The Togetherness Practice: A Framework for Collective Flourishing
By Nora F. Murphy Johnson, PhD
In my work, I’ve often seen groups struggle to balance individual strengths with collective purpose. Over the years, I developed countless strategies to help them find—and keep finding—this balance as both the group and the world around them evolved. But something was missing. I didn’t have a coherent framework to help people understand what we were doing to create this balance, or a guide to identify what needed to be built or strengthened so that adapting to change could feel more natural and sustainable.
I use the word balance here intentionally. Many people think of balance as a perfect, unchanging state—a moment when everything aligns, and life feels stable, whole, and harmonious. But in reality, balance isn’t something we achieve once and hold onto forever. It’s a dynamic practice, a process of continual adjustment, awareness, and intentional effort to navigate the ever-shifting elements of our lives and systems.
In changemaking work, this adaptive balance is especially critical. We can’t predict what life—or our actions—will throw back at us. Every change we make, whether in ourselves or in a system, creates ripple effects, often leading to unexpected or unintended consequences. The ground beneath us is constantly shifting. For that reason, we can’t fool ourselves into thinking we can control every outcome. Instead, the best we can do is create the conditions that encourage a particular type and direction of change to emerge.
And then my friend and colleague Vipin Thekk introduced me to The Togetherness Practice (TP), developed by Vipin, Lauren Yarmuth, and Shaun McInerney. TP was developed through more than 170 conversations with social, business, spiritual, and educational entrepreneurs over the course of 2.5 years. Rooted in a holistic view of human experience, this practice weaves together internal capacities, external conditions, and relationships to create a shared field of connection, growth, and transformation. It was like a lightbulb turning on—this framework tied together so many pieces of my work in a way that felt intuitive, yet deeply grounded. Once I saw the interplay between internal capacities, external conditions, and the relational field in social change work, I couldn’t unsee it. The Togetherness Practice became my go-to “recipe” for helping individuals and groups build the capacity and readiness for transformation.
What Is the Togetherness Practice?
The Togetherness Practice is a framework that bridges internal capacities, external conditions, and the relational field that connects them. It draws on all of our intelligences—body, mind, heart, and spirit—integrating them into a cohesive whole. Think of it as a three-part ecosystem, where each element flows into the others in an infinite loop, creating the conditions for balance and growth.
1. Internal Capacities
These are the personal qualities we cultivate within ourselves:
Awareness (Body): Being present and attuned to ourselves and others.
Meaning-Making (Mind): Understanding and interpreting experiences to create purpose.
Self-Permission (Heart): Embracing authenticity and courage in our actions.
Responsibility (Spirit): Owning our role in shaping outcomes and relationships.
2. External Conditions
These are the environmental factors that cultivate the conditions for connection and collaboration:
Receptivity (Body): Being open to what others bring into the space.
Reflection (Mind): Taking the time to thoughtfully process and respond.
Belonging (Heart): Building a sense of community and shared purpose.
Emergence (Spirit): Allowing new possibilities to unfold naturally.
3. Relational Field
These are practices that harmonize internal and external dimensions:
Pausing: Creating intentional space for stillness and presence.
Patterning: Recognizing and working with the patterns that shape our interactions.
Trusting: Building strong, authentic connections rooted in mutual respect.
Enacting: Turning shared values into collaborative action.
Together, these three elements create a self-reinforcing cycle that enables individuals and groups to thrive amidst complexity.
Why The Togetherness Practice is Powerful
The Togetherness Practice resonates deeply with me because it integrates the whole person—body, mind, heart, and spirit—into the collective experience. The website says:
The Togetherness Practice is for those of us who feel called to new paradigms of being and doing in the world. It offers a way of showing up with each other - in our workplaces, schools, communities, and even families - that anchors in growth, respect, trust, and authenticity. We begin to replace old patterns of fear, ego, and scarcity with new patterns of openness, caring, and abundance. We inspire the mutually beneficial action the world is requiring of us now.
Here’s why I find it so powerful:
1. It Connects Inner and Outer Worlds
This practice doesn’t stop at individual growth or group dynamics. It’s a bridge, helping people align their internal capacities with the external conditions they create together. This alignment is where transformation truly begins. Neither is sufficient alone, but together, they amplify one another.
Too often, social change work is positioned as solely external work, leaving individuals to do the inner work on their own time. This false dichotomy must end if we are to remain healthy and resilient enough to stay in the work for the long haul without harming ourselves or the people we love.
2. It Invites Authenticity
By emphasizing self-permission and belonging, the practice creates a space for people to show up as their true selves. This vulnerability fosters deeper trust, which, in turn, leads to richer, more meaningful collaboration. It also allows us to embody wholeness—a healing path that moves us from fragmentation and maladaptation toward authenticity and integration.
3. It Honors Complexity
Unlike one-size-fits-all solutions, the Togetherness Practice embraces the complexity of human systems. It recognizes that growth and change emerge from the interplay of relationships, environments, and actions—and it provides space to adapt to the contextual needs of people, cultures, and resources without prescribing rigid steps.
4. It’s Grounded in Action
This isn’t just a theoretical framework—it’s practical and actionable. From pausing to reflect to enacting change, the Togetherness Practice offers tangible steps for individuals and groups to move forward together with purpose. The TP has a practice guide, available for free download and use, offers practices in 90-second, 90-minute, 90-hour, 90-day, and 90-year increments. Teams can choose the practice that best fits their needs. It's an excellent starting point or a way to deepen the well of practices you can draw from. And that’s the key: moving forward together with purpose. Because truly, this is what it will take to co-create the world we actively hope for and work toward.
5. It Focuses on the Relational Field
This is a big one for me. One of the most unique aspects of the Togetherness Practice is its focus on the relational field, which extends beyond direct, 1:1 relationships. Many methods, like social network analysis (SNA), focus exclusively on measurable, individual connections. But they overlook the powerful, intangible dynamics that shape spaces and systems.
For example, you can walk into a room full of people and instantly sense if the atmosphere is toxic or uplifting. These dynamics are not about specific relationships but the collective energy of the space. Different things are possible in a toxic space versus an uplifting one. And because we want to create the conditions for positive, transformative change to emerge, we must work intentionally with the relational field to cultivate environments where creativity, trust, and collaboration can thrive and new, mind-blowingly amazing strategies and solutions can emerge.
How I’ve Used It
The TP has become more than just a framework and practice for guiding collective work—it's also an invaluable lens for analyzing how things shift and evolve in complex human systems. In my own work, I’ve used the TP to guide qualitative data analysis, helping me understand the nuanced ways that individuals and groups change over time. By applying the principles of the TP—internal capacities, external conditions, and the relational field—I can observe how these elements interact and influence one another in real-world settings.
I saw its value clearly in a factory case where safety concerns were affecting the health of workers. The facilitators brought the issue to the factory manager, who dismissed the idea of finding a solution, citing the high cost of any potential fixes. He felt stuck, believing that he was expected to have all the answers and that asking for help would undermine his authority. He was unwilling to open up to his team because doing so would expose his vulnerability.
The facilitators worked with the manager through some coaching, helping him recognize that asking for help wasn’t a sign of weakness, but a strength that could unlock new possibilities. Eventually, he made the internal shift to a place where he was willing to try a new approach. He gathered the workers on the factory floor and, for the first time, openly acknowledged the problem. He directly asked them for help in brainstorming potential solutions.
At the moment he asked for help, something remarkable happened. One person there later described it as “the tension in the room broke.” The shift in the manager’s willingness to show vulnerability created an immediate change in the external conditions—what had been a space of rigid hierarchy transformed into one of openness and collaboration. This shift in the relational field allowed trust to emerge and sparked more creative, less expensive solutions. While the new solutions weren’t perfect, they were far better than the initial options, and they had the added benefit of being more sustainable because they had been co-created by both management and workers.
By applying the TP framework, I was able to understand how these internal shifts (the manager’s change in mindset), external shifts (the more open, collaborative space), and the resulting impact on the relational field (increased trust and creativity) all worked together to produce a more effective and adaptive response to a critical challenge. It was a clear example of how the interplay between internal capacities, external conditions, and the relational field can create opportunities for new possibilities to emerge, significantly increasing the chances of making meaningful change in complex human systems.
Why It Matters
In a world that is increasingly fragmented and complex, the need for practices that emphasize connection, trust, and shared purpose has never been greater. The Togetherness Practice is a powerful tool for creating the conditions that allow individuals and groups to not just work together but to truly flourish together.
What sets the TP apart is its ability to address the multifaceted nature of human systems. It doesn’t just focus on improving individual behavior or optimizing group processes in isolation; it creates space for both to co-evolve. The practice acknowledges that growth—whether personal, relational, or systemic—emerges from a dynamic interplay of internal capacities, external conditions, and the relational field.
In practical terms, this means the TP helps us approach change as a collective, not just as individuals or isolated teams. It creates space for all voices to be heard, encourages vulnerability as a strength, and invites creativity to flow even in the most challenging situations. It opens the door to new possibilities, even when the road ahead feels uncertain. As demonstrated in the factory case, the practice shifts the relational field, making it easier to find innovative solutions, build trust, and increase resilience.
What’s more, the TP offers a way to honor the complexity of human systems rather than oversimplifying or imposing rigid solutions. It gives us a framework for navigating change in ways that are adaptive and responsive to the specific context at hand. Whether we’re addressing workplace issues, community challenges, or social change efforts, the Togetherness Practice provides a grounded, practical, and scalable approach to creating environments where collective growth can thrive.
Take the Next Step with the Inspire to Change Team
Ready to dive deeper into collective flourishing and make a meaningful impact? Here’s how you can get involved:
Join Our Upcoming Cohort – Be part of a dynamic group of changemakers and experience the transformative power of the Togetherness Practice in action.
Sign Up for a Free 30-Minute Consultation – Connect with our team and explore how we can support your unique journey toward positive change.
Spread the Word – Show your support and help us amplify our mission by wearing our merch and sharing our message with others.
Make a Donation – Your contribution helps us keep creating valuable resources and content to empower individuals and communities worldwide.
Together, we can inspire lasting change. Learn more and take action today!
