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Nancy White's passion is to help people connect through online and offline strategies. Born in California, with time in Pennsylvania, Sao Paulo Brazil, North Carolina and ending in Seattle, Washington, she loves learning something new every day.

Nancy is an online interaction designer, facilitator and coach for distributed communities of practice, online learning, distributed teams and online communities. She has a special interest in the NGO/NPO sector. Nancy blogs at http://www.fullcirc.com/ as well as teaches, presents and writes on online facilitation and interaction, social architecture and social media (http://www.fullcirc.com/community/communitymanual.htm). She is co-author with Etienne Wenger and John Smith of “Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities.” (http://www.technologyforcommunities.com).

Nancy confesses to online interaction, learning and chocolate addictions. She lives in Seattle with her husband and has two grown sons and granddaughter.

I’ve always been happiest when I’m learning, especially when it engages both my head and my heart. That may explain how I ended up with an undergraduate degree in drama and an MBA with an emphasis in finance.

I spent the first 17 years of my working life in software. I was a programmer, project manager, and a systems development manager. In 1993, I ran into “emergent change processes”. They engage the people of a system in addressing what matters to them. Working with processes and people appealed to the part of me that found software wasn’t enough. After experimenting with these processes in corporate settings, in 1996, I left organizational life to consult and pursue my quest to understand what made emergent change processes effective.

That first foray led to The Change Handbook (1999), co-edited with Tom Devane. The book, considered the “bible” for the field, provided 18 methodologies for engaging whole systems.

In addition to corporate clients, my consulting practice attracted government and nonprofits that wanted to engage civil society to find answers to complex questions.

In 2001, I joined three journalists to co-found Journalism that Matters (JTM). We bring together pioneers in the throes of emergence, as providing news and information experiences a death and re-birth. Working with such upheaval requires both head and heart!

In 2004, with social philosopher, Tom Atlee, and “evolutionary evangelist”, Michael Dowd, I co-hosted an “Evolutionary Salon” – a gathering of scientists, spiritual leaders, and social activists to explore the implications of evolutionary emergence on human systems. After four salons, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation funded Tom and me in developing a model of evolution centered on the role of interaction. It deepened my understanding of emergence and convinced me there was something important to share.

Joined by Steven Cady, the second edition of The Change Handbook was published in 2007. Because the field has exploded, the book included over 60 methodologies. That growth inspired me to dive into the deeper patterns of these methods and connect them with a theory of emergence to create my latest book -- Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity.

Bill Adams is the CEO of The Leadership Circle and the Full Circle Group. Bill has an uncanny way of bringing clarity and wisdom that distills moments of truth, creates solid direction, and builds confidence as he creates lifelong relationships and friendships with his clients. He is extensively sought out as a trusted advisor to CEO's, top executives and teams around the world. Being passionate about relationships, leadership, and business, Bill has devoted the past 35 years to supporting leaders through complex business challenges. He is known for successfully partnering with leaders to unlock breakthrough performance, develop deep leadership capability and produce systemic, transformational business results. His clients range from Fortune 500 corporations to start-ups across multiple industries.

Bill sits on numerous boards in the for-profit, education, and non-profit worlds. A serial entrepreneur, he has started, sold, and merged multiple businesses. In 1991 his consulting firm, Maxcomm, Inc., received the Small Business of the Year Award and in 2015, The Leadership Circle and Full Circle Group earned first place in the Large Leadership Partner and Provider category of the HR.com 2015 Leadership 500 Awards.

With a passion for creating a world of work where people thrive, Bill teaches and applies time-proven principles that translate into bottom line results, effective organizations, and personal fulfillment. His keen focus on external business drivers, combined with a whole systems approach for evolving internal business systems, creates cultures where people are committed to investing their discretionary energy, while assuming personal responsibility for the results they produce. Bill authored The Whole Systems Approach: Involving Everyone in the Company to Transform and Run Your Business (with his wife and co-author, Cynthia Adams), The Quest for Quality: Prescriptions for Achieving Service Excellence (with co-authors Phil Wexler and Emil Bohn), and Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results (with co-author Robert J. Anderson). He and Cindy contributed to two editions of The Change Handbook: Group Methods for Shaping the Future (Peggy Holman and Tom Devane), and he contributed to Managing Quality in America's Most Admired Companies (Jay Spechler). Bill has also led the joint venture conferences - Self-Organizing Systems: The New Science of ParticipationTM - with Meg Wheatley.

Bill holds a Master's Degree in Interpersonal and Organizational Communication from the University of Montana. Bill and his wife Cindy make their home in the mountains of northern Utah. The two are most at home in the outdoors, working with youth leadership and spending time with their four children and a growing crew of grandchildren.