Designing collaboration that actually works.
When teams need to align. When a workshop can't afford to waste anyone's time. When funded initiatives need momentum, not just meetings. That's when organizations call us.
We design the how so you can focus on the what.
Collaboration doesn't fail because people don't care.
It fails when the room isn't designed for honest conversation. When the process doesn't match the complexity. When facilitation treats symptoms instead of dynamics.
We've spent two decades learning what makes collaboration and change work across sectors, cultures, and scales. That wisdom shows up in how we design every engagement.
Our approach is built on the Collaboration by Design framework. Four conditions, one method, and a set of principles that have held up across sectors, scales, and cultures.
LEARN THE FRAMEWORK
What we do
Idea Farm Co-op designs and leads collaboration and change efforts that actually move things forward.
We work with organizations facing cross-cutting challenges, the kind that span departments, require new ways of working, or need broad engagement to succeed. We design visioning processes, high-stakes convenings, innovation programs and strategic workshops that generate real alignment and momentum.
We also build internal capacity by co-leading with your teams and strengthening your organization's facilitation muscle for the long term.
Services
We need shared direction across groups that don't usually work together.
Visioning & Reimagining
For cross-cutting challenges that require alignment before action. We design processes that help diverse stakeholders find clarity, build shared language, and generate the momentum for what comes next.
This is for organizations asking: How do we get everyone moving in the same direction when the work touches multiple parts of the system?
This project matters too much to wing it.
Strategic Design & Facilitation
For convenings, workshops, and strategic engagements where the stakes are high and the room is complex. We design the conditions for productive dialogue, navigate group dynamics in real time, and ensure that discussions lead to decisions.
This is for leaders who know that how you design collaboration determines whether it creates value or burns political capital.
We want to build this capability internally.
Facilitation Support & Capacity Building
For organizations ready to strengthen their own facilitation practice. We co-lead sessions with your team, provide coaching on-the-job, and help leaders develop the skills to design and hold complex collaborative processes themselves.
This is for organizations that understand facilitation is not a soft skill; it's strategic infrastructure.
How This Shows Up in Practice
Examples of what clients ask Idea Farm to do:
>Design and lead client-facing workshops where trust and momentum matter
>Facilitate 100+ person interactive events tied to philanthropically funded initiatives
>Run cross-functional product or service design workshop
>Lead multi-month vision and mission redesign efforts that engage people meaningfully
>Guide organizations as they experiment with new ways of working by doing real work differently
>Train internal leaders, managers and facilitators who want to grow their capability and influence
The common thread?
The work matters, the situation is complex, and the how will determine whether anything actually changes.
We collaborate with the most amazing humans!
When we face complex, high-stakes moments that require alignment, clarity, and trust across a diverse group, Tamara is the first person I call. She has a rare ability to pair professionalism with warmth, agility, and an uncanny talent for making sense of chaos while bringing people to genuine consensus. Count on her to be thoughtful partner who delivers results, from rigorous pre-work through on-site facilitation and effective rollout. I have engaged her across institutions and would recommend her without hesitation.
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, DEVELOPMENT, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Smart. Innovative. Collaborative. Fast. How Tamara manages to do all of those things at once is totally impressive, and evidently just how she operates. Consistently. I have partnered with Tamara on a few projects and I’ve seen her in design, production and delivery mode. I would highly recommend!
SENIOR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, AMAZON
Tamara has a knack for helping a person take a step back and look at different challenges or opportunities from a fresh perspective and she is great at providing the tools that I can use to do the same for others at my company. I’m 46 years old. I hate training. I don’t go… unless Tamara is running the sessions.
GROUP PLANNING DIRECTOR, VML
Meet Tamara (tom-uh-ruh)
Tamara Christensen has spent more than two decades in rooms where the stakes were high, the groups were complex, and the how mattered as much as the what.
She founded Idea Farm Co-op in 2012 to move beyond the work of recommending change and into the messy territory of designing the actual conditions that make transformation happen. Her clients have included 3M, Disney, Mayo Clinic, and Honeywell as well as universities, foundations, and international development organizations on four continents.
Tamara is a collaboration design nerd. She is also a researcher who can transform insights into action. Her PhD in Design Methodology from Arizona State University wasn't a theoretical exercise, it was about understanding how people actually learn to think differently, and what it takes to design experiences that make that possible. Turns out, sequencing matters more than most people realize.
She is the author of F-ing Innovation and co-author, with Katrin Elster, of Leading in Ambiguity: How to transform uncertainty into possibilities. Together they co-founded CoCreACT®, a transatlantic consultancy, in 2019.
Tamara has designed and facilitated in Italian, French, and English and has worked in contexts across the globe where the language barrier was the least complex thing in the room.
What people remember: she reads the room fast, adapts without losing the thread, and has a particular gift for saying the true thing in the moment it can actually be heard.
Co-founder and partner at CoCreACT®
Training innovators to lead in ambiguity.
CoCreACT® offers international training and development for facilitators, leaders, and organizations who want to strengthen innovation and collaboration in complex environments.
→ Visit CoCreACT.com
Let’s connect.
Change rarely unfolds in a straight line. It takes focus, thoughtful design, and steady attention, especially when the work feels complex or uncertain.
Idea Farm Co-op works with organizations ready to invest in how collaboration happens, not just that it happens. If the work matters and the how is still taking shape, we’d love to hear from you.