pierce otlhogile-gordon, ph.d.

I ignite the spark for social change world builders.

portfolio.

Dr. Pierce Otlhogile-Gordon guides changemakers + communities to reach professional and personal goals of system change across the many borders of the human condition.He aligns the disciplines of innovation practice, evaluation capacity building, systems thinking, international development, speculative futures, towards issues of polycrisis. Whether at community or national scopes, for philanthropic, for-profit, non-profit, or academic sectors, each resource he's built - research, designs, education - synthesizes the creative impulse to build a more just, resilient, and communal global collective.Across time and place, his work shares one principle:

to orchestrate the spread of agency and creativity across the world.

I like defining my work in three separate buckets:

knowledge architecture,
community weaving, and
systems innovation.

KNOWLEDGE ARCHITECTURE.

Making learning matter.It's a fancy phrase for building curated tools, resources, and programs to create and use practical wisdom.As a researcher, evaluator, and education designer, if a changemaking organization's looking to answer a question, understand a complicated topic, or build courses, programs, and infrastructure to practically act out those insights, I'm prepared to serve.

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COMMUNITY WEAVING.

Building care into practicality.It's a buzzword I use to talk about the hard work of building meaningful connections from complex relationships.Many organizations overuse the phrase 'community' to wash their dominating influence on a large group of folks: sometimes a user population, or a stakeholder collective, or even more-than-human beings. Instead, 'weaving' requires building trust with others to find ways to act together in deeply aligned, possibly unexpected ways.

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SYSTEMS INNOVATION.

Social Judo. Ecological Acupuncture.It's about finding innovative ways to move today's mountains with detailed, strategic effort.Our world is made entirely of systems: smaller actors, connecting with each other for survival and support. (Take, for example: your brain. Your food system. Where our data in the 'cloud' is uploaded.) Instead of only mapping without action, or building without mapping consequences, Systems Innovation marries two worlds of learning and making, while finding leverage points to turn oppressive systems into healthier relationships.

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"We are a community of possibilities."- Peter Block

in the wild.

I primarily work with organizations that center changemakers in their work:

technological innovators,
movement organizers,
political professionals,
social entrepreneurs,
futurist artists,

and the ecosystems that ensure they thrive.

Book an appointment with Dr. Pierce Otlhogile-Gordon using Setmore

"Pierce is a master facilitator with a keen eye for systems thinking, design justice, and all things equity."- Fiona M., Cybersecurity Expert

as seen in:

"One of the things that I admire more about Dr. Gordon is his ability to do deep dives into the most complex and complicated data and information, expound thoughtfully with the most strategic thinkers, AND rollup his sleeves and do dirty work with the team..."- Dr. Chris J., Executive | Innovator | Politician

$z\topia$

"Dr. Pierce has the uncanny and uncommon ability to see both the bigger picture and the minute connections in a complex system. This allows him to develop some of the most innovative solutions to complex social problems. "- Dr. Amod Z., Conservation Ecologist

However, my audience isn't limited by industry, financial structure, vision, or work outcome.In fact, the most valuable work - similar to following evolutionary principles - happens when these types of organizations work together.Instead, I'm focused on partners that share my values:

Helping people who help people.
Building alternatives that make the world better.
Intent on using and sharing collective intelligence.
Accountable for the consequences of their actions.

I'm building curated social change education.
where should we start?

Your library.

If you want a curated library of hundreds of free social change knowledge resources, including:inspiration,
tools,
research,
examples,
community,
and more,click here.

Note: the lists look much better on a laptop.Scroll through. See something new.

Full List

your strategic guide.

Building learning experiences, journeys, and communityis difficult.I can help you find your way forward:building
provoking experiences,
community-centered infrastructure,
and adaptive paths for vigorous innovators.Ready to build learning together?

LEARN SOCIAL CHANGE.

How to organize your social change education in a sea of information chaos.

If you want:a CLEAR STRATEGIC PLAN for learning any social change topic...
a CURATED VISION for building "knowledge power", and
PRODUCTIVE ESSENTIAL TOOLS to organize your research content:this is the course for you.

LEARN MORE

digital bookstore.

These books changed my life.Note: These lead to affiliate links.

As an eternal student compelled by the intersection of liberation and transformation, I've been blessed to teach design, evaluation, international development, and equity across the globe.The core resource that made all of this possible?these books.This canon has offered me direction, solace, critique, concern, inspiration, and questions about how to build a better future.I pray they help you as well.

get books

the friendmaking laboratory.

relearn how to build social health,
one innovator at a time,no matter the people, place, or thing
poisoning the community.

meet us

For generations,
our society has been destroying our ability to
care about each other.

Are you a part of a broken community?Surface-level relationships?
Dying culture?
Stuck in a Rut?
Insurmountable conflict?
A dying influx of engagement?Do you need help solving the problem?

healing a community
means you work to cultivate it.

meet us

We're a community of community builders.

