Connecting worlds.
Making things possible.
I'm Dr. Sohrab Noorsalehi Garakani. Curiosity has taken me through science, education, entrepreneurship, and the work of helping people grow.
The thread through my work.
Curiosity runs through my life: in science, in building things, and in trying to understand people. I care deeply about the possibilities young people grow into, and the conditions that help them use their abilities.
My work in education and with organizations is connected. I support young people in exploring who they are, what they care about, and how they want to contribute. I also work with leaders and teams to create environments where curiosity, creativity, and initiative can grow alongside responsibility and the demands of real work.
Helping young people find their way matters to me. So does changing what they find when they get there. I want to build bridges between education and the world of work so young people can shape their futures, contribute to society, and build lives they value. That commitment informs my work on leadership, organizational development, and AI.
Playing competitive basketball and coaching basketball taught me how closely individual and collective performance are connected. What each person brings changes what a team can do. A team can help people develop and perform or hold them back. That relationship still shapes how I work with people and organizations.
During my doctorate in geoscience and my work leading a university lab, I experienced the freedom to follow my curiosity, develop ideas, and take responsibility in a largely self-organized environment. I worked hands-on to develop new methodologies, tools, and products, both physical and digital. I also found that helping others learn mattered deeply to me.
My training as a scientist still shapes how I work. I look closely, distinguish observations from explanations, and ask what might challenge my current understanding. In coaching and organizational work, that inquiry includes people's experiences, relationships, and the systems around them. In innovation, it includes building and testing. Across these settings, the recurring movement is the same: observe, understand, change, and learn from what happens.
Teach First Deutschland brought those interests together through teaching and leadership development. Adaptive Leadership gave me a language for experiences I had already had as a coach, lab lead, and university teacher. It helped me distinguish leadership from authority, formal or informal, and see leadership as something we exercise through our actions. That opened up a question I still work with: how can more people become able to lead, whatever their position?
My subsequent work in innovation, team development, and self-organization has kept bringing me back to that connection: developing people's capabilities and creating the conditions in which they can use them.
I have also served in a shared CEO role at a geothermal energy venture, with a remit connecting technical assessment, organizational development, and strategy. My partner and I run our own company and are developing 2Morrow Lab, an early-stage venture combining AI, education, and social impact.
I enjoy a difficult question, an unexpected connection, and making something that works. I also care about the moments when people feel safe enough to speak honestly, reconsider something, or try a new direction.
I bring energy, intellectual intensity, and a willingness to challenge assumptions and the status quo. Expect careful listening, direct questions, and candid challenge. I question my own thinking, too. I care about matching the pace to the people and the work, and making room for you to think, disagree, and find your own way forward.
How I examine a situation.
We begin with a shared look at your situation. For a focused coaching session, that may be one concrete incident. For organizational work, it may involve interviews, observation, and operational information. We build enough understanding to act, then learn from what changes.
Scientific inquiry
As a scientist, I learned to distinguish observations from interpretations, state my assumptions, consider other explanations, and test ideas against evidence. I bring that discipline to conversations, prototypes, and practical trials, while recognizing the limits of what each can tell us.
Background readingAdaptive Leadership
I use Adaptive Leadership to distinguish technical problems, which existing expertise can resolve, from adaptive challenges. These often occur together. We ask what people need to learn, which beliefs and identities they may need to question, and what changes in priorities, habits, or relationships they face. We also examine what they stand to lose. That helps us choose where to act. A technical fix can leave the adaptive work untouched or make it harder.
Integral perspectives
Integral Theory's four quadrants help me ask what we might be overlooking. I consider the internal and external dimensions of individuals and groups: people's beliefs, feelings, and intentions; their observable actions; shared culture and meaning; and structures, processes, and technology.
Adult development
Robert Kegan's work helps me examine how we interpret our experience. We can learn to notice and question assumptions we usually take for granted. Changing how we act also takes practice, support, and experience. I use this perspective to ask questions about patterns and assumptions; I do not rank people by developmental stage.
Background readingDesign and experimentation
Design thinking brings attention to human needs, different perspectives, ideas, and prototypes. Lean Startup contributes ways to test assumptions about customer value and a viable business through Build–Measure–Learn. Life Design applies an exploratory approach to questions of life and work: reflect, imagine possibilities, have conversations, and try experiences before making larger commitments. These approaches inform my work in innovation and through 2Morrow Lab.
Background readingDecisions and feedback
Boyd's OODA loop, Observe–Orient–Decide–Act, connects observation, interpretation, decision, and action. It is another influence on how I work. These approaches have different origins; I draw on each according to the situation.
Background readingSelf-organization
I bring experience with self-organization, drawing on approaches including Holacracy, sociocracy, and living organizations. We explore how to distribute responsibility, clarify decision-making, and support people in taking ownership. That may mean adapting a hierarchy, developing self-governance, or combining elements of both.
I use these lenses to open up questions and test my understanding against experience, evidence, and other perspectives. They inform how I work with the particular situation in front of us.
Questions I'm still working on.
Sympoiesia
How can organizations combine AI-supported work with the human judgment, collaboration, and learning needed to make it work well?
I am developing Sympoiesia from client work and existing approaches to organizational development. It brings together value creation, people, and technology. I have not yet used the combined framework with clients.
2Morrow Lab
My partner and I are transforming our company into 2Morrow Lab, an early-stage venture at the intersection of AI, education, and social impact. We combine life-design workshops with AI tools to help young people explore who they are, what matters to them, and possible next steps.
I developed an interactive AI assistant that connects reflection with contrasting future scenarios, day-in-the-life stories, and routes through study or apprenticeships. I also built a related exploration system connecting 52 challenges and their subtopics with education and work. Pathway simulation is still in development.
Students use the tools in workshops and conversations, where they reflect and learn how different educational and career paths connect. We want them to see options they had not considered and choose an informed first step.
We are working to connect young people, schools, and universities with the people and organizations they may learn and work with.
I am still developing and testing these approaches.
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