January 17, 2024

To chart a path forward, ask this question

By Matt Lehrman

Social Prosperity Partners


At Social Prosperity Partners, we challenge our clients to slow down and open up. We facilitate courageous conversations that help people feel connected, respected and heard. And all of those conversations begin with the same question:

“What is sacred?”

This is not a religious or spiritual question, but rather an invitation to recognize and respect the history behind the moment. In the strategic planning process, asking “What is sacred?” is the essential starting place because it challenges stakeholders to clarify what they most want to carry forward into the future.


Before you can get someone to agree to change, you have to understand what they most cherish that needs to stay the same.


This is the key to any negotiation or group decision-making, really. You have to establish what’s non-negotiable, whether you’re a diplomat brokering a peace treaty or a wedding planner choosing the caterer. (Vegan or vegetarian options? Kosher or halal? Any future in-laws with rare food allergies?)


Strategic planning is building a map to the future. Whether the stakes are epic or ordinary, asking “What is sacred?” gives the map its compass. Recognizing and agreeing to protect one another’s “sacreds” is the foundation of trust.  This is what makes collaboration and compromise possible, empowering people to chart a path forward, step by step, toward shared goals and aspirations.

Does the Constitution have anything to say about community values?

Connect with Matt:


Dana Lewis, Recorder and Officer in Charge of Elections for Pinal County.

The Invisible Work That Makes Elections Possible

By Matt Lehrman • March 17, 2026
Most of us think about elections only when it is time to vote. What we rarely see is the extraordinary amount of work required to make the process itself function.
Trustee Maiaika Velazquez, of the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District in California

Optimism on the Oath

By Matt Lehrman • March 10, 2026
Optimism is not the first quality many people associate with public office. It is, however, the quality that defines Trustee Maiaika Velazquez.
Governing in the Silly Season

Governing in the Silly Season

By Matt Lehrman • March 4, 2026
In local government, you can feel it when it arrives. Speeches at council or board meetings grow sharper. Social media clips get shorter and more theatrical. Questions from the dais sometimes sound less like inquiry and more like messaging. The focus can shift from working with colleagues to signaling to voters.
More Posts