We offer four types of coaching and consulting services:
Strategy Development
The goal of strategy development is to design more effective actions to accomplish long term goals. We use facilitation and modeling to help groups better understand deep-rooted drivers of change and discover leverage points for improved system performance. Data analysis, computer simulation modeling, system mapping, flight simulator workshops, and focused conversation all help the groups and their constituents design actions that link to results on the ground. Along the way, we also build the capacity of the group to address future challenges from a "systems" perspective.
PROJECT EXAMPLES
Market Strategy for Distributed Energy Generation.
Used simulation based scenario planning with a regional energy utility to assess the market potential and competitive implications of cleaner on-site generation technologies.
Addressing Development Pressure.
Worked with the governing boards of a suburban town to explore assumptions and test scenarios around balancing quality of life, open space, and housing costs in the face of development pressure.
Gentrification and Traffic in a Coastal Town.
Used simulation modeling to explore the root-cause drivers of several public issues in a California coastal community.
Leadership Development
We are committed to developing and supporting leaders who are creating more sustainable economic, social, and environmental systems and are grounded in a deep understanding of how those systems work. We work with people to build their capacity to find leverage points, test their assumptions, address the root causes of problems, design effective strategies, and sustain their capacity to work for positive change in the long term.
PROJECT EXAMPLES
Supporting agricultural change teams.
Providing intensive workshops for collaborations of university and nonprofit leaders.
Empowering citizen "change agents."
Integrating system thinking into the "toolboxes" of hundreds of community leaders through interactive two-day "Systemability" workshops.
More effective philanthropy.
Applying system thinking to effective grant-making for a group of foundations involved in environmental issues.
Stakeholder Engagement
The goal of stakeholder engagement is to reach out to non-traditional partners and engage them in changing social and economic systems. Many economic, social and environmental challenges span multiple interest groups, but often the people who are motivated to promote change do not have the power to take sufficient action. How, then, to help?
We use facilitation and simulation modeling to help organizations engage nontraditional collaborators (typically industry trade groups, businesses, universities, and government officials) in exploring strategic directions toward a sustainable economy and environment.
PROJECT EXAMPLES
Sustainable forests and forest-products industry.
Helping leaders in a large, diverse region ascertain whether industry and ecological sustainability could be threatened and, if so, what to do about it.
Sustainable agriculture.
Using a computer simulation of the corn economy, assisting agricultural and environmental leaders to design new public policies.
Improving rural land use policy.
Using facilitation and modeling to help a "regional council of governments" design land use policies that support not just tax revenues, but also water quality, aesthetics, local character, and the timber economy.
Air quality and tourism in a mountain city.
Constructing a simulation model on regional air quality to motivate citizens, business leaders and government officials to take effective action towards improving human and economic health.
Collaborative Learning
Often, one organization by itself cannot implement its desired changes towards sustainability. For example, sometimes suppliers and users must learn together how to design improved products or services.
Working with the Society for Organizational Learning, we help businesses accelerate project implementation by facilitating meetings between the providers of improved products and services and their customers to explore the social changes that would need to accompany business innovations towards sustainability.
PROJECT EXAMPLES
Shifting from products to services.
Helping a manufacturing company assess the effectiveness of its new service-based business model in the marketplace.
Exploring the market for new energy technologies.
Facilitating dialogues between an energy utility and its corporate customers to accelerate the shift towards sustainable energy sources.