For organizations seeking to define or re-imagine their core purpose, we facilitate deep reflection and creative visioning at board, leadership, and staff levels. We ground this process in a realistic review of the organization’s strengths and limitations, making the vision a guiding star to navigate by.

From business-NGO collaboration on voluntary global standards to integrated social service partnerships in cities and states, we help participating leaders clarify shared and complementary goals, define roles and responsibilities, draft strategies and work plans, and create the structures for mutual accountability and progress measurement that can enhance collective impact.

Within organizations, we facilitate collaborative goal setting and strategy development. We structure participation to maximize the diversity of perspectives considered, while distinguishing carefully among consultation, negotiation, and decision-making roles and responsibilities. We support joint drafting of strategies and plans, and we ensure that leaders and stakeholders responsible for execution have full ownership of what they produce.

We help leaders assess current practices, including forms of representation, procedures for deliberation and decision making, and lines of accountability. We work with stakeholders to identify options for shifts in these areas, and examine potential benefits and trade-offs from the standpoint of the organization as a whole and its key constituencies. Where appropriate, we help stakeholders test options using simulations or trial runs.

Our facilitators can also apply our public engagement tools to organizational development. We reach out to stakeholders and the public for feedback on processes, procedures, and perceptions of an organization from its users, customers, and stakeholders.