When We Gather: Relationships, Innovation and Harmony

June 26, 2025

When We Gather: Relationships, Innovation and Harmony

PERSPECTIVES | By Emily Williams

How ACTIVATE40 used deep connection to spark housing innovation in Colorado.

The best ideas are rarely born in isolation. True progress–the kind that invites risk-tolerant innovation and produces stronger, healthier communities–is built in communion.

Humans are wired to work together; ours is a deeply prosocial species. Unfortunately, we’re increasingly disconnected from one another, a truth that doesn’t just make us feel bad on the individual level, but actually undermines our capacity for innovation, for compassion, and for building toward the future we want for ourselves and for the communities we call home. To advance solutions that can transform systems and expand horizons of possibility, we must actively invest in the social fabric that empowers us to collaborate and thrive. Relationships matter where innovation is concerned. 

This belief drives our Partnerships & Convening work at Gary Community Ventures, fueling our investment in bringing together social impact leaders across Colorado and the country. We know that when humans gather around shared purpose and invest in the invisible, essential asset of relationships, they’re better positioned to unlock synergy, the magic prerequisite for transformation.

Over my career as a facilitator, I have experienced that magic–of communion, of synergy, of harmony–many times. But earlier this month, in the presence of 40 of the most influential affordable housing leaders in Colorado, I experienced it for the first time in song–literally. 

In recent years, Colorado has made significant strides in affordable housing, thanks to bold policies, increased public funding, and dedicated leadership. Yet, the need in our state is still huge, and the solutions needed at scale are ones that, without question, require cross-sector collaboration.

This is why we built ACTIVATE40: a three-day retreat designed to push beyond talk and into action. Born out of ASSEMBLE100 Housing, a national summit held in Fall 2023 for the purpose of moving net new capital into housing affordability, ACTIVATE40 narrowed the scope of focus to Colorado and charged the attendees with seeding a landscape of new investable ideas. 40 housing developers, funders, government leaders, entrepreneurs, and policymakers came together at Lone Rock Retreat in Bailey, Colorado to activate around this charge. The core idea was simple: If we invest in strengthening relationships between the leaders in the system, can they collectively build a Colorado with more affordable and abundant housing? If they could ascend their individual work in service of the whole, could new possibilities emerge?

The short answer is yes. In working groups, on hiking trails, and over campfires, some of the brightest minds in our state’s housing community designed promising and bold Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) across creative financing, land use, and homeownership. These MVPs were ambitious, collaborative, and not one could have been designed or executed by a single entity. In groupings both intuitive and unlikely, ACTIVATE40 participants tabled their individual work and offered their expertise in service of advancing systems-level solutions in housing. In two short days, ideas became conversations and conversations became tangible, accountable plans. 

But the longer, human-centered answer to the question of new possibilities, began with a late-night phone call.

It was 11 p.m., our final night of the retreat. Concerning thoughts (i.e., who was hurt and how quickly could we get off this mountain?), shifted to slight annoyance (I was almost asleep), then amusement, as my teammate, Julie, began to sing to me. It is important to note that this was neither common nor expected. She went on to explain that the acoustics in the yoga room at the retreat center were that of an opera house, incredibly rare. She put me on speaker, placed the phone on the ground, and proceeded to serenade me.  It was unexpected and lovely and vulnerable.

The next morning, as our group gathered for the final half-day of our retreat, I invited them to reflect on a moment of unexpected beauty. I modeled by sharing the story of my late-night lullaby, which was met with blushing, applause, and a jubilance characteristic of a jelled group. Laughter subsided, more moments were offered, and we proceeded into the final portion of our planned programming. Or, most of us did. 

Julie had found a friend, and with the mischievousness and subtlety characteristic of small children, they “snuck” off together to sing, returning moments before the closing of the retreat with a request: Could they offer a closing meditation in song to the group?

The highly planful facilitator in me looked into their eager eyes and thought, ladies, you have got to be kidding me. After months of planning, our final 30 minutes together was the space and time where commitments would be made, next steps were articulated, and leaders with immense influence charting a collective path forward for systems-change solutions in housing. 

They blinked and smiled, hopefully. I blinked and pursed my lips. With equal parts resignation and curiosity, reminding myself to get out of the way when magic is clearly unfolding in front of you, I said yes. 

And so, in a yoga room in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, our retreat ended in literal harmony. A philanthropic funder and a government housing leader, strangers three days earlier, united a room in meditation, in gratitude, in magic. 

This unexpected closing was a profoundly human moment and underscored what we instinctively know: We are greater than the sum of our parts, and our ability to advance truly significant work in complex systems fundamentally relies on the relationships between the people within those systems. And, when we are disconnected, or connecting ineffectively, we limit our impact both individually and as a whole in service of community.

Ultimately, the future we envision for Colorado’s affordable housing system—one of innovation, abundance, and equity—hinges on our collective willingness to invest in meaningful human connection, transforming individual efforts into a symphony of shared purpose and tangible progress, and proving that, together, we can build a more harmonious Colorado.

DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

EMILY WILLIAMS

Emily has spent her career connecting people, ideas, and capital in service of sparking meaningful partnerships and advancing audacious goals. As the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Gary Community Ventures, she designs and leverages engagement opportunities with aligned funders to create collaborative, breakthrough solutions. 


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