You and I are Waysfinders

Allow me to help you make sense of the complex situations you face. Let me be your thinking partner to co-create fit-for-context and fit-for-purpose enabling processes for your organisation in the midst of volatility and uncertainty. Let's navigate this.

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Why I do what I do

I firmly believe that for interventions to be sustainable, internal capacity needs to be built inside an organisation. I engage with clients as strategic partners – collaborating and co-creating rather than consulting or ‘doing unto’.

The best way to describe how I work is with a cooking analogy: If we were in a predictable and ordered world where the challenges we face have all succesfully been dealt with by someone else, we could, like a cook, follow a tested and tried recipe. However, organisational contexts are anything but predictable, and many of you find yourselves in uncharted territory.

I enable organisations to be like chefs: Empowered to improvise, innovate and create your own unique signature dishes. I partner with you to enable your understanding of the principles of cooking e.g. knowing which flavours go well together, which cooking methods are suitable to which contexts. You are therefore able to adapt to every unique context and emerge your own fit-for-purpose solutions. Let's find your ways.

What I do

I help people in organisations make sense of complex situations in their specific context. I make important, but sometimes hard-to-understand, concepts practical and accessible. From organisational development to change and leadership – from learning journeys through speaking engagements to bespoke consulting engagements and workshops, you can engage with me as a thinking partner in various ways.

Click the button below for more information on the ways I can help you navigate the seas of uncertainty. And thrive.

More about the things I do

My work philosophy

Organisations are complex adaptive systems, more similar to ecologies than to machines or organisms. This requires us to think differently about every aspect of our organisation, especially leadership, strategy and change.

Complex systems are emergent and require unique, fit-for-context and fit-for-humans (because organisations are made up of humans) engagement through practical and experiential processes. Fit for the real world.

Click below for more details on my work philosophy.

More about my reasoning

Plus ultra

Plus ultra (more beyond - EN) is the Spanish motto since the Age of Discoveries, when the world awakened to new possibilities. There are many similar stories of discovery, of people going beyond the known horizon, like the Polynesian wayfinders, the Inuit and the San. This spirit of exploration is the inspiration for the work I do. We often found ourselves in uncharted territory, needing to not only seek but make new ways forward in the unknown.

This is what I am passionate about - to get in the proverbial boat with you, and help you navigate in uncertainty.

Let's talk about your possibilities

Sonja Blignaut

I am a complexity nerd, waysfinder, artist and scientist. I founded More Beyond in 2004, before which I worked as a consultant at PWC and IBM. I train and lecture internationally in complexity and related topics at various academic institutions and business schools. People seem to like to hear me speak, and I've appeared at various Agile Summits, OD Conferences, and TedX Pretoria. I am a partner in Complexity Fit, an associate for The Cynefin Company (SenseMaker®), and a qualified coach in various individual and team modalities. I enjoy art journaling, photography, being in nature, and drinking good coffee.

Wessel Blignaut

I know what it looks like. "I" and "me" throughout this website, and here's another bloke. Keeping me on track (because two heads in complexity and wayfinding...) is Agile Coach Wessel. He holds a Master's degree in Program Management and is a certified Scrum Master. Wessel is a rockstar in traditional waterfall modalities and Agile methods like SCRUM and KANBAN. His fervor is in people, specifically team dynamics and team effectiveness. Other passions include restoring classic cars, marine aquariums, and the art of making good coffee. I think I'll keep him.

Who I work with

Like with Wessel above, many of the things I do will not be possible without the partnership and associations I have with the people and organisations below. Force multipliers indeed. I am especially closely involved with Complexity Fit, a joint venture with Casper Oelofsen, where we create cutting-edge learning journeys in complexity, change, and the future.

Who I work for

Since 2004 I've been consulting and engaging in thinking partnerships close by and far-and-wide. The list below is not exhaustive but represents an overview of the width of my experience-scope.

IKEA

Electrolux

The UK Lottery

Accenture

RMB Private Bank

Momentum Metropolitan

Sanparks

Nedbank

Vodacom
Liberty

GIBS

ABSA

Gautrain Management Agency

PWC

Discovery Health

Barloworld

Microsoft

Sasol

Barclays

Anglo American