--- title: "Torus, Ecosystems of Change" description: "Your organization is running on borrowed time. Torus helps mission driven organizations and the funders behind them govern their own. Torus Ecosystems of Change, formerly Temporality Lab." url: https://torus.eco/ language: en direction: ltr translation_status: original original_languages: [en, pt] updated: 2026-11-04 site_version: 35 publisher: Torus Ecosystems of Change license: Short quotations with credit and a link are welcome. See https://torus.eco/terms --- For foundations, NGOs, cultural institutions and the funders who support them. # Your organization is running on borrowed time. We help it govern its own. Meet less, decide with meaning and presence, and keep your people, in a moment when AI is setting the pace for everyone. [Book a 30 minute clarity call](https://app.aura-app.ai/tlab/clarity-call) [Find your way in](https://torus.eco/#start-en) 30 minutes, to see what fits. ## From where you are to where you want to be Your team stops running on someone else's clock and sets its own pace, through things you keep, not one more conversation. ### Now: borrowed time - Funders, reports and the pace of AI decide the strategy. - Decisions wait for a meeting, and the meeting ends without one. - The people who care the most are the most tired. ### Then: a rhythm of your own - Fewer meetings, and decisions made with presence. - People who still have the energy to care. - A team that sets the pace of its own AI decisions. Chronos is the clock others set for you. Kairós is the moment you can read and act on. **That is where this work happens and we can help.** ## Five sentences, a free first look ### Which one sounds like you? Choose the sentence you have said, or heard, most this month. We tell you who we hear, then what fits. No email, no form. - We feel the pace and cannot say whose clock we are living on. - We adopted AI tools without agreeing at what pace, or for what. - We have more meetings than decisions. - If one key person left tomorrow, part of our why would leave with them. - Our calendar is set by funders, reports and deadlines that are not ours. Nothing chosen yet. There is no wrong answer. ## Ways in ### Choose the result you need most. Each way in tells you what you leave with, and by when. Each way in turns the circle of the year: a quarter for ninety days, the whole year for a partnership. 01 Start here Threshold Reading #### Three key decisions in four weeks Four weeks What we hear > “We feel the pace and cannot say whose clock we are living on.” Where it goes Three decisions your leadership will act on. What you get 3 - Interviews with your team - A threshold session with your leadership - A written reading More detail What changes - A shared language for what is happening to your time. - Three decisions your leadership agrees to act on. - A clear view of whether a longer partnership makes sense, before you commit to one. **We measure together.** Decisions recorded per hour of meeting, recurring meeting hours, and days from raised to decided on your three biggest open questions. **What we ask of you.** One coordinator, access to the people we interview, and your leadership in the session. How it begins A 30 minute call to see if this fits. If it does, you receive a written proposal with scope, dates and price. [Write to us](https://torus.eco/#inv) [Download this page (PDF)](https://torus.eco/guide/one-pagers/torus-threshold-reading-en.pdf)02 First rhythm 90 Day Transition Strategy #### A meeting ritual and a decision ritual in 90 days Three months What we hear > “Decisions wait for a meeting, and the meeting ends without one.” Where it goes A first rhythm in use: a new meeting rule, a new decision rule and your own written strategy. What you get 3 - A monthly session with your leadership - Support in between - The strategy your team writes and keeps More detail What changes - A meeting rule and a decision rule your team actually uses. - A Transition Strategy written by your own people. - A first quarter of practice, with someone beside you. **We measure together.** The same numbers at day 90, against where you started. **What we ask of you.** Your leadership at the monthly sessions, and one person who owns the rules in daily practice. How it begins A 30 minute call to see if this fits. If it does, you receive a written proposal with scope, dates and price. [Write to us](https://torus.eco/#inv) [Download this page (PDF)](https://torus.eco/guide/one-pagers/torus-90-day-transition-strategy-en.pdf)03 The core Annual partnership #### A year of governing your own time Twelve months What we hear > “Our calendar is set by funders, reports and an AI race nobody chose.” Where it goes A team that governs its own time, and an archive of what it learned. What you get 5 - Four movements, one per quarter - A monthly leadership session - A quarterly team gathering - A keynote for your community - The Transition Guide and the Transmission Archive More detail What changes - A team that governs its own time. - Four quarters of change, each built on the one before. - An archive of what you learned, so it stays when people leave. **We measure together.