We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Miriam Jones. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Miriam below.

Miriam, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

About 12 years ago I had a sliding doors moment.

I was born in the States but lived most of my life in Australia. I had moved to LA with my then husband for his acting career. I had a successful business in Australia I had co founded using actors in change work in organizations – in fact it had been booming. We had built it from nothing to a 20 million dollar business with 50 employees and an A list client portfolio. It was becoming more and more obvious however that I could not manage it from the States.

There was also something else. I had set out on a mission to prove a point to myself (and probably to the world) that I could build a financially successful business that was centered in its decision making around its values. Not only was the business successful financially but it had kickstarted many people into new and successful careers. It had creatively expanded the market, it had led to a whole body of academic research around self efficacy in organizations and (maybe the biggest marker of success) we were starting to see others copy the sort of products we were offering.

So with all that success and kicking goals, why did it start to feel empty to me? What was this gnawing feeling inside of me that I needed to do something else?

Enter the sliding doors moment.

This is where it starts to get weird.

Something was gnawing at me. I kept on feeling like I wasn’t doing the work I was meant to be doing. My eyes and ears kept on picking up on signs of massive change coming in the market and the world. It also seemed to me that we were not equipped for this change. For a long time I had worked with behavioral change in organizations but more and more I saw that the way we were approaching systems change and cultural change was not working. It was like there was a missing link.

But I had no idea what to do with the inkling or where it would take me. I just felt this thread pulling me towards some unknown territory.

At the crux of this sliding doors moment was a weekend. We had travelled back to Australia from LA to be with my mother in law as she died. This had taken 4 months and following her death there was this choice. Do I stay here in Australia or do I go back to the States and pursue some mysterious undefined inkling. Over the course of this weekend when I had to make this decision several strange things happened.

I was at a party and a person came up to me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to have my cards read. I had never had this before and hardly knew her but lost in a sea of indecision, I decided “Hell why not?”

Without any chatter, she had me pull out three cards from the deck – past, present and future. She then read the descriptions of the cards from a book. She read the one from the past – yeah that was in the territory, from the present – yep confused that definitely played. Then she read the future one and the line that stood out to me was “You will return to the place of your birth and there you will find your souls calling.”

This woman had no idea of the choice in front of me or where I was born and when I heard those words they struck like a bell in my head.

The next morning my eldest son rang me. He had stayed behind in LA to complete his senior year at New Roads. He was excited but kind of nervous, “Mum I just had the weirdest experience. I have just been to this place in Ojai and all I could think about was you. I think you are going to work here or that it is going to kickstart a new career for you or something.”

Again he had no idea of what I was thinking about or the choice in front of me.

So this new phase of my life began.

I eventually sold my Australian company, moved to Ojai and, yes, through a series of “coincidences” starting working at the place my son had called me from. And this kickstarted me into the last ten years of my journey with my current company Open Circle that yes, works with people and organizations guiding them through this same journey of stepping through the known into unknown territory. To change not just their behavior but their mindset and the way they structure and make choices in their lives and for their business.

The risk for me was trusting this mysterious chain of events over a known success.

Where did it lead?

Well that is a story for part 2. Stay tuned!

Miriam, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

At Open Circle, we guide individuals, organizations, and communities through the complexity of transitions and change. Our work is about more than just problem-solving—it’s about helping people reconnect with the core of their mission and purpose, even as they evolve.

We’ve supported complex collaborations between government agencies, the military, and private industry, bringing together unlikely allies to radically team and use the diversity of their expertise to solve complex challenges. We’ve worked with startups navigating what felt like impossible transitions, ensuring they scale without losing the essence of what makes them unique. And we’ve partnered with nonprofits to help them not only define their mission but also embody it in how they work, lead, and serve.

At the heart of our approach is a deep understanding of transitions—drawn from Western science, wisdom traditions, and the natural world. We’ve found that the most effective way for people to listen to and respond to change is by stepping outside built environments and reconnecting with nature. By immersing individuals and teams in natural spaces, we help them access the universal cycles of change that shape our lives, projects, and organizations.

Our research partnership with the University of Utah’s Cognition Center has reinforced what we’ve long observed: time in nature significantly enhances social connectivity, mental and physical well-being, and the clarity needed to navigate challenges. The data is clear—removing people from rigid, human-made systems allows for more fluid, creative problem-solving and deeper self-efficacy.

One of the most common reflections we hear from those who work with us is that they leave asking different questions. When people shift the way they frame their challenges, entirely new perspectives and possibilities emerge.

Our process is rooted in four key stages:

1. Building Trust & Expanding Awareness – We start by deepening connection, fostering trust, and expanding the capacity to listen beyond assumptions.
2. Reframing Tension – Instead of trying to eliminate tensions and conflicts, we help people recognize which of them signal opportunities for creative transformation—whether in thinking, structure, or decision-making.
3.Aligning Power & Structure to Purpose – Rather than forcing change into rigid models, we help individuals and teams develop structures that support the way things naturally want to move.
4. Navigating the Natural Cycles of Change – Whether in personal growth or organizational evolution, transitions follow a cyclical rhythm—birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, elderhood, and renewal. Recognizing these natural phases helps guide decisions with more clarity and flow.

At Open Circle, we don’t just offer strategies—we offer a new way of seeing, thinking, and leading through change. Our work is about transformation at its deepest level, reconnecting people with the natural intelligence within themselves and the world around them.

Any advice for managing a team?

There is no three step process that will give you the right answer to working with people. I spent years teaching management three to five step processes for giving feedback, team building and situational leadership.

Any time you foreground a process with another human being trying to achieve human results, you will disable your ability to truly listen to them, the situation and what is needed.

That does not mean structures can not help you but the primary tool you have is to be able to listen to them, to be able to listen to the season you are in as a business and team and respond appropriately to that.

Keeling high morale looks like connection, not just like high fives.

It can mean the capacity to go through hard times together and stay connected and come through the other side.

Maintaining that as a managers means being transparent about the processes you are using to make decisions, being clear about what your role is and their role is and then walking alongside them.

Have you ever had to pivot?

You always teach what you need to learn yourself. Our business is about helping others with growth and transitions and this has been a painful lesson we have had to learn for ourselves in our business.

We got picked up by a high growth accelerator during COVID. There were many advisors telling us what we should be doing. We thought to achieve we had to follow their guidelines but more and more it started to become obvious that the business was growing into something that was so far away from who we were and what we wanted to do in the world. It took us away from our core principles instead of building on them and through them for our growth.

We ended up leaving the accelerator but it was a few more years of looking for other solutions outside of ourselves – trying to find the magic person or solution that would bring us what we wanted. After a few more painful partnerships that did not work out, we ended up stripping the business right back so we could build again from the foundations a house we actually wanted to live in.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.weareopencircle.com
• Instagram: @weareopencircle
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weareopencircle
• Linkedin: @we-are-open-circle
• Youtube: @weareopencircle4305

Image Credits

We took all these images on trips and at work