Weaving Everyday Insights into Meaningful Change
We collaborate with organizations, partnerships, and communities to transform everyday insights into collective wisdom and shape strategies to bring a more just and positive world into being.
At Optimistic Anthropology, we collaborate with organizations, partnerships, and communities to transform individuals’ every day insights into a group’s collective wisdom. We help you envision the more just and positive world you’re trying to create, and co-develop and try out strategies to help bring that vision into being.
Our Offerings
As anthropologists, facilitators, emergent learners, and systems changemakers with experience working in multiple sectors, here are the ways we can work together:
Developing Emergent Learning Cultures & Strategies.
In a busy and rapidly changing world, individuals and groups are always learning. Yet they often struggle to share, make meaning of, and integrate insights so they generate collective wisdom and more effective strategies. We partner with teams to build cultures of curiosity and real-time learning that navigate complexity for meaningful social change.
Starting with your existing strengths, we help evolve your team's mindsets, skillsets, and heartsets. Together, we co-create processes that enable everyone to adapt strategy as conditions change—unlocking your group's full potential for creating a more just and equitable world.
Developing Emergent Learning Cultures & Strategies.
In a busy and rapidly changing world, individuals and groups are always learning. Yet they often struggle to share, make meaning of, and integrate insights so they generate collective wisdom and more effective strategies. We partner with teams to build cultures of curiosity and real-time learning that navigate complexity for meaningful social change.
Starting with your existing strengths, we help evolve your team's mindsets, skillsets, and heartsets. Together, we co-create processes that enable everyone to adapt strategy as conditions change—unlocking your group's full potential for creating a more just and equitable world.
Developing Emergent Learning Cultures & Strategies.
In a busy and rapidly changing world, individuals and groups are always learning. Yet they often struggle to share, make meaning of, and integrate insights so they generate collective wisdom and more effective strategies. We partner with teams to build cultures of curiosity and real-time learning that navigate complexity for meaningful social change.
Starting with your existing strengths, we help evolve your team's mindsets, skillsets, and heartsets. Together, we co-create processes that enable everyone to adapt strategy as conditions change—unlocking your group's full potential for creating a more just and equitable world.
Designing & Facilitating Learning Experiences
For people, communities, and organizations to thrive, they need intentional learning spaces that expand understanding and illuminate new possibilities for change. We create generative workshops, learning communities, and leadership programs that build meaningful connections among participants.
Our carefully designed experiences can help deepen understanding of dynamic issues, communities, and systems—helping diverse groups develop the collective wisdom needed to navigate change together.
Designing & Facilitating Learning Experiences
For people, communities, and organizations to thrive, they need intentional learning spaces that expand understanding and illuminate new possibilities for change. We create generative workshops, learning communities, and leadership programs that build meaningful connections among participants.
Our carefully designed experiences can help deepen understanding of dynamic issues, communities, and systems—helping diverse groups develop the collective wisdom needed to navigate change together.
Designing & Facilitating Learning Experiences
For people, communities, and organizations to thrive, they need intentional learning spaces that expand understanding and illuminate new possibilities for change. We create generative workshops, learning communities, and leadership programs that build meaningful connections among participants.
Our carefully designed experiences can help deepen understanding of dynamic issues, communities, and systems—helping diverse groups develop the collective wisdom needed to navigate change together.
Dialoguing as an Independent Learning Partner
Leaders and small teams often need a trusted outside perspective to enhance their work. As your Independent Learning Partner, we serve as a thoughtful sounding board, asking powerful questions that clarify thinking, unlock new possibilities, and illuminate paths forward.
Our collaborative dialogue helps you transform everyday insights into actionable wisdom for navigating complexity.
Dialoguing as an Independent Learning Partner
Leaders and small teams often need a trusted outside perspective to enhance their work. As your Independent Learning Partner, we serve as a thoughtful sounding board, asking powerful questions that clarify thinking, unlock new possibilities, and illuminate paths forward.
Our collaborative dialogue helps you transform everyday insights into actionable wisdom for navigating complexity.