What brings you here? Likely, it's that your comunity feels:

desperate or lonely or curious or apathetic or aimless or raw or unheard or uncertain or disconnected or in a rut or hostile or endangered or confused or selfish or without impact or hazardous or chaotic or disemowering or unhealthy or unhealthy or unhealthy or unhealthy or unhealthy.

This is a space where we diagnose, and skillbuild, the community solution.

Bad Cultural Infrastructure.Wrong Community Maturity.Apathetic Villagers.Unsolid Glue.

Once you know, your community can grow.

All by starting here.

this space
reskills
social health.

who's teaching this?

I'm Dr. Pierce Otlhogile-Gordon.For over a decade, I've been guiding changemakers, organizations and communities to shift change across the world.A few partners:

This worldwide work taught me three core insights:

anyone can be a changemaker.

It’s less a personality trait than a personal commitment: a person that sees a systemic problem in the world - mangrove restoration, digital labor unions, Smart Irrigation algorithms for agriculture - and much more - and feel personally compelled to address it.

Unhealthy communities are everywhere.

Many times, in fact, the reason why these worldbuilders fail is because they don’t have the community that leverages the support they need. You’d be amazed how much financial and relational energy it takes to birth new worlds.

we need you - yes, you -
to heal our social fabric,
one community at a time.

It doesn't take a local celebrity.
It doesn't take a PhD-level expert.
It doesn't take a sexy new idea.With the right skills, and the right labor,
you're the perfect person to cultivate the
social bonds our world needs.

are you the right person?

But maybe you need a bit of convincing.
That's alright, I did too.Let me see if I can see where you're coming from.You're perfect for this role if any of these thoughts apply to you:Caustic and apathetic relationships are unbearable. Wether online, in political spaces, at work, in everyday environments - and you know there's a different way to live.Control isn't the goal. You don't want to control your village. Instead, you want everyone to grab onto their own power - including you.Knowledge isn't enough. No amount of scrolling, buying
You've been looking for a place to put in the practice.Your current villages feel... imbalanced. You can sense something isn't healthy in your communities, but you're not sure where to start.This working webinar, then, is exactly the diagnosis you need.

What do you get out of this workshop?

We understand; most people use 'community' as a catch-all for solutioning our problems. Thta's our first mistake.Communities aren't the same. They have different cultures, different relationships, different collective stories and different reasons to connect. It doesn't make sense, then, to believe that every friendmaker should offer their communities the same salve.Instead, this space is focused on being specific.
So let's be clear about what this webinar offers:A curated diagnosis for your unhealthy community.A skill-building scaffold.A work plan for you, the committed social innovator.A model for evaluating social proof.

The offer, in this webinar,
is a path for friendmaking.,
and a friend ready to walk with you on the journey.

frequently asked questions:

our communities needed us yesterday.
let's start healing them today.

meet us

Ever heard the phrase,DO YOUR RESEARCH?

Of course you have.Tell me if this sounds like you:"My world is in chaos.
I NEED to to know more about how to change it.
so I want to learn about...*

disability rights or genocide or anti-racism or feminism or environmentalism or prison-industrial complex or surveillance capitalism or worker's rights or healthcare access or wage inequality or reproductive rights or queer rights or climate justice or artificial intelligence or housing crises or educational disparities or refugee rights or global unemployment or local unemployment or political apathy or police brutality or sexual assault or food inequality or work corruption or mental health crisis or economic resilience or minimal economic opportunities or community destruction or cultural genocide or public safety or more...

Everything is available online, right? So why does your learning feel so aimless?

Because these obstacles are ALSO online:

MISINFORMATION and INFINITE SCROLLING and PROPAGANDA and DATA VOIDS and OBFUSCATED VISIONS and the MEDIA CULTURE and $200 DATES and ALT-RIGHT and DISRUPTIVE PATTERNS and JOURNALISTIC DEFUNDING and NARRATIVE WARFARE and more...

we are
disorganized data consumers
in crisis.

It's never been more dangerous - or more necessary - to learn about pressing problems.To incite change, we have to know the scope, scale, and nature of these problems. We have to learn from experts, to figure out what we can actually affect, and figure out how to stay human in the process.But, you're powerless when you can't STRATEGICALLY ORGANIZE your learning.

That's what this course is for.

LEARN SOCIAL CHANGE 101.

ENROLL

Ask yourself:

WHY ARE YOU LEARNING?WHAT ISSUE DO YOU CHOOSE?HOW DO YOU START LEARNING?WHO DO YOU LEARN FROM?WHEN SHOULD YOU LEARN?

Professional learners:
researchers, professors, students, activists, organizers, writers,have made learning into a STRATEGY.Together, we can organize your learning journey, to make sure you can DO SOMETHING about our collective polycrisis, starting with organizing your learning journey.

BUILD THE SKILL OF LEARNING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE.

This is a course for:
the humble,
the passionate,
the scholar activist.

If you want help organizing your learning journey
into a practical strategy vision for effecting change,apply below.

APPLY