An athanor is the furnace at the centre of the alchemist’s workshop. Its work is patient: a constant, moderate heat held over weeks and months while the material inside moves through its changes. The alchemists read the state of the work from what the material showed them, and tended the fire accordingly.
We took the name because it describes the practice. We work one to one with leaders through rapid change and uncertainty, in the periods when an old coherence has loosened and a new one has yet to form. The work is formation rather than advice; it proceeds by doing, and it takes the person and their situation as a single system.
Who we are
Richard Merrick holds the thinking. He has spent a working life alongside leaders as adviser and writer.
Benjamin Merrick holds the delivery and the environment the work runs inside. His background is in the production of large open world games, where complex systems have to hold together under real players in real time.
Where this sits
The Athanor is the third of three rooms. Outside the Walls maps the changes dissolving a familiar world of work; New Artisans considers the craftsperson’s response. This room is closer in: the practice itself, written for the people we work with and the circle around them, and it assumes some shared ground.
What appears here
Discussion papers written to open a conversation. Notes worked up from the practice, with client material held in confidence. The occasional short practice document. Pieces arrive when the work produces them; we do not promise a schedule.
Subscribing
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Reply to anything; the best of this work began as a reply.
Simplify then lighten.
