Meet Your Guide
Shonna Murphy
Chief Exploration Officer
Community Builder | Transformative Change Strategist |Master Facilitator | Certified Leadership Coach | MA (c), Executive Leadership
Like the lodgepole pine, I believe transformation begins by creating the right conditions for growth.
Lodgepole pines thrive through resilience, adaptation, and renewal—qualities that reflect my approach to leadership. I help individuals, teams, and communities navigate complexity, engage with challenge, and discover new opportunities for growth.
I specialize in creating environments where people feel safe enough to explore, courageous enough to challenge, and supported enough to transform.
Through values-driven leadership, experiential learning, storytelling, and human-centered
facilitation, I help organizations build stronger teams, develop emerging leaders, and create lasting community impact. I have completed graduate coursework in Executive Leadership, with a focus on sustainable leadership practices, values-driven decision-making, organizational change, and creating the conditions for leaders and teams to thrive in a complex world. I am currently completing my thesis research exploring Essential Executive Leadership Practices—specifically, how leaders can intentionally create the conditions for themselves and their organizations to move through conflict, complexity, and uncertainty toward opportunity and growth. As a certified Leadership Coach and Facilitator, I bring over 20 years of experience in leadership development, experiential outdoor education, adventure programming, curriculum design, and community engagement. My work has spanned diverse sectors including non-profit organizations, municipalities, schools, First Nations communities, corporate environments, hospitality, and tourism. Across these settings, I have designed and facilitated leadership programs, organizational retreats, youth development initiatives, land-based learning experiences, and community engagement processes that connect people through shared purpose and meaningful experiences. My work has been recognized nationally through awards for innovative governance onboarding, customized leadership development, and community impact. In 2024, I was honoured as a Senator of Junior Chamber International (JCI), receiving recognition at the global level for my commitment to empowering people to create positive change in their communities. At Lodgepole Leadership, I believe challenge is not something to avoid—it is something we can intentionally engage with. Like fire in a forest ecosystem, the right conditions can transform disruption into renewal. My role is to help individuals, teams, and communities create those conditions for growth, connection, and lasting impact.
About Lodgepole Leadership
At Lodgepole Leadership, Our Purpose is Simple: We believe no one rises alone.
So, we create the conditions where people feel safe enough to explore, courageous enough to challenge, and empowered enough to lead change.
Like an interconnected ecosystem, individuals, teams, and communities are strengthened through relationship, reciprocity, shared knowledge, and a sense of belonging. When we create spaces where diverse voices, experiences, and ways of knowing are valued, we unlock the collective wisdom needed to navigate complexity and create meaningful change.
The challenges we face today cannot be solved through individual effort alone. The future requires collaboration, curiosity, and a willingness to learn from one another. By bringing people together with intention, we create opportunities for shared understanding, collective action, and lasting impact.
The Lodgepole SPECS
Our Guiding Values
Every decision we make is guided by these five values to intentionally cultivate and create meaningful learning experiences, authentic connections, and lasting transformations.
SAFETY
Growth begins with trust.
We cultivate physical, emotional, and psychological safety so people feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves forward, taking risks, asking difficult questions, and engaging in honest conversations.
Without safety, there can be no meaningful learning or transformation.
PLAY
Connection happens through curiosity, creativity, and joy.
Play is not about being silly—it is about creating openness, exploration, and engagement. When people are invited to participate, experiment, and discover together, learning becomes more meaningful and memorable.
Traditional approaches often focus on delivering information. We believe lasting learning happens when people are actively involved—when they can experience, reflect, discuss, and apply new ideas in ways that connect to their own lives.
Through storytelling, movement, games, creativity, and experiential activities, we create opportunities for people to build relationships, explore new perspectives, and make meaning together.
Play reminds us that growth does not have to be intimidating to be transformational. When people are engaged, curious, and connected, they are more open to learning, adapting, and creating change.
EXPERIENCE
Experience creates the opportunity. Reflection creates the learning.
We believe meaningful transformation doesn't happen by simply receiving information—it happens when people actively engage, reflect, and make meaning from their experiences. Every workshop, coaching session, retreat, and community engagement is intentionally designed to create shared experiences that spark curiosity, build relationships, and encourage new ways of thinking. We don't believe in off-the-shelf programming. Every experience is bespoke—thoughtfully crafted around the unique people, purpose, and place it is intended to serve. Through guided reflection, storytelling, dialogue, and experiential learning, we help people connect what they experienced to who they are, what they value, and how they choose to lead. Because people may forget what was said, but they remember how an experience made them think, feel, and grow.
COURAGE
Transformation requires courage.
