Matthew Rich-Tolsma

Most leadership development still prioritises optimisation over human understanding.

After two decades of contemplative practice and work across contexts ranging from armed conflict in South Sudan, Syria, and Iraq to executive leadership teams in higher education, the arts, humanitarian organisations, and the public sector, I have become increasingly interested in what happens when people lose meaningful connection to themselves, to one another, and to the realities they are living within.

I consistently encounter organisations attempting to manage complexity through strategy, metrics, and governance frameworks while becoming progressively more disconnected from lived experience, relationship, and the emotional realities shaping institutional life beneath the surface.

My work draws on African and decolonial philosophy, psychoanalysis, social sculpture, developmental psychology, and critical pedagogy to help leaders, boards, and institutions develop deeper forms of relational intelligence: the capacity to remain thoughtful, connected, and responsive in the presence of uncertainty, conflict, difference, and rapid change.

Rather than forcing premature consensus or formulaic solutions, I work with groups to stay engaged with complexity. This includes questions of paradox, organisational anxiety, trust, power, fragmentation, and the unconscious dynamics that shape collective life.

Clients often tell me the work feels fundamentally different from conventional leadership retreats or away days. Less performance. Less abstraction. Less death by PowerPoint. More honesty, presence, reflection, and meaningful dialogue across difference.

Rooted in my South African background and years of work across Africa and the Middle East, my approach is grounded in human interdependence. I approach transformation not primarily as a technical challenge, but as a deeply relational, ethical, and embodied process.

Alongside my speaking and facilitation work, I maintain a therapy practice in Amsterdam and work internationally as an educator, facilitator, and organisational consultant. I serve as Pedagogue-in-Residence at ArtEZ University of the Arts, teach and supervise research in management and organisational life, and previously served as President of the Board of the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC).

If your organisation is looking for a more thoughtful and deeply human way of working with leadership, conflict, complexity, and change, feel free to reach out or book a conversation.