Dialoguing as an Independent Learning Partner
Leaders and small teams often need a trusted outside perspective to enhance their work. As your Independent Learning Partner, we serve as a thoughtful sounding board, asking powerful questions that clarify thinking, unlock new possibilities, and illuminate paths forward.
Our collaborative dialogue helps you transform everyday insights into actionable wisdom for navigating complexity.
Delivering Workshops & Webinars
Organizations tackling complex social challenges require engaging and accessible entry points to powerful frameworks and methodologies that can transform their approach. Without structured opportunities to explore and apply concepts like Emergent Learning, teams often remain stuck in conventional thinking patterns that limit their impact.
We offer a suite of engaging workshops, webinars, and series on specialized topics including Emergent Learning, Theory of Change for Systems Transformation, and Multi-Sector Partnerships for Social Change. Each offering can be thoughtfully tailored to your specific audience and learning goals, creating opportunities for collective discovery and practical application.
Delivering Workshops & Webinars
Organizations tackling complex social challenges require engaging and accessible entry points to powerful frameworks and methodologies that can transform their approach. Without structured opportunities to explore and apply concepts like Emergent Learning, teams often remain stuck in conventional thinking patterns that limit their impact.
We offer a suite of engaging workshops, webinars, and series on specialized topics including Emergent Learning, Theory of Change for Systems Transformation, and Multi-Sector Partnerships for Social Change. Each offering can be thoughtfully tailored to your specific audience and learning goals, creating opportunities for collective discovery and practical application.
Delivering Workshops & Webinars
Organizations tackling complex social challenges require engaging and accessible entry points to powerful frameworks and methodologies that can transform their approach. Without structured opportunities to explore and apply concepts like Emergent Learning, teams often remain stuck in conventional thinking patterns that limit their impact.
We offer a suite of engaging workshops, webinars, and series on specialized topics including Emergent Learning, Theory of Change for Systems Transformation, and Multi-Sector Partnerships for Social Change. Each offering can be thoughtfully tailored to your specific audience and learning goals, creating opportunities for collective discovery and practical application.
Want to explore working together?
Want to explore working together?
Want to explore working together?
About Our Founder
Hi, I’m Alison Gold — Chief Optimistic Anthropologist, travel-enthusiast, amateur baker, and someone who believes that systems can change when we learn together. I founded Optimistic Anthropology in 2017 to bring my work and educational background -- as an anthropologist, emergent learner, systems-changemaker, and community-weaver -- to organizations and collaborations wanting to partner with a consultant who will co-create and facilitate processes and strategies to enable the creation of a more just and positive world.
Over the years, I’ve worked across philanthropy, government, and nonprofits in the U.S. And now my consulting practice (and life) enables me to work internationally, too. This gives me the chance to learn about and explore connections across seemingly disparate areas of social change—from nuclear threat reduction to health inequity, genocide prevention to urban poverty. I consistently see common threads across these fields of work that I believe can help changemakers better understand how systems and institutions and communities came to face the challenges they do, and how people can collaborate and learn together to bring a different world into being.
A Little Birdie Told Us…
Read what some of our clients, collaborators, and colleagues have to say about working with Optimistic Anthropology and our founder. To make this section a bit more fun, we've illustrated the testimonials with photos of birds. Alison took all these snaps during her travels.
"Alison's ability to foster trust, ask thoughtful questions, stretch teams, and deliver content in ways that resonate deeply make her an invaluable partner to our team!"
Alison has been a trusted collaborator to the ASU Foundation since 2021... [serving] as an integral thought partner on shaping the [Moonshot Accelerator] program as it supports ASU faculty and staff to develop better, big ideas and position themselves for philanthropic funding...Alison brings a rare and powerful blend of personal lived experience and diverse professional expertise to her work.
She leads with warmth and curiosity, and has an exceptional ability to make meaningful connections–both across ideas and among people from different backgrounds and disciplines. Her relational approach allows her to build trust with teams, an essential ingredient when pushing faculty outside of their traditional academic comfort zone
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Executive Director Moonshot and Science Philanthropy
Program Manager, Arizona State University Foundation
"Alison's ability to foster trust, ask thoughtful questions, stretch teams, and deliver content in ways that resonate deeply make her an invaluable partner to our team!"
