About | Bickford Collaboration | Twin Cities Minnesota

About Bickford Collaboration

2020 - Barb and Mike - Block Portrait St

Barb Bickford, Owner and Principal

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I'm a science-based professional
who learned how to work collaboratively.

I got into collaboration after decades of (mostly) lousy
meetings in government and non-profits.

I see changing meetings as a leverage point for
all sorts of good things that are waiting to happen
once the drama and drudgery are cleared away!

Many of my clients are professionals in
science-based organizations. Others are in non-profits,
businesses or faith-based organizations.

I help all my clients transform themselves,
their events/meetings, and their organization's results

I love working with people who are creative,
practical, enthusiastic, willing to try new things and
want to make this world a better, healthier place!

I hate boring meetings.

I prefer using approaches that are easy to use,
practical, effective, versatile, positive
and relatively low cost,
I believe tech tools should not get in the way.

Tech should connect people and their
purpose. Period.

I work with groups through the lens of integral facilitation.

That is, I consider what is going on outside
(tasks, results, environments and processes)

and balance those with what is going inside
(within the facilitator and the group)

My go-to methods are liberating structures
such as the Ecocycle
I use them in nearly every meeting I lead
because they engage everyone
and are both efficient and effective.

I also use convergent facilitation,
appreciative inquiry, positive strategic planning, clean
language, positive agreements.
Learn more at
approaches for changing meetings for good.

Here's what I offer:

Experience in public health, the environment, government, non-profits, small business, facilitation, collaboration and training
Knowledge of how to tap the wisdom of everyone in your group and how to help you to do the same, using approaches that are versatile and effective
Acceptance of you, of your group and of things as they are

Who I am as a professional

There I was, an introverted fact-oriented

Professional Geologist (PG) in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, in my cubicle,

happily reviewing groundwater data and technical
plans for landfills.

Suddenly, I got a mid-career assignment

to coordinate Wisconsin's Medical Waste program.

It required me to work closely with people.
How would I do that? What did I know about healthcare -- let alone collaboration?

I set about learning, and I continue to learn

Although shifting gears wasn't easy, I grew to

become well-known statewide and nationally
for collaborating on challenging and emerging issues such as reducing pharmaceutical waste

and managing highly infectious waste.

I observed first-hand how collaborative
leadership (or lack of it) can impact results.
I now focus on guiding people to
transform their resuls and make a greater impact
by transforming their meetings and themselves

Who I am as a person

I've been focused on improving water quality since my first Earth Day.

from preventing groundwater contamination
to recycling and reducing waste
to changing public policies that create waste
to transforming how we meet and supporting leaders to do the same --

-- I'm always moving upstream

I've been moving upstream personally too,

transforming myself by embracing life challenges

such as overcoming low-self esteem, living with persons who have a mental illness,

divorcing, being a single parent, losing a child,

supporting aging parents and starting a business.

I live in a small town near St. Paul, MN,

with my family and a cat who thinks it's human. My husband and I are both Minnesota Water Stewards. We keep busy planting trees, pulling buckthorn and planning our next canoe trip.

And I do what I can to improve the environment as a business, as well.

Read my Green Business scorecard here