Media Press Kit: Reweaving What Matters
Reweaving What Matters is that rare book that respects both the complexity of systems change and the courage of the people attempting it. It offers what most books in this space don’t: a place to start that holds the tension.
DEBUTS SEPTEMBER 10, 2026
"This astonishing and illuminating work is a truly remarkable offering, the most practical and wise guidance for transformation I've yet to encounter.”
Margaret Wheatley, author of 13 books from Leadership and the New Science (1992) to Who Do We Choose to Be? (2023) and Restoring Sanity (2024)
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Something isn’t working. You know it, even if you can’t name it yet. You’ve tried the initiatives, the trainings, the new systems—and you’re done with oversimplified answers. You want to understand how you got here and consciously choose what’s next. Reweaving What Matters meets you there—and gives you tools you can start using Monday morning.
Most change efforts fail not because people didn’t care, but because they built on foundations no one had examined. In a moment when institutions are fraying and leaders are questioning whether change is even possible, this book offers neither false hope nor permission to give up. It offers a loom—and teaches you to use it.
Drawing on the ancient art of weaving as both metaphor and method, Solberg’s framework moves through two complementary phases: Unweaving (Notice–Clarify–Act) to examine the patterns already at play, and Reweaving (Envision–Structure–Weave) to consciously build what comes next. Unlike approaches that skip straight to solutions, this one insists on seeing clearly before acting—because that’s where most change efforts quietly collapse.
Field Detail
Title: Reweaving What Matters
Subtitle: Practical Tools for Workplace Transformation
Author: Kathy Coffey Solberg
Foreword: Bob Stilger, author of AfterNow
Publisher: Creative Courage Press
Publication date: September 10, 2026
Formats: Paperback · ebook · audiobook
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-959921-10-3
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-959921-11-0
ISBN (audiobook): 979-8-234-08859-8
Price: $24.95 (paperback) · $12.99 (ebook)
Pages : / size 230 pp · 6 × 9
Categories: (BISAC) Workplace Culture -Decision-Making & Problem Solving · Leadership
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Kathy Coffey Solberg works at the intersection of systems thinking, workplace culture, and human sustainability. Drawing on 25 years of experience with nonprofits, mission-driven institutions, and social change organizations, she developed the Unweaving-Reweaving framework as a practical alternative to theoretical models that leave leaders intellectually satisfied but unable to act. Reweaving What Matters is her first book. Solberg lives in the Pacific Northwest and works with organizations navigating complex, and necessary change.
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The most overlooked step in change is noticing. Brilliant, compassionate changemakers exhaust themselves with more meetings, more initiatives, more metrics. They know something is broken and they sense which threads need loosening — but they don't have a framework for the unweaving. The book gives them one.
Workplaces are woven structures. Threads of people, processes, and purposes, all interlaced. When a single thread is out of place, the whole pattern shifts. You can't repair a living system like a machine; you tend it like fabric.
People don't lack a sense of purpose — they're missing the method. They know what they'd like to see; what they're missing is a way to get there. This is a practice:something you can actually use to create the change you're seeking, at your own pace, starting where you are.
Understand what's already woven before you begin. It's essential to examine the existing foundations and patterns of what you're working with first. Most change efforts start with visioning without ever asking what the current patterns are protecting — and that's why they don't hold.
Mattering starts with you. Reweaving What Matters — not what's broken, not what's urgent, not what's loudest. Belonging says you have a seat at the table; mattering says your presence changes what's possible. And before you can build that for anyone else, the work begins with honest self-examination.
Walk with people, don't work on them. Kathy brings the tools, listens, and stays for the hard part — helping each person see what's theirs to see, then trusting them to do the same for someone else.
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"If systems change was easy, someone would have done it by now."
"Reweaving what matters — not what's broken, not what's urgent, not what's loudest.
What matters."
"Belonging says you have a seat at the table. Mattering says your presence changes
what's possible — not just your compliance."
"Think of me as a personal trainer for systems change. No sit-ups, no laps — lots of
introspection and application."
"Our workplaces are woven structures too — and when a single thread is out of place,
the entire pattern shifts."
"Systems change happens through sustained attention to the threads that matter, the courage to examine what exists, and the willingness to create something new."