Alison has been a trusted collaborator to the ASU Foundation since 2021... [serving] as an integral thought partner on shaping the [Moonshot Accelerator] program as it supports ASU faculty and staff to develop better, big ideas and position themselves for philanthropic funding...Alison brings a rare and powerful blend of personal lived experience and diverse professional expertise to her work.
She leads with warmth and curiosity, and has an exceptional ability to make meaningful connections–both across ideas and among people from different backgrounds and disciplines. Her relational approach allows her to build trust with teams, an essential ingredient when pushing faculty outside of their traditional academic comfort zone
Executive Director Moonshot and Science Philanthropy
Program Manager, Arizona State University Foundation
"Alison's ability to foster trust, ask thoughtful questions, stretch teams, and deliver content in ways that resonate deeply make her an invaluable partner to our team!"
Alison has been a trusted collaborator to the ASU Foundation since 2021... [serving] as an integral thought partner on shaping the [Moonshot Accelerator] program as it supports ASU faculty and staff to develop better, big ideas and position themselves for philanthropic funding...Alison brings a rare and powerful blend of personal lived experience and diverse professional expertise to her work.
She leads with warmth and curiosity, and has an exceptional ability to make meaningful connections–both across ideas and among people from different backgrounds and disciplines. Her relational approach allows her to build trust with teams, an essential ingredient when pushing faculty outside of their traditional academic comfort zone
Executive Director Moonshot and Science Philanthropy
Program Manager, Arizona State University Foundation
"Alison took the time to understand our context and needs, and supported us to design a system that fits how we work. It is practical, flexible, and helps us reflect and learn together as a team."
At RFSU’s International Unit, we wanted to build a learning system that could help us understand what’s happening across our work, as it happens. We were looking for a way to collect ideas, experiences, and changes from different parts of our work, make sense of them together, and use what we learn to strengthen and adapt our strategy in real time, so we can respond more effectively and increase our impact.
Working with Alison Gold and Optimistic Anthropology to develop our Emergent Learning culture and strategy helped us turn that vision into something real and usable. She brought a mix of expertise, curiosity, and clarity that made the process feel both thoughtful and energizing. She also helped build our capacity so that we could keep using the approach and support others in our team to do the same.
On top of all that, Alison is simply great to work with. She is kind, collaborative, and highly professional. It felt like we were building something meaningful together.
Advisor for Design and Innovation, RFSU
"Alison took the time to understand our context and needs, and supported us to design a system that fits how we work. It is practical, flexible, and helps us reflect and learn together as a team."
At RFSU’s International Unit, we wanted to build a learning system that could help us understand what’s happening across our work, as it happens. We were looking for a way to collect ideas, experiences, and changes from different parts of our work, make sense of them together, and use what we learn to strengthen and adapt our strategy in real time, so we can respond more effectively and increase our impact.
Working with Alison Gold and Optimistic Anthropology to develop our Emergent Learning culture and strategy helped us turn that vision into something real and usable. She brought a mix of expertise, curiosity, and clarity that made the process feel both thoughtful and energizing. She also helped build our capacity so that we could keep using the approach and support others in our team to do the same.
On top of all that, Alison is simply great to work with. She is kind, collaborative, and highly professional. It felt like we were building something meaningful together.
Advisor for Design and Innovation, RFSU
"Alison took the time to understand our context and needs, and supported us to design a system that fits how we work. It is practical, flexible, and helps us reflect and learn together as a team."
At RFSU’s International Unit, we wanted to build a learning system that could help us understand what’s happening across our work, as it happens. We were looking for a way to collect ideas, experiences, and changes from different parts of our work, make sense of them together, and use what we learn to strengthen and adapt our strategy in real time, so we can respond more effectively and increase our impact.
Working with Alison Gold and Optimistic Anthropology to develop our Emergent Learning culture and strategy helped us turn that vision into something real and usable. She brought a mix of expertise, curiosity, and clarity that made the process feel both thoughtful and energizing. She also helped build our capacity so that we could keep using the approach and support others in our team to do the same.
