Origins of 5toFold
In the late 90’s, working at the Pathfinder Elementary School in the USA, our dear friend and colleague Chris Weaver got inspired about new ways to make group-decisions. Chris first experimented with the kids at his school with this format, based on the wisdom of the Native American Indian traditions. Then he adjusted what he had learned to adult use and shared it within the Genuine Contact community; an international community of practice which is dedicated to life-nourishing ways of working in organizations.
Five to Fold decision-making (5toFold) has now been used for two decades in the Genuine Contact Organization. Marai, Thomas and several other collegues have used 5toFold with different organizations around the world.
Long term use within the Genuine Contact Organization
In September 2006 5toFold was used for a major decision with an international group of Genuine Contact trainers:
Since its creation, the Genuine Contact program had been owned by the two originators. In 2006 they chose to invite all trainers world-wide, who were ready to do so, to take co-leadership. With the help of 5toFold, a Co-ownership model was adopted.
This started the journey of testing and refining how we used 5toFold in the everyday life of the Genuine Contact organization (GCO) both in online and in-person meetings.
In 2014 a team formed to support the development of the practice of 5toFold.
This team also served the GCO with facilitation expertise. Inside the GCO we developed additional procedures to help with the creation of proposals. We also learned how to work with the method so that it serves the long-term harmonious development of an organization.
We became aware that using 5toFold inside an organization is a deep learning journey. It is mostly inspiring and joyful. On other occasions it is difficult, and it can even be painful. Much like living life fully.
How this website project came into being
In 2014, Chris Weaver and Thomas Herrmann had started an initiative by reaching out to Genuine Contact colleagues. Marai Kiele joined and soon became a co-leader of their initiative.
Together with several others, they formed an international team that took on stewardship for 5toFold in 2014 – 2015. It also supported the GCO in its decision-making, providing 5toFold facilitation support over several years.
In 2017, Chris Weaver left this life. 5toFold kept being valued by some, still unknown by most.
In 2019, Marai reached out to all former team members to re-kindle the spirit and create a 5toFold website together. Thomas was the one who joyously followed the invitation. We picked up where we had left it several years before, intensified our work with 5toFold, created 5toFold workshops and co-created this website.
In July 2022 we launched our website and started offering Intro to 5toFold workshops.
In May 2026 we chose to make our 2-pager, up until then accessibe during our workshops, freely available for download.
On a side note: This was our first international advertisement
Algarve, Portugal, July 1st 2022
