Testimonials

/ Monica Worline
President and Founder
EnlivenWork /

I know Chris for his courageous experimentation with new forms of building community, engaging people in wise and measured risk-taking that reveals new horizons of connection. I have seen him exercise this gift in corporate boardrooms, community halls, and college classrooms with effects that are hard to believe until you experience them. Like a gifted potter, Chris works an idea from an unformed lump of clay into an increasingly clear, beautiful and potent vessel to carry just the right ideas, emotions, and sensations for building authentic human spaces.

/ Melissa Dawes Schmidt
Senior Director of Customer Insights,
Digital Experience
AutoDesk /

Our team engaged Chris to help us manage multiple changes in our organization and our team roles. We wanted a retreat experience that would reinforce our values, help us better navigate change from a role of proactive change agents, and communicate more effectively with each other and our internal client groups. Chris crafted an experience that exceeded our expectations. His creativity and thoughtful attention to detail shone through the entire day – the retreat venue, connection exercises, teaching of a consulting model, and more. Chris was a thoughtful and trusted partner. He “got” us and the retreat had a lasting impact on our team.

/ Tom Olenchock
Director, Talent Development
Silicon Valley Bank /

Working with Chris for the last 3 years has been AMAZING. It isn’t just his breadth of experiences and human approach to learning, but his personal approach toward collaboration. I often describe him as “making everyone around him a better person.” Chris has an uncanny ability to ask the right questions, coach others at the appropriate time, and be a guide during others. The products he created for us reflect this approach as they are human centered and targeted toward enabling others to be the best them possible. I look forward to all the opportunities I have to work with Chris!

/ Craig
Chief Financial Officer
A Private Foundation /

Perhaps one of your many gifts for which I have the greatest gratitude, has been your ability to evoke engagement from our foundation team. I don’t know of anyone else that has done so well at broad-based engagement at our organization. Being so well-attuned to our idiosyncratic dynamics. You have a knack for drawing people out.

/ Esther Kyte
Managing Director
Center for Positive Organizations
Ross School of Business /

Chris has been a trusted advisor for many years. He is particularly talented at taking research concepts and implementing them within organizations in a way that is accessible to leaders and leaves the organizations better than before. He helped us create a consortium for organizations and has taught CPO content in our courses and at multiple conferences. I can think of few people I feel more comfortable collaborating with than Chris.

/ Ellen LaPointe
Chief Executive Officer
Fenway Health /

Chris is, in a word, exquisite. He is a gentle, generous, and thoughtful leader and facilitator, and both a student and a master of human and organizational development. He has honed an extensive set of extraordinary skills and tools that he deploys masterfully to help individuals, groups, and organizations dig deep to get to the answers and outcomes they are seeking. Chris pays close attention to creating beautiful (yes, beautiful) environments that invite people to be present, take risks, and learn about themselves and each other. He approaches challenging situations with humility and curiosity, and he models that vulnerability and respect are powerful drivers of connection and impact.

/ Jason Marsh
Executive Director,
Greater Good Science Center
UC Berkeley /

We have had the pleasure of working with Chris on a number of projects and programs over the past decade: as a featured speaker at multiple Greater Good Science Center events, as a writer for our Greater Good magazine, and as a co-creator of an intensive retreat. All of that work benefited from Chris's practical wisdom, expert communication skills, and his wealth of experience fostering connection and collaboration within organizations. What has impressed us most is the deep thoughtfulness, care, and precision that he brings to everything that he does, making our partnerships deeply satisfying and rewarding.

/ Amy Lazarus
Founder and CEO
InclusionVentures /

It is a privilege to work with Chris. I have had the pleasure of strategizing and facilitating with Chris, and watching him deftly in action with clients. He is adept at reading the room in real time to know what to provide, pivot, and frame. He is skillful at navigating the politics inside and outside the room to ensure all voices feel heard and validated, and then he helps people arrive at the best decision for their context. Chris' calm and powerful presence changes the tone, tenor, and dynamic in the room in a way that invites people to rise to be the best of themselves. Chris listens deeply, builds trusting relationships, and facilitates challenging conversations to help people and organizations achieve their goals.

/ Joe Goode
Founder and Creative Director
Joe Goode Performance Group /

I first met Chris when he came to take a movement workshop with me. His humble presence, his appetite for knowledge, and his brilliant mind, made him stand out right away. I eventually invited him to be on my board of directors and he helped us in so many ways. He not only espouses the theories of making the workplace a better and healthier place to be, he actually embodies them. Chris always takes a very simple approach. He is direct without being judgmental or dismissive of anyone’s ideas or input. Chris does not use his knowledge as a weapon or a defensive tool. He carries it like a lamp, lighting the way for others and for himself.

/ Lisa Rock
Executive Director
Palo Alto Community Child Care /

When I first met Chris I knew we were about to embark on a great journey to take us closer to realizing our vision of a workplace that honors people for their contributions and strengths, rather than mistakes and problems. Every step of the way Chris was there for us, meeting us where we were, gently nudging us forward, and really listening to what we wanted. He never tried to foist his own vision on us; he sought to understand where we wanted to go and helped us build the foundation we needed. He helped give flight to our vision. When Chris met with our teams the response was profound. He just has this way of making you feel seen and heard – it can feel magical.

/ Janis Nakano-Spivak
CEO and Founder
BriteCatalyst /

I’ve enjoyed four decades of friendship, professional wisdom and business advisement from Chris Murchison. Many can reflect on his skill - transforming business cultures through his multi-dimensional, global and inclusive thinking. I am happy to testify to his unwavering core of creativity, intelligence and compassion. He brings knowledge, skills and experience so teams are able to quickly align, adjust and accelerate with more success, together.

/ Heather Corcoran
Managing Principal
Corcoran Leadership /

Chris is one of the most gifted OD consultants and facilitators I have ever had the good fortune work with. He has an incredible ability to listen deeply to a client's needs and create customized programs, designs, responses with what looks like ease (but it is the result of a lot of experience!). Chris rapidly develops trust across an organization because he is real, caring, generous and truly interested in the people and the organization he serves. And he is masterful in engaging executives and staff members in tough conversations, modelling the very behavior they need to emulate to get the results they desire.

/ Kameron Green
Vice President
Professional Learning and Communities
Southern California Grantmakers /

Excellence, brilliance, and efficiency are qualities that come to mind when I think of Chris. Our organization has benefited tremendously from an array of his facilitated programs including organizational and regional staff retreats, professional learning workshops, and management training. One of the things that I’ve appreciated most about working with Chris, aside from his extensive knowledge, is his ability to tailor his programs to meet our team’s unique needs and to push us to think more deeply and constructively about our internal strategies. He is a true professional who meets every task with unmatched quality and a smile. Chris continues to exceed our expectations in every way!

/ Kate Seely
Senior Director
Leadership, Culture and Community
Northern California Grantmakers /

It is an absolute pleasure and joy to work with Chris, especially when you engage him long-term and allow him to get to know you and your organization. Chris’s responses to the needs an organization experiences around culture, change, and staff development are extremely compassionate, strategic, empathetic, and inclusive. He always has multiple ideas to address one challenge, and is willing to spend the time necessary to find the best path forward. His ideas and approaches are creative; he always considers how different people learn and how to make the learning stick. Chris is one of those rare people in the world who loves the complexity of human dynamics and believes that the workplace can be a place of community, where everyone can thrive, be joyful, and do great work together. His work, and his being, make those possibilities a reality.