SYSTEMS CHANGE & STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

Creating alignment, building coalitions, & driving progress

We help you build innovation hubs, cross-sector coalitions, and navigate leadership transitions. Whenever you need to foster alignment, build trust, and create strategies that stick – we bring the structure, facilitation, and systems insight to move forward – together.

We’re often brought in during pivotal moments - when something is blocking progress:

  • You’re launching a cross-sector initiative and need early-stage alignment

  • You’re facing cultural or political complexity that’s blocking progress

  • You need to consult key stakeholders around a sensitive or high-impact issue

  • You realize that the change needed won’t come from top-down decisions – it requires a process that brings people together to listen, reflect, and shape the path forward.

  • You’re navigating power dynamics and need a trusted, neutral facilitator

  • You’re leading a major transition – like a merger, leadership change, or innovation shift – and need alignment and cultural traction

Today’s most pressing challenges – from education and health to climate and public trust – can’t be solved by any one leader or institution alone. They demand collaboration, clarity in complexity, and sustained engagement across diverse stakeholders.

Our Systems Change Engagement Process

Systems change is rarely linear. It’s iterative, relational, and deeply human. The process of engagement – how people come together, reflect, challenge assumptions, and co-create – is as essential as the strategy itself. Through that process, trust is built, perspectives shift, and alignment takes root.
Each engagement is designed for the individual context, and adjusted in real time.

We design and facilitate processes that move complex systems forward — by surfacing what’s stuck, strengthening trust, and creating clarity in dynamic environments. Our work unfolds through three interconnected modes:

1. See the System Clearly
We begin by helping partners see what they’re navigating — mapping the dynamics, patterns, and players shaping the system. This includes:

  • Stakeholder interviews and power analysis

  • Systems mapping and cultural diagnostics

  • Rapid landscape assessments to surface points of leverage and resistance

2. Convene the Right People
Progress doesn’t come from better plans alone — it comes from better participation. We bring together the people who need to talk but often don’t:

  • Multi-stakeholder design and facilitation

  • Trust-building retreats and alignment workshops

  • Space to name tensions and build shared language

3. Mobilize Adaptive Action
We help coalitions and leadership teams shift from insight to momentum:

  • Co-creation of adaptive strategies and field-wide priorities

  • Embedded facilitation and strategy coaching

  • Reflection loops to adapt in real time as the system evolves

Through every stage, we stay grounded in the human side of systems change – where perspective shifts, alignment builds, and new possibilities take root.

What makes us different

We’ve designed national consultations, supported rebel-to-government transitions, mediated across power divides, and guided leadership teams through major transitions and cultural realignments.

Our team brings experience in:

  • Peacebuilding and international diplomacy

  • Public policy and systems design

  • Cross-cultural negotiation and post-conflict governance

  • Corporate strategy, leadership development, and organizational transformation

  • Education, innovation, and complex change management

We don’t just map systems – we’ve moved through them. And we help you do the same, building the kind of collaboration that drives lasting change.

Inside a Systems Change - Stakeholder Engagement

Culture Change Processes

Culture is one of the most powerful levers for systems change. Our programming on collaborative culture, values alignment, and adaptive leadership is designed to shift the norms and behaviors that shape how people work together. Whether within a single organization or across a partnership, we help groups co-create cultures that support innovation, inclusion, and shared accountability – especially during times of growth, integration, or transformation.

Stakeholder & Cross-Sector Retreats

We design and facilitate high-impact retreats that bring together diverse stakeholders – across institutions, sectors, and roles – to build shared understanding and forward momentum. These retreats create space for deep dialogue, trust-building, and strategic alignment on issues that no one group can solve alone.

Public Leadership & Political Coaching

We offer individualized coaching and strategic support for those running for public office – particularly at the local and state levels. Led by a seasoned political leader and coach, this offering is grounded in the realities of campaigning, governing, and staying connected to purpose under pressure.

SPOTLIGHT: A Signature Initiative in Systems Change

The Women Igniting Leadership Lab is a living example of what systems change looks like in practice. This immersive program builds the leadership capacity, relationships, and strategic clarity needed to shift ecosystems – with a focus on women leading at the edge of complexity. By investing in the leadership of women, we’re building a more resilient, equitable, and collaborative future – one leader, one system at a time.

Engagement

We believe that change is built through dialogue, engagement, and shared effort. We design the processes that bring people together across lines of difference, helping them make sense of complexity, shape the path forward, and move with purpose – together.

Ready to talk about what your leadership moment requires?