Mack Integrated Strategies

02/13/2026

Lessons from the trail on Organizational Development.

02/12/2026

More info coming soon…
I’m SO excited! 🤗

02/05/2026

Many leaders are going through a lot right now. If that's you, I highly encourage you to come to our free facilitated conversation next Wednesday!
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/zpGDslKqR3K474_Z9iNnRw #/registration

01/28/2026

Leaders across the country are carrying so much more than budgets and strategic plans right now. Many are carrying a trembling nervous system. Many look around and quietly wonder if they are the right person to lead in a moment like this. It can feel impossible to steady your own reactions to what is happening in our communities and still offer guidance to a team.

Even more, the outlook has shifted for many. The future is obscure and deeply heavy. When the path is unclear, the mind pushes for certainty. The body asks for breath.

This is where I return to the living world and to original cultures that have walked through hard seasons before. Times like these are not new. Survival and resistance are not new either. Life keeps teaching, we are part of an ecosystem that endures through relationships, reciprocity, and care.

This moment calls for two movements. Quick responses that protect people and stand for what is right. Slow rooting that keeps your leadership human. Both are necessary. One without the other burns us out or lets us drift.

If you are leading right now, tend to your inner ground. Name what is true. Ask for help. Notice the season you are in, not the one you wish you were in. Move with rhythm you can sustain, not the pace that fear demands.

What would change if your next decision came from a rooted place in you, not from urgency alone?

If you would like coaching support in these times, I am here to help you slow down, see the patterns, and lead with rhythm and presence. We are not meant to go it alone.

01/23/2026

When the air feels charged, presence is the first act of care. Here is a simple practice I give to leaders who carry responsibility for others. It helps you slow the system, sense the moment, and take a step you can stand behind tomorrow.

90-Second Grounding Check-In
1. Pause, three slow breaths. In for four, out for six.
2. Orient, name three things you see, two you hear, one you feel in your body.
3. Root, both feet on the floor. Ask, What matters most here. What can wait.
4. Choose, name one next step you can take with care. Schedule or delegate the rest.

Use it before a tough conversation or a complex decision. If it helps, add a quick seasonal check.
Winter, rest and reflection. Spring, planting and intention. Summer, tending and feedback. Autumn, harvest and gratitude. Align expectations with the season you are actually in.

What is the smallest step that would lower the temperature in your ecosystem right now?

01/21/2026

Many people in Minnesota are moving through another heavy week. There is grief and anger in the air, and there is also a deep call to protect one another. Leaders across the state, formal and informal, are being asked to help communities navigate stress without losing our shared humanity.

In times like this, I return to a simple truth. Leadership is a living practice. It grows in relationship, not isolation. It takes its cues from the ecosystem around it.

Living systems show us how to lead here. Slow down enough to sense the environment. Cultivate conditions for what you want to bring into the world. Honor interdependence and work in community.

If you carry responsibility this week, try this rhythm.
Pause. Listen for what is true and what is tender.
Name the boundaries required to stay sustainable.
Invite the right voices to the table, especially those closest to harm.
Take the next right step.

Winter teaches patience in Minnesota. It is the time of year that can hold multiple truths at the same time. The sunshine was beautiful yesterday, and it was -25F. May we lead with that kind of expansiveness.

A quiet question to end. What conditions can you tend today that help your part of the ecosystem evolve?

01/09/2026

As a Minnesota-based business that is values-driven and community-rooted, I cannot stay silent.

Our communities are grieving. Many are afraid. Many are angry. I am holding all of that with care.

Leadership is a living practice. In extraordinarily difficult seasons, we must slow down and move together as a community.

If you are leading in social justice, a nonprofit, human services, or any work that intersects with this pain, I am offering a free coaching session. Use it to steady yourself, make a difficult decision, care for your team, or tend your own rhythm. Coaching is not therapy. In times like this, both may be needed.

If this would help you or your team, message me directly or email me.

In solidarity for peace, for liberation, and for a world free from violence and oppression.
Jason

Send a message to learn more

12/18/2025

Solstice practice for leaders and teams

We are entering a liminal weekend. On Sunday at 9:03 a.m. Central, the sun reaches its southernmost point. The days begin to lengthen, though our eyes will not notice it yet.

Living systems use winter for restoration. Leaders can do the same. Try this 25-minute solstice practice with your team before you break for the holidays:

1. Arrive
Two minutes of quiet. Let everyone breathe.

2. Name the season
Each person shares one sentence: What part of our work is resting, what part is quietly forming.

3. Compost
Together, write down three practices or projects to release. Thank them for what they taught, then let them go.

4. Keep the ember
Name three values or patterns to carry into the new year. One sentence each.

5. Set a gentle cadence
Agree on the first meaningful check-in date of January, and what will make that conversation restorative, not rushed.

No grand declarations. No sprint. Just rhythm, presence, and renewal.

What would be possible if your organization honored winter on purpose, and trusted light to return in its own time?

12/16/2025

This is the darkest stretch of the year. It is also when next year quietly takes shape. The sun will turn this weekend at the winter solstice, then light will begin to return, slowly at first. In Minnesota, we will not feel it for a few weeks.

In times like this, roles get fuzzy. People take on more than they can carry. Energy scatters.
Leadership is a living practice, not a performance. Role clarity is part of how we tend the ecosystem.

Here is a simple midwinter check for you and your team:

Purpose
What is the work this role exists to do, right now, in this season?

Care and Boundaries
What does this role protect, and what does it release?

Commitments
What three outcomes matter most through February?

Cadence
What rhythms, meetings, and decisions belong to this role, and which do not?

Support
What nourishment does this role need to stay steady, and who provides it?

Use it in a 30-minute conversation. One role at a time. Write what is true, not what sounds good.

Clarity in winter is like a lantern on a trail. It does not make the night go away. It helps you move with confidence.

What would change for your team if each person carried this kind of clarity into January?