What sets us apart? Several key factors differentiate our services from typical management consulting and leadership development firms:

Focus on transforming the underlying system—not just symptoms. Organizations are perfectly designed to deliver the results they produce. The question leaders must ask is, “Are these the results we want?”
And if not, what must we shift to enable something very transformative to happen? What would it take to let that shift occur? Merely focusing on immediate symptoms and pain, while necessary, is not sufficient. We help clients look beyond the symptoms to identify high-leverage and achievable shifts that can create breakthroughs and sustained change.

Co-creation of answers
Rather than assuming we are the experts, we assume our clients hold key insights and elements of the solution and work closely with them to jointly craft approaches that would not have been developed otherwise.

Long-term commitment and partnership
The results of our work are often immediate, but true transformation—of systems and individuals—requires long-term commitment. We work with clients who understand the value of long-term relationships in producing a stable foundation for ongoing, sustainable results. For three decades, our client successes have proven the value of that commitment.

Capacity to create dialogue at all levels
We are equally comfortable and capable in the boardroom and the shop floor, and in linking all levels of an organization together. Our work has led us to engage in dialogues with union workers, first-level leaders, middle managers, and the most senior leaders of the organizations in which we work. This is a unique orientation, but one we believe is essential in enabling genuine transformation to take root.

Willingness to address intractable issues
Most organizations have challenges that are uncomfortable to address: difficult leadership dynamics, failed strategies that people hold as successful, ethical challenges, maturation issues, and cross-division or cross-functional conflicts. We help people go directly into areas they previously thought were unworkable, to generate new perspectives and achieve breakthroughs in results and capacity.

A tested and scalable theory
Our work is informed by a proven body of theory, not merely a set of techniques or methods. For two decades we have been building, integrating, and evolving this model for large-scale whole system change. As we see it, there is “nothing so practical as a good theory” because it enables us and others to test what we are doing and learn how to improve it.

Willingness to address intractable issues
Most organizations have challenges that are uncomfortable to address: difficult leadership dynamics, failed strategies that people hold as successful, ethical challenges, maturation issues, and cross-division or cross-functional conflicts. We help people go directly into areas they previously thought were unworkable, to generate new perspectives and achieve breakthroughs in results and capacity.

Focused attention from senior practitioners
Our biggest differentiator comes down to an extraordinary group of practitioners, each of whom brings substantial expertise informed by unique life experiences. From the intellectual and spiritual core of the civil rights movement to high levels of mountaineering and outdoor leadership; to deep and substantial work with a wide range of leaders in many corporate contexts; to conducting national-level dialogues in the transition in South Africa—our senior practitioners have real-world experience as leaders, educators and guides to individuals and teams.

We believe every problem in a living system requires a unique, non-mechanistic solution,
and we have the team that can deliver it!