Building a Culture of Co-Design

Goal

Support senior leadership at a 170-person nonprofit in embedding equity, shared leadership structures, and collaborative problem-solving into organization-wide culture change through strategic planning, change management, implementation support, and capacity building for co-design.

Change management · Organizational strategy · Action planning · Capacity building

Role

  • Led organization-wide assessment (workshops, interviews, surveys, document review)

  • Facilitated cross-functional co-creation of values and behaviors

  • Designed and led a series of prototyping and action planning sprints to prioritize and operationalize change

  • Scaled prototypes into organizational practice and process

  • Delivered all-staff and departmental trainings on collaboration and co-design

  • Provided ongoing change management coaching and implementation support for senior leadership

Outcomes

Partner launched sustainable structures to support culture transformation, including refined 360 reviews, new cross-functional engagement practices, equity-integrated policies, and a new operations function. The organization demonstrated increased shared leadership capacity and a stronger collaborative culture, with a clear roadmap for continued investment.

"While organizational change is long-term work, Sarah’s contributions have laid the groundwork for our organizational development for years to come. "

— Client partner