Learning Facilitation
“The most effective people are those who can ‘hold’ their vision while remaining committed to seeing current reality clearly.” // Peter M. Senge
Drawing on the emergent learning practices of Fourth Quadrant Partners (with whom we’ve trained), we’ll guide you through real-time reflection that explores the effectiveness of your change strategies and your day-to-day actions, and helps you adapt and grow in-the-moment.
Learning facilitation is particularly useful for initiatives and groups pursuing big, challenging change work in complex, dynamic environments that resist the structures of more fixed planning and evaluation approaches and timelines.
Collaborative & Participatory Evaluation
“Everything worthwhile is done with other people.” // Mariame Kaba
We work with clients to design and implement iterative, collaborative evaluation projects. Activities may include, but are not limited to:
Planning & Design: program mapping, the development of learning questions or framing questions, principles development, theory of change work, action hypotheses/ theory of action work, and/or the development of an evaluation framework or plan
Data Collection: document reviews, surveys, interviews, focus groups/ group conversations, participant observation, power mapping, constituent mapping, arts-based and other interactive/ theater/ movement-based activities
Data Analysis: participatory data analysis, quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis (e.g., thematic analysis, coding and analytical mem-oing via software such as Dedoose, etc.), synthesis and insight generation
Data Visualization & Reporting: written materials, presentations, blogs, data visualizations, mapping, facilitated sense-making and reflection
Change Strategy
“When people think many different thoughts and move in the same direction, that’s a movement.” // Loretta Ross
Our approach to change work intentionally plans for the influence of power, privilege, and participation, as well as individual attitudes toward change and how these shape our engagement. We often see change work evolve through interconnected phases, and are happy to provide support for a specific phase of your process or a full strategy cycle:
Discovery: Drawing on qualitative and/or quantitative data collection methods, we’ll gather information about the past and present contexts for your change work, which your strategy (or strategies) will need to consider and potentially respond to.
Sense-Making & Visioning: Via a set of facilitated sessions or a focused retreat, we’ll reflect on the information gathered during the discovery phase. We take a collaborative approach to these dialogues to ensure decision-making represents a variety of perspectives and experiences, and to begin to build consensus about where you want to focus and/or the direction(s) in which you’d like to move.
Strategic Planning/Iteration: We’ll work with you to identify a strategic approach that’s a match for your change work, facilitate a participatory planning process, and create a summary visual that you can use to share and reflect on your strategy or strategies as they continue to evolve.
Coaching, Capacity-Building & Thought Partnership
“I think I want mostly to argue for a centrality of imagination because of its power to enable persons to reach towards alternatives, to reach beyond.” // Maxine Greene
Want to grow your learning and evaluation practice? We can offer coaching, capacity-building, and/or thought partnership as you develop and implement your own evaluation work, supporting you to identify ways for the work to both advance — and embody — social justice principles.
Engaged in change work focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, justice? We are a certified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory® and Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory®, tools we use to support individuals and groups to:
Reflect on their ability to shift cultural perspectives and adapt to cultural differences and similarities;
Set and work toward developmental goals specific to inclusion and culturally responsive practices; and
Collaborate across conflict styles in a way that is generative rather than dominating/demanding assimilation to one’s own style.
Our approach to all coaching, capacity-building, and thought partnership is asset-based, responsive to your learning, interaction, and thinking styles, and uses reflective dialogue and strategic pause points to ensure we continuously center what you want to learn, practice, and grow.
Ready to get started?