Courage to ask difficult questions.
Courage to challenge assumptions.
Courage to have honest conversations.
Courage to lead differently.
We believe challenge isn't something to avoid—it's where growth begins.
STEWARDSHIP
Leadership is an act of service.
We believe leadership carries a responsibility to care for the people, places, and relationships entrusted to us. Stewardship asks us to honour the wisdom of those who came before us, contribute with intention in the present, and create opportunities for future generations to thrive.
Whether working with organizations, communities, or the natural world, we strive to lead in service of the common good—recognizing that our actions ripple far beyond ourselves.
Stewardship reminds us that leadership isn't about individual success—it's about contributing to something larger than ourselves.
Lodgepole Leadership Consulting, we take a practical, human-centered, and values-driven approach to leadership development. Our work is grounded in authentic connection, purpose alignment, and sustainable impact. Our approached is designed to help people, teams, communities, and organizations reach their full potential in service of the common good.
Our Approach
What We Do
Across generations. Across systems. Across communities.
Bespoke leadership development, facilitation, and community engagement designed for diverse audiences—from emerging leaders and youth to executives, boards, and communities navigating complexity.
Strategic Project Leadership and Implementation
Bringing meaningful ideas to life requires more than a plan—it requires alignment, collaboration, and the ability to navigate complexity. We support organizations, communities, and teams in moving projects from vision to impact by creating the structures, relationships, and conditions needed for success.
From early-stage planning and stakeholder alignment to implementation and evaluation, we help coordinate people, resources, and priorities to ensure projects remain connected to their original purpose. Our approach combines strategic thinking, relationship-building, and values-driven decision-making to support initiatives that create lasting impact.
Whether launching a new community initiative, developing a new program, or bringing a complex vision into reality, we help transform ideas into action while ensuring the people most connected to the work are part of the journey.
Stakeholder Engagement
A human-centered approach that explores the connections between people, place, and purpose to create alignment and shared understanding. We focus on building trust and collaboration, charting a path forward with the least resistance and the greatest collective impact.
Values- Driven Change Management
A structured, step-by-step process that aligns people with organizational goals through shared values, meaningful engagement, and authentic buy-in. We help organizations navigate change with clarity and compassion—achieving sustainable results and strengthening culture in the process.
Coaching for Growth
One-on-one leadership coaching that creates a safe space for reflection, learning, and transformation. We help leaders refine their skills, make better decisions, and build the confidence to lead with integrity and purpose—unlocking their capacity to serve others and their organization’s mission.
Experiential Training and Curriculum Development
Tailored workshops and learning journeys that strengthen teams, enhance collaboration, and inspire a shared sense of purpose. Each program is designed to build capacity, foster trust, and cultivate the conditions for meaningful, lasting cultural change.
Facilitation
Engaging, interactive sessions that go beyond theory to focus on real-world leadership challenges. We use experiential methods that invite participants to learn through doing, connect deeply with one another, and practice the mindsets and behaviors that drive transformation.
Youth Leadership
Uniquley positioned and skilled in transfering leadership knowledge and practise from an adult audience to youth using experiential methods that ensure the voices of the youth in your community and/or organization are heard and hold equal weight. Through active participation and engagment, we hold youth capbable of being leaders in their community. After all, your youth will be inheriting the decisions you are making today.
How We Do It
Relationship Before Results
Meaningful change begins with connection.
We take the time to understand people, places, histories, and perspectives before moving toward solutions. Strong relationships create the trust necessary for honest conversations, collaboration, and sustainable transformation.
Human-Centered Leadership
People are at the heart of every organization and community.
We recognize that every person brings unique experiences, knowledge, strengths, and stories. We design our work around the people involved, creating environments where individuals feel respected, valued, and empowered to contribute.
Belonging Through Shared Purpose
We believe people are most engaged when they understand how their contributions connect to something greater.
Through shared purpose, storytelling, and meaningful dialogue, we help individuals and groups discover the common threads that connect them.
Courageous Curiosity
Growth requires the willingness to explore what is possible.
We approach complexity with curiosity rather than judgment, creating space for difficult conversations, new perspectives, and innovative thinking. We believe challenge is an invitation to learn.
Learning Through Experience
Transformation happens through experience, reflection, and connection.
Through experiential education, facilitation, storytelling, and land-based learning, we create opportunities for people to build knowledge together and apply learning in meaningful ways.
Stewardship & Reciprocity
Leadership is a responsibility to ourselves, each other, and the world around us.
Inspired by land-based approaches, we believe in reciprocal relationships where knowledge is shared, contributions are valued, and people recognize their role within a larger ecosystem.
