What could your community achieve through more inclusive, imaginative and interactive planning?
Raise your community's social prosperity.
In an increasingly complex and fragmented world, civic and nonprofit organizations play ever more vital roles in fostering thoughtful dialogue and uniting people of diverse perspectives towards common goals.
We define social prosperity as the wealth that's created when people work together courageously.
Let us help strengthen your community or organization by bringing people together to recognize and pursue the incredible future they can create together.
Our Approach to
Visioning
&
Strategic Planning
Courageous
It takes courage to be open-minded. Beloved children's TV icon Mr. Rogers taught that “If it’s human it’s mentionable, and if it’s mentionable it’s manageable.” We uphold that ideal by bringing inclusivity, candor, and openness to the discussion of all sorts of complex and sensitive topics.
Mindful
Strategic planning rarely
begins with a blank slate. In our experience it's always instructive and respectful to involve a breadth of community members in identifying what deserves to be preserved and protected as well as what can or must change going forward.
Purposeful
There's no such thing as a "set it and forget it" strategic plan. That's why we help organizations establish goals and priorities that can adapt to change or disruption, while remaining true to their values, accountable to their stakeholders, and focused on long-term success and sustainability.
Your Partner in Collaborative Decision-Making
Trust us to design and facilitate courageous conversations that engage your community, stakeholders, partners, team members, customers, and more, even in high-pressure situations.
Our approach prioritizes meaningful dialogue and vigorous inclusivity to ensure that every voice is heard. Don't be afraid to slow down and open up your decision-making process. Invite us to guide your organization towards well-reasoned, widely-supported, and highly-engaged decisions.
What our clients are saying
“The greatest ambition for a Cultural Plan is to unite a city’s diverse population in a bold and authentic vision of shared desires and expectations. Matt designed and facilitated a series of public meetings, held throughout the city, affording the breadth of our community the opportunity to meaningfully participate in creative and energizing discussions.
Participants evaluated the sessions saying things like, “best public meeting ever” to “fun” and “unexpected”. Matt was able to work magic with rooms ranging from 20 to 200 participants. The meetings were inclusive, respectful and inviting and the insights we gathered from the exercises Matt led were priceless.
Thanks to Matt’s expertly-executed public process, our community’s Cultural Plan won’t just be a list of what we are planning to do – but a place of real connection and excitement for the people of our community who will continue to play a vital role in transforming that plan into reality."
Jody Ulich, President, Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant Counties
"John Little and Matt Lehrman are a dynamic duo of facilitation and we’ve engaged them twice.
First, they were instrumental in elevating a series of public meetings on the complex issue of fire and emergency services into welcoming and meaningful community dialogues.
From that experience, the Town Council trusted them to guide its own visioning workshop - which resulted in finding clarity on shared objectives while, perhaps most importantly, gathering consensus on Council Members’ mutual expectations for their own respectful, factual, thoughtful, and thorough process of governing."
Gary Neiss, Town Administrator, Town of Carefree, AZ
“We engaged Matt Lehrman to lead the strategic planning and visioning process for a new organization that was created by merging two long-standing entities. Among the challenges Matt helped us navigate was the blending of two distinctly different board cultures.
Matt created an inclusive and collaborative process that helped our board meaningfully hear and consider the perspectives of its many different stakeholders, ultimately leading to the development of a plan that was unanimously and enthusiastically endorsed.
Without a doubt, Matt was the right person for this assignment. His contribution to our success was invaluable."
Richard Kasper, Chief Executive Officer, Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix
Clients include
How to Begin
Schedule a free call
Let’s discuss what your organization hopes and needs to achieve and review the options for collaborative decision-making that can get it there.
Request a proposal.
Invite us to design a detailed proposal to guide your governing council, board of directors, or other leadership team to a compelling and shared vision of its desired future.
Proceed with confidence.
From the moment you say go, trust that we’ll keep your strategic planning process welcoming, thoughtful, and productive.
Your community members and stakeholders deserve to feel
connected, respected
and heard.
CONNECT
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Skidmore College photos by Erin Covey
Fort Worth photos by the Fort Worth Portrait Project