EXPERIMENT
FACILITATION SERVICES
Solution Finding Facilitation
Is there conflict in your organization’s culture?
Do you need help advancing a diversity equity and inclusion agenda?
Is there a difference of opinion that is holding your organization back?
Are you struggling to move a program or an organization in a new direction?
We have been honing our facilitation skills nearly every day for more than twenty years. It all started when we discovered we do not like meetings that waste time, do not respect the various perspectives around the table and do not result in productive action. We invested in learning how to design meetings and conversations with two people to hundreds of people that invite participation, spark creativity and lead to results. We have facilitated hundreds of in-person and virtual meetings to accomplish all kinds of outcomes. We focus on three crucial areas where nonprofit organizations and association benefit from facilitated discussions.
Strengthening Organizational Culture with a DEI lens
We have been curious about organizational culture for many years since we co-authored the book, The Nonprofit Organizational Culture Guide.
The words in the introduction, still ring true. “Organizational culture is real, pervasive, and complex-and that matters in leadership and management. Organizational culture is often misunderstood, and by embracing a new mind-set about what it is and how to use it, leaders can use organizational culture as a powerful management tool.”
The culture an organization wants its clients, staff and volunteers to experience starts with a vision. We help you paint a picture of this vision by working together to express the values, beliefs, language, and practices that you want to make consistent and pervasive. And as everyone in an organization begins to embody the new culture, it becomes the culture.
Designing Programs or Business Directions
Nonprofit organizations and associations typically operate multiple lines of business to advance their missions. When an organization wants to strengthen a line of business or develop something new in response to market changes and client needs, we use our planning and facilitation skills to guide new program or service development.
Building Collaborations, Coalitions, & Partnerships
Working together and leveraging resources is a common practice in the nonprofit and association sectors for a few reasons. First, these organizations typically represent broad and diverse interests and working together helps ensure an inclusive approach to advocating for change. Second, the financial models have constraints that sharing resources can help.
But, as you already know, successful collaborations, coalitions and partnerships take a lot of work. Like building any effective team, they require inspiration, strategy, and leadership. Here we use our planning and facilitation skills to co-create trust, breakthrough conflicts, and guide productive conversations to find common ground and a pathway forward.
Our Discovery Inquiry for Organizations takes just 5-minutes to complete and helps our team begin to understand the opportunities and challenges your organization is grappling with now and how we can help. We will follow-up with you to schedule a complimentary conversation.