"Brilliant, compassionate changemakers are exhausting themselves trying to create
change — they just don't have a framework for the unweaving."
"Sometimes it's necessary to undo in order to move forward."
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Business / leadership / workplace culture - Why most change initiatives fail at the
start, not the end — and what disciplined "noticing" changes downstream. - Why your
reorg keeps not working: you're weaving on a foundation you've never examined. - Change
fatigue is real — here's the method that ends the cycle of change done to people.
Organizational development / change management / HR - A two-phase practice
rigorous enough for the field and simple enough for a staff meeting — that leaders can use
without a consultant to translate. - "The map every OD practitioner is missing": what to do
before the intervention.
Civic / community / social impact - Rebuilding social fabric at the local level — from city halls to legislatures to tribal nations. - For changemakers who have purpose but need a method: Notice, Clarify, Act. - Community Weaving: a public loom strangers build together — turning "we're more together than alone" from a slogan into something people can see and touch.
Personal growth / human spirit / meaning - Change that holds starts inside: the inner work that makes outer change possible. - The Penelope move — strategic undoing as an
act of hope, not avoidance.
The craft angle(great for narrative / lifestyle shows) - What a loom taught a consultant about fixing organizations: tension and release, patient unweaving, the fabric that holds.
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Reweaving What Matters Retreat, October 9-11, 2026. Tucked into 88 acres of forest and waterfalls north of Seattle, this is a small, unhurried gathering for people ready to look honestly at the threads of their own lives and work. This is a weekend to step out of the doing and connect — with the natural world, and with yourself — and to begin Unweaving what no longer serves.
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Creative Courage Press is an independent hybrid publishing company founded in 2020 by Shelly L. Francis, inspired by the people she met while writing The Courage Way: Leading and Living with Integrity
shelly@creativecouragepress.com, 970-812-3224 -
Connect and lead, how we create community
TEDxSnoIsleLibraries
How can we build community? Where do we begin? Kathy Coffey has found community in places as conventional as a church and as unorthodox as a mafia bar. She leverages her experiences of profound loss at an early age to illustrate how we must all decide if we will choose to search for and cultivate a vibrant and connected community. Coffey calls us to work to change how we all think about, build, and live in communities that are deeply connected and fulfilling. -
Testimonials
"This astonishing and illuminating work is a truly remarkable offering, the most practical and wise guidance for transformation I've yet to encounter. It emerges from years of experience, made clear from continuous reflection, offered with a generous and respectful heart. Using a detailed lens of weaving, Kathy describes, consoles, clarifies, and encourages us. Let's commit to a year of unweaving and reweaving!"
Margaret Wheatley — author of Leadership and the New Science and Who Do We Choose to Be?
"It's one thing to tear down what appears to be broken, apply a quick fix, and call it done. The more life-giving approach takes courage: to renew what we know is frayed or torn within ourselves, before we try to rebuild the world around us. Kathy Coffey Solberg understands this. It is kind, direct, and full of dignity, a rare and necessary book for anyone ready to do the inner work that makes outer change possible."
Parker J. Palmer — author of Let Your Life Speak and The Courage to Teach
"Transforming systems is not a grand gesture — it is an everyday discipline of seeing, questioning, and adjusting. Kathy Coffey Solberg has built a method around that truth, and it works at every scale: a team, an organization, a community. Pragmatic, hopeful, and refreshingly free of the jargon that usually buries this work — she gives us a metaphor we can hold instead."
Adam Kahane — co-founder of Reos Partners; author of Collaborating with the Enemy
Montreal, Quebec, Canada"Every workplace is a circle of stories — some spoken, most not. Kathy gives us tools to listen to those stories, loosen the threads that no longer serve, and weave patterns worthy of the people who hold them. I've waited a long time for a book that makes systems change this human. Here it is."
Christina Baldwin — author of Storycatcher and The Circle Way (with Ann Linnea)
"I design healing-centered ecosystems, and I can tell you the missing ingredient in most change efforts: attunement — the willingness to sense what is actually happening before acting on it. Kathy Coffey Solberg has built an entire practice on that willingness. Notice, Clarify, Act honors both the people and the patterns, and it makes room for every season of a life or an organization. This is care, made structural."
Lana Jelenjev — Community Alchemist; speaker, facilitator, and author of What's STRONG With You?
