Lana Harel

I principally work with leaders and teams in High Tech and other technical fields including Legal, Operations, and Biotech, though I’ve enjoyed working with people from all backgrounds. 

Irrespective of the domain, my clients are typically sceptics, tinkerers, explorers, and people who enjoy learning empirically.  An engagement is essentially an orienteering expedition where we draw on the appropriate tools to walk and map the terrain that they are navigating in themselves and with others. This then enables them to see emerging ways forward.

For the most part, my clients are looking to solve their messy, complex, systemic problems. What they are usually delighted to discover is that the medicine isn’t necessarily some sort of cognitive optimization. The aha usually comes when they show up for themselves and their team as whole human beings, begin to see the patterns that limit them, and, from there, build more capacity to have essential, delicate, tricky conversations with courage. It’s these ahas and the shifts that they enable that lead to the transformation clients may not have realized they were looking for.

I have been working with an operations team in a company going through leadership, industry and technological transformation, and they are navigating many competing demands: take risks and keep the company safe; do it all and do it fast; decide quickly and don’t let any balls drop. 

Their goal has been to work through the pressures inside the team so that they are able to navigate the external pressures they are facing together. I am finding that, though the tools and frameworks I’ve shared have been helpful, my biggest contribution as a coach and facilitator has been to balance compassion with truth telling in each interaction, to listen to and care for each person while attending to the whole team without taking sides, and to tell them what I am up to every step of the way so that they build trust in me and the process.

This has allowed the team to rebuild trust with each other, which, ultimately, is essential to their collaborating well and staying resilient in tumultuous times.

We jump in! We start with the pressing problem at hand and do what we can to make progress on the immediate priorities. In parallel, we take the opportunity to notice habitual patterns, challenge unhelpful stories, test assumptions, and experiment with potential new pathways to better outcomes. In this way we are addressing essential, pragmatic goals and also building capacity to meet future challenges.

My clients are intelligent, resourceful, driven, and talented. What typically gets in their way is the unrelenting stress and pressure, and not a limitation in their problem-solving skills. So, sometimes, the most effective and useful first step is for us to use simple yet powerful techniques to help them regain ease and equilibrium. Being more grounded increases their ability to see the way more clearly, make the most of the frameworks and tools we explore together, and feel a renewed sense of confidence and purpose.

During my environmental engineering studies, I began to appreciate the intricacies of ecosystems. Understanding how two seemingly disparate phenomena can be interconnected was useful to me in my later work as a software developer and helps me in my current work to attend to both the science and mystery of what can influence a person, a team, or an organization.

This dovetails into my passion for human development and growth. I care deeply about each person I work with and find that the open-hearted exchange between us has the potential to positively impact not only the two of us, but consequently the systems we touch.

Other valuable influences include my traveling to and living on multiple continents (Asia, Africa, Europe and North America), working in Silicon Valley during the early years, and being at Google through many of its pivotal phases. These experiences have made me adaptable, welcoming of new and different perspectives, and curious to learn and grow with my clients and colleagues.

I am a mother of two, a wife, a sister, a daughter and friend. I am a maker of stews and curries, and a backseat murder mystery solver.

Though I like to learn about my clients work in order to support them effectively, I am not in a position to mentor and advise on tactics or best practices in any particular, technical domain. My focus is on process – how a person or team works within their system.

I have a BS from Georgia Tech and a Doctorate from MIT in Environmental Engineering.

I am also an ICF certified coach, a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and trained in adult development coaching and systemic family constellations.

I also draw on other useful frameworks that I’ve experimented with along the way.