our approach
To support our mission of building capacity, we focus on preparing organizations to continue the work well beyond our partnership.
building your bench internally...
so you won't need us anymore.
We are committed to capacity building, to making sure you have the tools, knowledge, and skill set to keep this work going long after our partnership ends.
We want the work to go on. It's that simple.
Whenever we begin work with a new client, we consider a three-pronged approach to culture change:
leadership development
Do leaders at all levels of the organization have the confidence and capabilities to inspire culture change?
organizational structure
What are the structural changes needed to create culture change across the organization?
team dynamics
Is the climate of the organization able to facilitate meaningful dialogue across hierarchy and engage all stakeholders in the process of change?
path to change
we meet you where you're at.
Many organizations have been doing this work for years, and have brought in a number of consultants to provide different types of support. We aren't trying to reinvent the wheel. We can guide you through each step, or start with you at any point along the way.
We work with the existing structure and learning you've developed, to provide complementary support to target specific gaps and areas of opportunity. That's why we move through three different stages, helping you understand the context of your organization, learn new skills, and embed permanent practices and infrastructure to make lasting change.
Figure out the best plan for next steps to help align your culture with your organization's vision and goals.
Give your leaders the support they need to become effective leaders for equity, navigate challenges, and move the work forward.
Train an internal team to take this work forward with confidence and skill.
Analyze and assess your demographics, organizational culture, and policies to figure out your strengths are and areas of opportunity when it comes to diversity, equity, + inclusion.
Experience our Leadership Equity + Accountability Practice (LEAP) courses to move from awareness to action and make meaningful change in your organization.
Execute new company-wide practices, launch internal curriculum, and build the foundation you need to succeed long-term.
the research behind our approach
Our approach is founded on decades of research in critical human resource development. As we articulate in our white paper on the subject, we identify 5 characteristics of equitable and inclusive cultures.
All of the trainings we design and deliver as well as the strategic support we provide for organizations directly addresses one or more of these characteristics.
To learn more about what our work might look like in your organization, check out our services tab or read about our consulting team.
Not sure we are right for you? Read testimonials and case studies that will offer more insight into past and current clients and collaborators.
how we work with you
In our programs we can help leaders develop competencies and skills in each of the following areas to improve the workplace culture.
"Everything must be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
ALBERT EINSTEIN
A Word from Our Founder
[video transcript]
I've been working in leadership development and equity work for most of my career. My speciality was in educational design, helping build sustainable, replicable structures for learning complex topics. I spent much of my Masters exploring how to build programs to better navigate conflict in multicultural contexts. From the years I lived in the Middle East, to the decade I spent working with the refugee and immigrant communities in the US, I have remained committed to understanding and reflecting on my own role and place in this work. And I think it's probably that perpetual pursuit of growth and learning that makes what we do at Integrative Inquiry unique.
Prior to building this firm, I worked in a variety of industries, from the corporate sector to the non-profit, but I found similar problems in all of these spaces: a fundamental inability to engage others in dialogue and to acknowledge feedback and learn from it. This occurred not only at the individual managerial level, but also across the organization, impacting policies, how leaders responded to criticism, and their ability to create authentic, transparent cultures. Over and over again, I would see high levels of turnover, particularly among employees from marginalized identities. And no one was talking about it.
So when I started consulting five years ago, I focused my design skills not just on building and delivering training programs, but on capacity building inside of my clients' organizations, helping them develop skills and tools to have these sorts of conversations, to acknowledge areas of opportunity, and to engage their employees and stakeholders in this space. Central in our approach is a desire to leave our clients with a sustainable, replicable product that can be used years after our partnership is finished.
I also knew that my perspective and skill set was not enough, and so I began actively looking for other professionals with expertise and experiences that complimented my own. And through partnerships and joint collaborations, we began to shape a vision. This is how Integrative Inquiry really began to take form.
I think what sets us apart is that we focus on the process of equity work, supporting organizations to increase communication between team members and psychological safety so that they can engage in these hard-to-have conversations. I see us in many ways as a complementary, but distinctive service from other consulting firms that more explicitly focus on content delivery around topics of equity, whether regarding race, gender, sexual orientation and other barriers faced by certain groups. While that work is critical, we identified an interpersonal and cultural gap that was preventing real change around equity and inclusion in many organizations.
So at Integrative Inquiry, we focus on how to build competencies in being uncomfortable, in acknowledging mistakes, and in calling one another in instead of out. And hopefully through all of our work together, we can transform our communities, our organizations, and our world.
Kate Stitham
President & Founder
Integrative Inquiry Consulting