On top of all that, Alison is simply great to work with. She is kind, collaborative, and highly professional. It felt like we were building something meaningful together.
Advisor for Design and Innovation, RFSU
"During our first meeting, Alison instinctively understood what we were doing at Destiny. She understood the importance of non-traditional, creative evaluation methodology that reflected the needs of an arts organization."
Destiny Arts Center worked with Optimistic Anthropology for 3 years... [partnering to] redo our Theory of Change and develop evaluation materials for two of our core programs. Alison also understood that the concept of evaluation can bring with it a great deal of mistrust and skepticism among staff and stakeholders.
While we had previously conducted evaluations, we didn't have a culture of learning and evaluation in the organization. It had been hard to find a partner that wanted to take the time to understand the work and culture of the org. Alison and her team spent a great deal of time learning about Destiny before they began working with us. They met with staff, teaching artists, parents, former participants, and Board members to try and really wrap our heads around their work. They worked with the directors of our performing arts and martial arts companies to try and understand all it is they are observing and supporting in the work with youth.
They took the time to learn about Destiny, our culture, language, and community and were incredibly responsive to our needs. They LISTENED and did not try to overlay language or approaches upon team members. This was critical in building TRUST, which was the foundation of our evaluation work. And as a result of the time they invested, they helped us grow and transition into an organization that deeply values and prioritizes evaluation. I highly recommend Optimistic Anthropology and would love to work with them again in the future.
Executive Director, Destiny Arts Center
"During our first meeting, Alison instinctively understood what we were doing at Destiny. She understood the importance of non-traditional, creative evaluation methodology that reflected the needs of an arts organization."
Destiny Arts Center worked with Optimistic Anthropology for 3 years... [partnering to] redo our Theory of Change and develop evaluation materials for two of our core programs. Alison also understood that the concept of evaluation can bring with it a great deal of mistrust and skepticism among staff and stakeholders.
While we had previously conducted evaluations, we didn't have a culture of learning and evaluation in the organization. It had been hard to find a partner that wanted to take the time to understand the work and culture of the org. Alison and her team spent a great deal of time learning about Destiny before they began working with us. They met with staff, teaching artists, parents, former participants, and Board members to try and really wrap our heads around their work. They worked with the directors of our performing arts and martial arts companies to try and understand all it is they are observing and supporting in the work with youth.
They took the time to learn about Destiny, our culture, language, and community and were incredibly responsive to our needs. They LISTENED and did not try to overlay language or approaches upon team members. This was critical in building TRUST, which was the foundation of our evaluation work. And as a result of the time they invested, they helped us grow and transition into an organization that deeply values and prioritizes evaluation. I highly recommend Optimistic Anthropology and would love to work with them again in the future.
Executive Director, Destiny Arts Center
"During our first meeting, Alison instinctively understood what we were doing at Destiny. She understood the importance of non-traditional, creative evaluation methodology that reflected the needs of an arts organization."
Destiny Arts Center worked with Optimistic Anthropology for 3 years... [partnering to] redo our Theory of Change and develop evaluation materials for two of our core programs. Alison also understood that the concept of evaluation can bring with it a great deal of mistrust and skepticism among staff and stakeholders.
While we had previously conducted evaluations, we didn't have a culture of learning and evaluation in the organization. It had been hard to find a partner that wanted to take the time to understand the work and culture of the org. Alison and her team spent a great deal of time learning about Destiny before they began working with us. They met with staff, teaching artists, parents, former participants, and Board members to try and really wrap our heads around their work. They worked with the directors of our performing arts and martial arts companies to try and understand all it is they are observing and supporting in the work with youth.
They took the time to learn about Destiny, our culture, language, and community and were incredibly responsive to our needs. They LISTENED and did not try to overlay language or approaches upon team members. This was critical in building TRUST, which was the foundation of our evaluation work. And as a result of the time they invested, they helped us grow and transition into an organization that deeply values and prioritizes evaluation. I highly recommend Optimistic Anthropology and would love to work with them again in the future.
Executive Director, Destiny Arts Center