Our Approach.
We are facilitative leaders. Using practices such as small group conversations, listening sessions, and larger format workshops, we emphasize meaningful engagement for all invested parties.
As methods like Stanford's Collective Impact Model and deliberative dialogue have demonstrated, multi-stakeholder processes create more resilient solutions to complex problems. Our approach is necessarily tailored for the unique elements and contexts of each institution--whether a church, a city, or a college campus. See samples of our projects and work.
Some of our common actions:
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We demystify complex problem solving by helping people to speak and listen well together.
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We emphasize things held valuable and shared goals instead of positions and problems.
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We cultivate institutional community through targeted training, healthy conversation, and careful listening.
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We equip leaders to continue our processes without us. In other words, we will teach you to do what we do! This fortifies existing institutional resources as new problems emerge.
Our Values.
Practical
Wisdom
Transformative Listening
Knowledge
in Action
Selected Research
Can Liberal Arts
Colleges Aid Local
Problem Solving?
(2019)
World Community Development Conference in Dundee, Scotland
Engaging and Empowering Communities via Deliberative Dialogue (2019)
Learning to Listen Agonistically:
Dialogue Encounters on the Eastside (2020)