At Pattern and Flow, we focus on the human capabilities your organization already has — the relational knowledge, informal coordination, and emergent capacity that don't show up on dashboards but make everything else work. We're a complexity consulting practice in Portland, Oregon, working at the intersection of organizational transformation, systems thinking, and facilitation.
Organizations navigating mergers, rapid scaling, or strategic uncertainty often discover that their planning and change management tools can't account for what's actually happening. We offer Cynefin sense-making, warm data facilitation, and wicked problem frameworks — not as solutions, but as ways to see differently before deciding what to do.
Discover our services
Bi-weekly 90-minute sessions
Pattern recognition for where interventions have become constraints
Epistemological supervision (borrowed from clinical supervision model)
Support for holding uncertainty without premature resolution
Access to between-session support for acute decision points
Focus Areas:
Recognizing when you can't see the system because you're trying to control it
Navigating gap between theoretical understanding and enacted practice
Working with emergence when organizational structures demand prediction
Maintaining epistemological honesty under pressure for certainty
Is integration destroying what made your acquisition valuable? Transformation initiatives dying after translation into portfolio items? Performance systems that can't recognize the work that matters?
We help you see what your current systems prevent you from seeing.
What we offer:
Cynefin-based diagnostic: Which problems are you treating as ordered when they're complex?
Warm data labs with leadership teams to surface relational context erased by reporting requirements
System design that enables distributed decision-making without prescribing outcomes
Engagement: 2-4 week diagnostic or 3-6 month facilitated inquiry Investment: $15K-100K depending on scope
Core Talk: "When Planning Becomes Violence"
Organizational synchronization as power move
How optimization eliminates emergence
Alternative approaches for complex domains
60-90 minute keynote format
Workshop: "Complexity Methods for Practitioners"
Cynefin framework application
Warm data practice introduction
Wicked problem recognition
Half-day or full-day format
Training: "Designing Systems for Emergence"
Governance frameworks enabling distributed decision-making
Information architecture preserving context
Decision protocols for uncertainty
2-day intensive format
Single Engagement Model
Pre-work: Stakeholder interviews, problem framing assessment
2-day intensive facilitation using warm data protocols
Post-work: Documentation and sense-making synthesis
Optional: Follow-up sessions at 30/60/90 days
Multi-Engagement Model
Monthly facilitation sessions
Between-session support for emerging dynamics
Capacity building for internal facilitators
Documentation of patterns and insights
What makes Pattern & Flow different?
Most consultants sell certainty. We acknowledge we're caught inside the systems we're trying to help you see.
Our positioning:
15+ years delivering transformation outcomes ($650K documented cost savings, successful merger navigation)
Certified in warm data facilitation, Cynefin sense-making, wicked problem solving
Currently pursuing advanced study in systems science—not because we lack methods, but because practicing them revealed questions certification alone can't answer
What this means for you: You get someone who bridges academic theory and delivered results. Who won't pretend to stand outside the complexity. Who models what it looks like to practice systems thinking while caught inside systems.
We work with:
Organizations post-merger/acquisition experiencing emergence loss
Transformation leaders whose methods suddenly stopped working
Mission-driven organizations facing fundamental strategic uncertainty
Technology companies where rapid scaling is breaking informal coordination
Strategy consultants sell roadmaps. Agile coaches sell methodology. Executive coaches sell leadership development. Systems academics sell research.
What's missing are practitioners who have built the systems, managed the portfolios, and delivered the metrics — and who can tell you exactly where those tools stop working and why.
Erika Sajdak bridges that gap. Seventeen years of program leadership — including directing strategic initiatives through NWEA's acquisition by HMH, managing a $10M partner program, and delivering $650K in cost savings — gave her a deep fluency in the tools organizations rely on. Certifications in warm data facilitation, Cynefin sense-making, and wicked problem solving gave her the language for what those tools can't reach.
She doesn't stand outside complexity and describe it. She's been inside it — building systems that worked until the organization couldn't see what they were protecting — and she works with you from that shared condition.
Currently pursuing Systems Science at Portland State University. Not because she lacks methods. Because practicing them revealed questions certification alone can't answer.
Contact Us
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