learn— individually and as a collective?

  • What are key insights and patterns that emerge? And across time? What is shared across different disciplines?

  • How can ways to activate our senses and other ways of knowing be more accessible and to more people? As this page generates shareable resources, I invite you to try and test things and see what works for you.

  • Sharing keeps me engaged and curious about what I’m learning, and how that might support growth and exploration for others. And by revealing a bit of my nerdy side with you, I hope to offer a conversation starter and an invitation to connect or collaborate.