Inspired by human-centred and systems-conscious frameworks that include the Right Use of Power, Design-Thinking, and Co-Active Coaching, our business is focused on helping teams to cultivate the awareness, skill, and capacity required for aligning good intentions with positive impact.
Our work is deeply cultural, requiring powerful questions, deep listening, and meaningful dialogue to explore the underlying forces at play - capitalistic systems, societal structures, relational power dynamics, and human behaviour.
All roads lead to power
Workplace power dynamics are shifting
The frequency and intensity of change continues to introduce new power dynamics and relational challenges that most leaders and organizations do not (yet) have the skills, tools, and strategies to navigate.
Employees are finding their voices
People are demanding clearer accountability and real action from their leaders and organizations to operationalize (or codify into culture) diversity and inclusion, connection and autonomy, and real change to outdated systems and ways of working.
Our ways of working are adapting to people's values
Personalized working environments, autonomous team structures, and genuine allyship, are examples of growing employee expectations for having more control over their work-lives.
Understanding our work
While the scope and flow of our work varies with the unique contexts and 'readiness' of the different teams we collaborate with, we tend to see it coming together through three waves or milestones - each offering a series of connected activities ranging from foundational to fully tailored experiences.
All this to say, this work requires an openness and willingness of teams to explore new levels of depth, breadth, and urgency (priority).
Understanding your culture's (true) impact
Helping engage your team in meaningful conversations that lead to shared understanding, alignment, and agreement.
Cultivating new levels of awareness, skill, and capacity
Helping equip your team with learning and development experiences that deepen their connection, ability, and impact.
Operationalizing your team's new ways of working
Helping ensure the activation and traction of your team's impact plan(s) by meaningfully supporting their areas of growth.
Our approach to doing work with teams (as opposed to doing work to teams) is guided by our core values, and has been described by our clients as 'agile, experiential, and feedback-informed'.
In our experience, leaderful teams use some version of 'the Five D's' to adapt to, and even shape the change they are after.
Be conscious of inferences, biases, and assumptions and choose to engage people in meaningful conversations to surface needs, values, and hopes and fears.
"What do we know about this from our team's perspectives?"
Discovery is about asking powerful questions, listening deeply, and acknowledging the people you’re sharing a big part of your life with.
Make sure that people are aligned on the understanding and meaning of problems, opportunities, words or terms, and any other signals that have surfaced.
"What is our shared understanding and agreement of existing challenges and opportunities?"
Definition is about establishing shared understanding, agreement, AND commitment, when it comes to the challenges and opportunities you will be prioritising and allocating effort to. In other words, it’s providing clear and purposeful direction.
Acknowledge the feedback, perspectives, and ideas that people have contributed, and clearly communicate the connection to what you will (and will not) be prioritizing as a team.
"What are we choosing to prioritize, and how might we approach this work?"
Design is about engagement, alignment, and feedback-informed experimentation and iteration – knowing you will learn and adapt as you identify more meaningful ways of working together.
Create the roadmap, get the right people in the right roles, and establish your ways of working. Do not forget to confirm agreement (different from understanding) and to set up accountabilty rhythms.
"How are we ensuring alignment, agreement, and traction"?
Delivery is about is about supporting team members through challenges and opportunities as they present themselves. It’s about the activation of awareness, skill, and commitment you’ve made together as a team.
Continue to have meaningful conversations - asking powerful questions, surfacing helpful feedback, and making important decisions - to ensure the alignment of intention and impact.
"What is here for us now, and what is next"?
Debrief is about traction – moving forward through feedback, building capacity, and celebrating the learning (wins, misses and everything between). Debriefing is an amazing place for recognition and appreciation to shine!