David Sibbet

David Sibbet is a master facilitator, process consultant, information designer, and pioneer of visual facilitation—the use of large-scale, interactive graphics to support group process in meetings, teams, and organizations. For more than 40 years he has been helping people work together by transforming their ability to communicate and collaborate in groups. He specializes in large-scale system change processes, strategic visioning, and creative, future-oriented symposia.

Sibbet is the founder of The Grove Consultants International, a San-Francisco-based organization development firm that has pioneered visual methods for working with groups. The Grove’s services and tools provide an integrated, creative way to engage people and organizations around a vision. In addition to his ongoing work with The Grove, he now co-directs The Grove’s Global Learning and Exchange Network (GLEN), a global learning community. 

The GLEN’s purpose is to evolve the methods and practices of collaboration within and across organizations and cultures. Sibbet is co-author (with Gisela Wendling, PhD) of Visual Consulting: Designing and Leading Change (2018), the fourth volume in the Visual Facilitation Series published by John Wiley & Sons. 

Sibbet also wrote many of The Grove’s integrated process-consulting tools and guides, including The Grove Facilitation Model and The Grove’s Facilitation book series. He also co-authored the Drexler/Sibbet/Forrester Team Performance™ System, the Sibbet/Le Saget Sustainable Organizations™ Model, and The Grove’s Visual Planning Systems.

Sibbet and The Grove work with organizations in all stages of development—leading strategic-visioning processes for groups and divisions, helping develop leadership and team development programs, and designing Grove Storymaps® to communicate visions and strategies. Sibbet and The Grove were involved with the growth of Apple Computer in the 1980s and facilitated the change-management team at National Semiconductor during its turnaround in 1990. 

Sibbet has worked with HP, Agilent Technologies Procter & Gamble, Juniper Networks, Autodesk, Otis Spunkmeyer, Nike, and Adobe. In addition to his private-sector work, David has sustained a diverse involvement with foundations and nonprofits like like UC San Francisco, UC Merced, Cal Poly Pomona, American Institute of Architects, Ford Foundation, Pacific Forest Trust, Save the Redwoods League, Yosemite National Park and the National Park Service.  

Over the years he has helped design and lead numerous board/staff retreats, strategy sessions, and cross-organizational social change projects. He shared a long partnership with the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park and has been a longtime member of both the Organizational Development Network and the International Forum of Visual Practitioners. He is current on the Board of the International Forum of Visual Practitioners Institute, a non-profit focused on bringing visualization to social action.

Sibbet holds a master’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University and a B.A. in literature from Occidental College. He was awarded a Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs in 1965 to study metropolitan public affairs in Los Angeles. Prior to founding The Grove, for eight years in the 1970s he was executive director and director of training for the Coro Center for Civic Leadership (now Coro), a leadership-development institute known for its pioneering work in experience-based education. He is a past chair of the Coro board.

Currently David is also President of the Board of California Poets in the Schools, a non-profit supporting practicing poets teaching in the classroom. In 2007, the Organization Development Network awarded David and The Grove its Membership Award for creative contributions to the field of organization development. David received ODN’s Lifetime Achievement award in 2013.