Constellation
Thinking

It was with the benefit of hindsight I realised I think in constellations, not silos.

Do you relate to that?

Most people are taught to think in straight lines: A leads to B leads to C. Logical. Sequential. Tidy. But that's never been how my mind works. I see multiple points that relate to each other, patterns emerging before they're obvious, connections that others miss.

For years, I thought something was wrong with me. Too much. All over the place. Unfocused.

Then I learned to work with the constellations rather than fighting them.

Wonder Spiral emerged out of that realisation—finding a way of working with "all the things" to the point of cohesion rather than getting stuck in the land of overwhelm.

Working with AI, the most recent constellation took form.

I trained as a developer while building Storybord AI—a platform to "storybord your startup." Academic partnerships building tools for nature-positive action mapping, cultural-value measurement, regenerative supply chains, VCSE value frameworks. Commercial partnerships through Nodl Tech building "taxonomies of good" to operationalise expertise with AI.

Through Taproot Studio I created a way of working as an Intentional Creativity Coach, tapping into patterned thinking through painting. The title Wonder Spiral dropped in during that time but I had no idea what it was, so it became part of the constellation.

Each project expressed my underlying values. Each was meaningful work. But they lacked the cohesion I knew wanted to be expressed.

There was a what what what needling me that let me know I still hadn't dug deep enough to hit that universal zero point we can all get to—that unifying moment of seeing all the threads come together.

Keystone Ecological is the weaving together of my own body of work.

It's the lens I've used to build what I think is the world's first ecological brand builder—positioning organisations in relationship with people, place, planet. The design lens I bring to how I build tools and infrastructure. In quiet moments, how I've worked with others at big milestone moments of change asking who am I and what am I here for in this next chapter.

Everything I'd been building across those wildly different domains was actually the same pattern: helping people find the language for what they know.

Language that arises. Language that connects. Language that transforms.

Ultimately there is something profound and powerful that happens to an individual, a team, a whole organisation when they manage to land the language that makes them say— Yes—this is it—this IS the vision—this IS what I'm here to say or do—and now I have the language I can connect with others—customers, staff, partners.

The act of language arising is at once personal and ecological.

That's what I mean by constellation thinking. That's what I mean by the understory. That's Keystone Ecological.

If you're a constellation thinker—if you see patterns beneath everything, think ecologically in a linear world, were told you were "too much" or "all over the place"—Wonder Spiral is for you.

It's a book about thinking ecologically in a world that demands you think in straight lines. About the understory. The patterns beneath everything. How to build from there.

Publishing Autumn 2026