** The same numbers every quarter, and an archive that stays when people leave. **What we ask of you.** A leadership sponsor, the quarterly team gathering in your calendar, and one person who keeps the archive with us. How it begins A 30 minute call to see if this fits. If it does, you receive a written proposal with scope, dates and price. [Write to us](https://torus.eco/#inv) [Download this page (PDF)](https://torus.eco/guide/one-pagers/torus-annual-partnership-en.pdf)04 One event Keynote #### One talk, one question One event, a question that stays What we hear > “We have an audience, and we want people to leave with a question, not a speed.” Where it goes A shared question everyone carries out the door. What you get 3 - A talk for your event - A threshold question to continue with - Your theme or one of ours More detail What changes - Everyone leaves with one shared question. - A new way to speak about time in your community. - A question to continue with after the event is over. How it begins Tell us about the event: date, audience and theme. We reply with a written proposal with scope and price. [Write to us](https://torus.eco/#inv) [Download this page (PDF)](https://torus.eco/guide/one-pagers/torus-keynote-en.pdf) Want to hear from someone who has been through it? [Ask for a reference conversation](https://torus.eco/#inv) [Ways in for leaders, founders and people in transition. See the path for you](https://torus.eco/foryou) ## When to begin Partnerships begin on the solstices and equinoxes, four doors a year. New institutional partnerships are open for 2027. Next door:. The point that moves is today. For funders and institutes If you support organizations, the Threshold Reading can be delivered to a cohort of your grantees: one contract, several houses, delivered with a team, priced by program and usually below a stand alone Reading for each organization. [Talk about a cohort](https://torus.eco/cohort) ## Questions ### Questions before you write. How do I know which way in is mine? Choose the sentence in Ways in that sounds like you, or take the five sentence test above. Most organizations begin with the Threshold Reading. Still unsure? Book a 30 minute clarity call. What does it cost? The price depends on the scope, so it comes in a written proposal after a 30 minute call, in euros and without VAT. For Latin America it can also come in reais. What happens after I write? We listen and tell you honestly whether Torus fits. If it does, you receive a written proposal. If not, we say so. We have no budget yet. What can we do? Start with the Letters, free every two weeks, or tell us your situation in a clarity call. ## Seen at Malmö, Lisbon, Rio, Amsterdam. The same invitation, with different audiences: to read your own time before someone else sets it. The Conference, Malmö, 2024. **Future Days, Lisbon** 2024 Everything is Temporal **The Conference, Malmö** 2024 **MozFest House, Amsterdam** 2024 **What Design Can Do Live, Amsterdam** 2024 Facilitation **Casa Firjan, Rio de Janeiro** 2023 Festival Futuros Possíveis **KES Summit, Trancoso** 2023 Talk **TEDxRio** 2020 Talk, online **Fractal** 2016 to 2025 Protagonists of the times, with Perestroika ## Watch **On Our Relationship With Time** A six minute excerpt from a keynote on time, identity and decision making. Clients and partners - Unilever - Rede Globo - Banco do Brasil - Santander - Nubank - Grendene - University of Jena - Time Machine Europe - Governo do Espírito Santo - Instituto Toriba - Instituto Afrofuturo - Unearthodox - AIxDESIGN - Manos Visibles - Odd Studio - Das Pretas - Perestroika - FLAGCX Keynotes and events - UN - UNESCO - TEDxRio - Max Planck Institute - Mozilla Foundation - Creative Europe - House of Beautiful Business - Horasis - Linnaeus University - Universitat de Barcelona - Elisava - IAAC - BAU - What Design Can Do - Future Days - The Conference - Casa Firjan - IAM Weekend - KES Summit Thirteen years of work on time, in Rio, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Malmö. [See the work](https://torus.eco/work) ## Letters ### One letter every two weeks, to think about time with us. Free, in your inbox. A short essay from Gust on how people and organizations live their time. [Subscribe to the Letters, free](https://torusecosystems.substack.com/) [Read past letters](https://torus.eco/letters) --- Torus Ecosystems of Change · gust@torus.eco · https://torus.eco/ [中文](https://torus.eco/md/zh/index.md) · [Español](https://torus.eco/md/es/index.md) · [Português](https://torus.eco/md/pt/index.md) · [Français](https://torus.eco/md/fr/index.md) · [العربية](https://torus.eco/md/ar/index.md) · [日本語](https://torus.eco/md/ja/index.md)