Almere, Flevoland, Netherlands"Kathy Coffey Solberg has given us a gift: a practical framework for creating change that begins not with solutions, but with deeper attention. In a culture obsessed with fixing and optimizing, she invites us to examine the patterns beneath the patterns. Wise, humane, and deeply useful, this is a book for anyone trying to lead meaningful change in complicated times."
Rev. Cameron Trimble — CEO, Convergence
"The changemakers I teach are not short on purpose — they're short on a method. Kathy Coffey Solberg offers one: Notice, Clarify, Act; Envision, Structure, Weave. It's social innovation made practical, humane, and repeatable, and it honors how change really happens — from the inside out, one small experiment at a time. I'll be assigning this book."
Akhtar Badshah, PhD — systems thinker, speaker, and author
"Leaders like me don't come from nowhere — we come from communities, and from people who notice us before we notice ourselves. Kathy Coffey Solberg is one of those people, and this book is that same gift offered to everyone: learn to notice, to understand, to act. For those of us serving on the front lines of change — in nonprofits, in city halls, in legislatures — this is the field guide."
Julio Cortes — Washington State Representative, 38th District
"Kathy Coffey Solberg has a rare ability to truly see people — their gifts, their patterns, and their possibility — and help them act on that insight. This book brings that same clarity and care to those of us leading through real-world change, where people, purpose, and community must move forward together."
Rochelle James, MPA — CEO, Tulalip Tribes
"Organizations are living systems — they cannot be repaired like machines, only tended like fabric. Kathy Coffey Solberg understands this in her hands, her heart, not just her head. A wise, practical book for anyone ready to work with life instead of against it."
Guus Geisen — author of Autopoiesis; fellow Warrior for the Human Spirit
Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands"This book is an essential contribution to the growing field of weaving. By exploring the practice of 'unweaving' — understanding what's already woven before we begin to connect — Kathy illuminates a critical practice we too often ignore. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to advance the practice and profession of weaving for systems change."
Ross Hall — Weaver; Education Portfolio Lead at Fondation Botnar; co-founder of The Weaving Lab
Zurich, Switzerland"No more wasting effort on change from the outside in. Kathy Solberg teaches us how to bravely make change from the inside out. You will get tools to listen authentically and examine how you got where you are — tried-and-true tools she uses with the organizations and companies who say they want to create something better."
Sarri Gilman — author of Transform Your Boundaries
"Kathy sees the patterns of interaction, thought, and emotion in human systems — and, even more importantly, she understands their complex dynamics. She supports clients as they identify challenges and repair the tapestries of their relationships and services. A generous and articulate presentation of her work. I highly recommend it!"
Royce Holladay — Human Systems Dynamics Institute
"It is easy to talk about change for people and communities, but it is not so easy to bring it to life. In this book, Kathy weaves her own insight, heart, and imagination with years of in-depth experience to create a tapestry of tapestries. Anyone who wants to create a brighter future will find threads and patterns to enliven what they imagine. Thanks, Kathy, for the gifts you weave for us all."
Glenda Eoyang — founder of the field of Human Systems Dynamics
"The realities of modernity that Kathy describes require an honest look into ourselves and to each other. This book is that look. Kathy offers a way to see the connections more meaningfully and to act in the day to day more honestly."
Tenneson Woolf — author, The Gifts of Circle
"Organization development has no shortage of theory, but what it typically lacks is a way in. Kathy Coffey Solberg wove one: a practice for examining the patterns beneath workplace exhaustion and consciously reweaving them — rigorous enough for the field and simple enough for a staff meeting. The framework is sound, the stories are true, and the writing trusts you."
Linda Robson, PhD — Institute for Transformative Change
"We know creating belonging at work matters. Kathy Coffey Solberg pushes us further: people need to matter. This book gives leaders the practical, intentional tools to build workplaces where they actually do."
Ruchika T. Malhotra — nationally-bestselling author of Uncompete
"Kathy Coffey Solberg doesn't write about transformation from a distance — she writes from inside the work. This book is for anyone who has ever looked around their workplace and thought, 'There has to be a better way.' Kathy helps us look honestly at how our organizations really work — understanding what is really happening, making sense of it, and choosing what to change."
Brendon Johnson — Co-founder & Chief Catalyst, Fito Network
Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy