inspiring hope
GROUNDSWELL
why now
In a world where AI handles more cognitive labor,
human relationship becomes the ultimate differentiator.
As institutions become more digitized and AI automates transactional work, three critical shifts are happening:
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Human connection becomes precious and scarce while being more essential than ever
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Performative communication creates distance from reality, making systems listening vital
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The gap between stated values and lived reality widens, requiring new frameworks for authentic alignment
Organizations that learn to listen beneath the performance, design for dignity, and operate as living systems will thrive. Those that don't will become irrelevant, no matter how sophisticated their technology.
Ruth Silver operates in the critical space between systems intelligence and human wisdom—helping institutions navigate becoming more sophisticated without losing their humanity. As an organizational ecologist, she reveals the invisible dynamics that actually govern how organizations function, then transforms them into sources of strategic advantage.
Our clients don't just want change—they sense something unnamed standing in the way. That "something" is often the organizational DNA: unspoken beliefs, inherited language, and relational patterns that dictate how people actually work together. Ruth makes these invisible systems visible, then helps leaders redesign them so people want to be there—coming to work every day bringing their all because they find joy, togetherness, and truth in their work.
Groundswell is a boutique firm that serves clients committed to making a positive impact. We are known for the warmth with which we guide our clients to see problems clearly, make informed decisions about the future and make transformation attainable. With a process that ensures curiosity and open minds, we identify stakeholder needs, reveal underlying issues and design a roadmap for your success.
What Makes This Work Different
Ruth integrates approaches that are rarely combined:
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Listening as Strategic Intelligence - hearing what systems can't capture
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Relational Service Design - building for networks, not just individuals
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Regenerative Strategy - aligning teams to thrive rather than growth only focus
how we work
Organizational Listening Intensive
One day. Immediate clarity. $2,500.
Something feels off in your organization, but you can't quite name it. Decision-making feels harder than it should. Good people seem frustrated. Initiatives stall for reasons that don't make sense on paper.
In one intensive day, Ruth reveals the invisible dynamics actually governing your organization. Through strategic listening sessions with key stakeholders, she surfaces the unspoken patterns, inherited beliefs, and relational dynamics that are either driving or blocking your goals.
What you get:
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6 strategic listening conversations across your organization
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Real-time pattern recognition and synthesis
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End-of-day presentation revealing what's actually happening beneath the surface
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Strategic recommendations for immediate shifts
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Clear roadmap for deeper transformation (if desired)
Perfect for:
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Leaders who sense something's blocking progress but can't identify what
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Organizations considering larger transformation work
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Teams hitting invisible barriers to change
Next step: Most clients book deeper engagements within 30 days of their Intensive.
Strategic Advisory
Direct partnership with CEOs and executive teams
Monthly sessions: Ruth works alongside senior leaders to identify and transform the invisible systems that govern organizational behaviour. Recent advisory work includes guiding a healthcare foundation through a fundamental shift from transactional to relational strategy, and helping a cultural institution redesign their governance model to bridge community wisdom with institutional decision-making.
Corporate Retreats: When teams are stuck in "how we've always done it," sometimes you need to literally change the environment. Ruth designs transformative retreat experiences that help leadership teams embody nature-based organizing principles. These immersive sessions move beyond traditional team-building to help executives experience living systems thinking firsthand—creating breakthrough moments that translate into organizational transformation.
Case study: City of Toronto Climate Advisory Group
Co-designed a new governance model for civic participation and facilitated quarterly meetings connecting citizen advisors with city staff and co-chairs for climate action, adaptation and mitigation.
Scope: 6-12 month retainer engagements, 2-3 day retreat experiences
Timeline: Monthly strategic sessions with quarterly deep-dive workshops, retreats as catalytic moments
Large-Scale Transformation
Six-month to multi-year institutional change
Complete redesign of how institutions listen, relate, and grow. We tackle complex systems change through integrated listening, relational service design, and regenerative strategy.
Case study: Hamilton Wentworth District School Board
After the pandemic, 55,000 students, 7,500 staff and their families were exhausted and let down by the education system. New leadership wanted an anti-racist, anti-oppression, trauma-informed approach. Groundswell led a youth-centered process that engaged over 4,000 community members to collaboratively write a strategic plan aligning disparate dreams for one shared future.
Scope: 6-24 month engagements
Timeline: 3-month listening phase, 6-month co-design, implementation support
Insights & Innovation Research
Deep ethnographic work that reveals how your organization needs to show up today
We uncover not just what people need, but how relational dynamics shape those needs. Our research reveals hidden patterns that traditional market research misses, providing teams with strategic intelligence about human behaviour in complex systems.
Case study: Let's Talk Science
We hired 100 high school student researchers across Canada to interview their friends about climate action. From 848 interviews, findings revealed we haven't created ways for teens to participate in climate action. Young people want positive, social, ongoing, experiential, nature-based experiences aligned with their life goals.
Case study: ServiceOntario
Led 56 ethnographic interviews with diverse youth across Ontario, including LGBTQ2SIA, northern, racialized and people with disabilities. Recommended future state services that build reciprocal relationships between young people and government, reimagining high school curriculum, digital ID, data consent for minors, becoming a driver, applying for post-secondary education, and getting a health card.
Scope: 3-6 month research engagements
Timeline: 6-8 weeks fieldwork, 4-6 weeks analysis and strategic synthesis
Organizational Learning
Building internal capacity for transformation
Custom programs that help teams learn to see and work with the living systems they're part of. Through experiential approaches, we build capabilities for strategic listening, relational service design, and regenerative planning.
Case study Casey House: Through a co-design approach with an HIV Hospital, we redesigned 3 healthcare services designed around client, staff and peer needs. By revealing underlying barriers to the care they wanted to give, we built trust and inspired transformation. We worked alongside the Knowledge & Strategy team, embedding design approaches within their scope of practice.
Scope: 3-12 month capacity building
Timeline: Monthly workshops with project-based application
who we serve
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Institutional leaders who sense that traditional approaches aren't sufficient for the challenges they face
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Organizations committed to positive impact but hitting walls with conventional change management
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Innovation teams seeking deeper insight into the customer experience, relational dynamics and services that drive or block transformation
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Systems thinkers who recognize that technical solutions alone won't address complex organizational challenges
ruth's story
Ruth Silver is the founder of Groundswell; founded 3 months after she gave birth to twins. In that magical moment of feminine power it made perfect sense to demonstrate to her daughters her dedication to tikkun olam; a Jewish concept that describes our responsibility to repair and bring harmony to the world.
Ruth has 20 years of experience in Design and Strategy, a career of being an Organizational Ecologist. She has a Masters in Design from Harvard, and before becoming an entrepreneur ,worked with Annie Liebowitz and Bruce Mau. At Groundswell, our teams are highly skilled to help you create meaningful, lasting, and impactful change.
credo
We are curious, open-minded and humble learners.
We are focused on how we can give over what we can take.
We are committed to making the invisible visible, the unsaid heard.
We ask hard questions, listen with two ears and go where others don’t.
We vision systems that promote justice, equity and longevity.
We bring our whole selves to these pursuits and welcome the whole selves of others.
If nothing else, let us have interesting and meaningful problems.
Let their solutions demand all of our creative reserves.
Let the destination be ambitious and the route unfamiliar.
Let our travelling companions be curious and courageous.
Let us be truly changed by the time we reach the place we’re headed to.
speaking
Ruth offers a rare perspective in our AI-accelerated world: the wisdom to help institutions become more human, not less. Her speaking addresses the central question of our time—how do we design systems that amplify our collective humanity?
Signature Topics
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Using Biomimicary to Create Living Systems Strategic Models: A living framework that demonstrates how deep listening, network thinking, and ecological metaphors transform organizational planning from mechanical to living systems thinking.
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Listening as Leadership: Seeing What Systems Can't Hear: Why deep listening is strategic intelligence and how it transforms outcomes. As AI handles more data processing, the ability to hear what's beneath the surface becomes a critical leadership differentiator.
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Beyond Individual User Experience: Designing for Relationships: Most systems treat people as isolated users. But in real life, no one makes decisions or accesses services alone. This talk introduces relational intelligence as a competitive edge.
Recent Engagements
Ontario Association of Child and Youth Care (2025) - Keynote
Over 1000 members, "Listening as Leadership"
Service Design Network Next Gen Conference (2025) - Panel
Panel of 4, "The Invisible Work of Service Design: Building Influence, Trust & Measurable Impact"
Health Design Program (2025) - Guest Speaker
University of Toronto Health By Design, "Service Design for Dignity"
I-Think Speaker Series (2025) - Keynote
Grade 6-12 classrooms, "Connecting With Nature"
LeadX (2024) - Keynote
250 ServiceOntario Employees, "Future of Government Services: Design for Life Experiences"
Perfect For
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Executive teams in health, finance, and digital sectors ready for relationship-centered transformation
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Service design & UX leaders seeking to evolve beyond individual-focused approaches
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Public innovation teams redesigning services around human dignity
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Cultural sector leaders connecting institutional legacy with future relevance
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Foundations implementing values-based strategy