A Reflection on Identity, Practice & 26 Years of Becoming
In my last two writings, I looked back across twenty-six years of On9 Systems and set the manifesto for the next decade.
This piece is different.
It’s not about the timeline or the strategy.
It’s about the shape of the self that grew through all of it.
Because after twenty-six years, the question is no longer What did I do?
but What did the work shape me into?
And what shape do I need to become next?
The metaphors that now feel most true are not linear ones.
They are living, breathing, ecological.
This is a story of a tree.
A forest.
A map.
A long road.
And the ongoing work of becoming.
🌱 1. Roots Before Branches: The Ground I Grew From
Before frameworks, before clients, before communities, there were roots:
- engineering, architecture, systems thinking
- UX, research, product leadership
- coaching, facilitation, Satir & Gestalt
- somatic practices and the use-of-self
- community building, unconferences, shared learning circles
None of these were planned in a straight line.
They grew out of necessity first, curiosity second, and meaning third.
Together they formed the underground system that allowed everything else to live.
A tree with one root is fragile.
A tree with many roots survives storms.
Twenty-six years taught me that depth isn’t a vertical line —
it’s an interconnected root network.
🌳 2. The Trunk: Integrative Practice
A trunk forms slowly, almost invisibly.
Mine emerged through:
- thousands of conversations
- hundreds of workshops
- long cycles of listening, sensing, adjusting
- years of walking into complex rooms and learning how to stay present
The trunk is where all the fields meet:
Agile + Product + UX + Experiential learning + Systems thinking
Open Space + Satir + Gestalt + SPT + Circle Way
Structure + Emergence
Discipline + Play
This integration became the centre of my practice.
Clients often describe it not as “content” but as clarity,
coherence,
and a shift in how they see themselves and their system.
That is trunk work.
🍃 3. The Canopy: The Wide Forest of Practice
No tree grows alone.
The work only became meaningful when it became a forest —
a network of communities, collaborators, alumni, volunteers, partners, and friends across Southeast Asia.
- Product Beer + Tonic (meetups, retreats, labs, unconferences)
- Agile communities across SG, MY, ID, TH, VN, PH, JP
- UX communities across SG, MY, ID, PH, HK
- Satir Circle Singapore
- Social Presencing Theater Asia
- The Collab Folks’ 10-year ecosystem of learning
Every workshop, every retreat, every coaching program became another clearing in the forest —
a place for people to gather, experiment, and grow.
This is when I realised the truth:
I wasn’t building a consulting practice.
I was tending an ecosystem.
And ecosystems, unlike businesses, don’t scale.
They succession.
From opportunistic groundcover
to stable shrubs
to pioneer trees
to old-growth learning environments that sustain themselves.
This is the heart of the 7-layer food forest metaphor we use at The Collab Folks:
- groundcover new ideas and markets
- root crops volunteerism and community building
- herbs/shrubs workshops and experiments
- pioneer trees leadership circles, retreats
- canopy trees long-term in-house programs
- climbers cross-regional partnerships
- old growth long-term purpose work (education, mental health, social impact)
A healthy forest grows by layering —
not by rushing.
🧭 4. The Cartographer: Helping Others Find Their Way
Across the years, my work shifted from being a “teacher” or “coach”
to becoming a cartographer.
Every team, every organisation is a terrain:
with ridges, rivers, obstacles, hidden paths and weather patterns.
My work now is to help others:
- see the terrain they are actually in
- locate themselves within it
- notice the forces shaping the landscape
- and draw their own maps forward
Clients often tell me they “see the room differently” after our sessions.
That I help them “surface what was invisible but shaping everything.”
This is the mapmaker’s role.
Not to give directions.
But to reveal the landscape.
🚴 5. The Long-Distance Cyclist: Moving Through Complexity
The final metaphor comes from my own life.
Cycling taught me how to move through long distances, long seasons, and long uncertainties:
- how to breathe through steep climbs
- how to trust the slow pace
- how to navigate weather
- how to keep momentum without burning out
- how to listen to the body and the terrain
- how to ride together, not ahead
This is exactly how long-term organisational change moves:
Not in sprints,
but in endurance,
presence,
and the maturity to know when to push, when to coast, and when to rest.
A long-distance cyclist learns to love the road —
not because it is easy,
but because it is alive.
This is how I now meet complexity.
🌌 6. A Coherent Identity for the Next Decade
After twenty-six years, I no longer see myself as:
- a generalist or specialist
- a consultant or trainer
- a coach or facilitator
These labels never held the full story.
The metaphors do.
🌳 I am a living tree rooted in diverse practices.
🌲 I am part of a forest of people, communities and relationships.
🧭 I am a cartographer helping others navigate their landscapes.
🚴 I am a long-distance cyclist travelling through complexity with presence and flow.
🌾 And with my collaborators, we are tending a food forest —
where learning regenerates, communities sustain themselves,
and long-term purpose grows quietly, patiently, season by season.
This identity feels true for the next decade of On9 Systems.
Not a company.
Not a brand.
But a living practice.
A regenerative ecosystem.
A forest I continue to tend,
even as new trees rise and others take root.
The work of becoming continues —
and the forest grows on.
Michael Ong 