Welcome to Group Life
Hi there. I’m Priya Parker.
For the past twenty years, I’ve been helping people and teams navigate the space between each other — whether that’s families in conflict, executives facing tough decisions, or vibrant communities trying to hold together across difference. I’m a conflict resolution facilitator, strategic advisor, and the author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet And Why It Matters, where I distill how anyone can make the gatherings of their lives more meaningful, vibrant and connected.
I came to this work early. I grew up between two radically different households — Indian, vegetarian, Buddhist on one side, and white, evangelical, meat‑eating on the other — and in a fractured family that left me with lifelong questions: How do people come together despite difference? Why do they come apart despite love?
This Substack, Group Life, is a space to learn and practice the real skills of living well with other people: how to gather with purpose, hold healthy conflict, create belonging, navigate power, and make groups stronger for everyone in them. Whether you’re leading a team, running a classroom, organizing your community, or hosting the people you love, these skills will change how your groups feel and function.
Let’s begin.
What You’ll Find Here:
Group Life is part newsletter, part training ground. I’ll teach you what I know as a facilitator — how to design gatherings that mean something, navigate tension with more confidence, create belonging across difference, shape your group’s culture and rituals, and know when it’s time to bring people together (and when it’s time to let go). And we won’t just talk about it. We’ll practice it together, week by week, in the groups you’re already part of.
You can join in three ways:
Free Subscribers
Group Chat Newsletter: You’ll receive bi-weekly letters with stories, tools, and reflections to help you think differently about your groups at work, at home, and everywhere in between.
Substack Lives: You’ll also be able to join occasional Substack Lives in real time. These are shorter, looser conversations where I might break down a gathering that went sideways, interview a guest, or offer quick advice.
Paid Subscribers - Group Lifers:
As a Group Lifer, you’ll get everything above, plus:
Live Teaching: Twice a month, I host live sessions just for paid subscribers. I teach on specific challenges — like How to Host an All-Hands That Doesn’t Suck or How to Practice Generous Exclusion with Care or How to Build Belonging Across Difference — and then open space for your real questions. These aren’t just lectures; they’re working sessions. It’s the first time I’m teaching regularly in public outside of organizations and institutions, and I’m thrilled to get to offer this option to growing professionals and aspiring hosts and community builders.
Replay Library: Full access to the archive of Monthly Webinars and Substack Lives, including conversations with guest facilitators, organizers, and writers.
The Group Chat: A private hub where I post weekly prompts and reflections. It’s a place to be in ongoing conversation with me and with one another — part coaching, part story exchange, part “thank goodness I’m not the only one.” 😒
Comments: Ability to respond to my letters and posts and read what others are sharing too. It turns the newsletter into a real conversation, not just a one-way note from me.
Founding Members:
As a Founding Member, you’ll get everything above, plus:
Founder’s Circle Chat: A smaller, more intimate space where I share untested ideas, works-in-progress, and invite your input. You’ll be first in line to ask questions for Lives and Webinars.
Behind-the-Scenes Access: Voice memos, early book previews, and bonus tools and reflections I don’t share anywhere else.
First Access: Priority invitations to events, gatherings, and new projects.
Direct Support: This circle makes it possible for me to keep this work independent and to experiment with new ways of teaching and practicing group life. And I’m very grateful.
Wanting more?
If you’re new here or just getting started, here’s a little roadmap to go deeper:
📚 The Book that started it all
The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters is my invitation to bring the tools of facilitation into everyday life. I wrote it after more than a decade of facilitating high-stakes conversations because I wanted to make those tools accessible beyond closed rooms. It’s for anyone who brings people together and wants to do it with more meaning, clarity, and courage.
🖥️ The Digital Course
My Art of Gathering Digital Course is a self-paced 6-week virtual workshop and companion for people who want to apply this work directly to a real gathering they’re planning. You’ll learn how to:
Define a gathering’s purpose that’s specific (and maybe even a little disputable)
Use generous exclusion to protect that purpose
Design bold openings and meaningful closings
Shift focus from logistics to human dynamics
The course includes videos, exercises, and stories to help you go from good intentions to truly transformational experiences, whether you’re hosting a small birthday dinner or a 500-person conference.
💌 Reader Favorites
Here are a few newsletters people come back to again and again:
