Your People Are Your Organization
Every organization is a collection of people working toward something that matters. When people feel connected to one another, clear about what matters, and able to contribute meaningfully, organizations work better.
Together Through partners with organizations to understand what people are experiencing, strengthen leadership and relationships, and intentionally design what comes next.
People are leaving, and you're not sure why.
Your team is functioning, but something feels disconnected or stuck.
Engagement, performance, or momentum has plateaued.
A merger, leadership transition, or other change has shifted the landscape.
You might be here because…
Your mission feels distant from the day-to-day work.
Leaders are carrying too much alone.
You want to strengthen leadership, culture, or the way people work together.
You know something could be better, even if you can't quite name the problem yet.
We Meet You Where You Are
Sometimes something needs attention. Other times, nothing is wrong. You may simply see an opportunity to strengthen your leadership, culture, or how people work together.
You don't need to have the challenge perfectly defined or know exactly what kind of support you need. We start with what you're noticing, get curious about what's underneath it, and design from there.
How We Can Help
Leadership Development
For leadership teams that want to strengthen how they lead and work together.
We design leadership development experiences that build self-awareness, strengthen relationships, and help leaders navigate the real challenges they are facing together.
Examples might include:
Leadership team development
Multi-session leadership programs
Executive team development and facilitation
Culture-building conversations
Custom leadership frameworks and practices
Retreats and Facilitated Experiences
For teams that need space to step outside the day-to-day, reconnect, and move something important forward.
We design gatherings that balance purpose with the human experience of being together. Depending on what you want to make possible, that might mean deep conversation and reflection, strategic thinking, creativity and play, or simply creating space for people to reconnect and enjoy one another.
Examples might include:
Team and leadership retreats
Strategic conversations and visioning
Play, improv, and creative experiences
Team connection and relationship-building
Custom facilitated experiences
Transition and Culture Support
For organizations navigating change, uncertainty, or questions about the culture they want to create.
We help organizations understand what people are experiencing, get curious about what may be underneath it, and intentionally shape what comes next.
Examples might include:
Leadership transitions and organizational change
Community and staff listening
Empathy research and stakeholder engagement
Culture listening and co-design
Merger and transition support
Designing meaningful beginnings, endings, and transitions
What This Looks Like in Practice
Every engagement is different, but here are a few examples of the kinds of challenges we've helped organizations navigate.
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While serving as a Partner at Leadership+Design, Tara led a five-year partnership with The Fund for Chicago Public Education in support of Chicago Public Schools.
She developed the original proposal, managed the partnership, and worked closely with organizational leaders to design experiences that responded to emerging needs across the system. What began as a focus on human-centered design and school improvement evolved over time as new challenges and opportunities emerged.
The work included the creation of a district-wide design challenge that helped school leaders apply design thinking to real challenges within their schools and communities. As the partnership matured, the focus expanded to leadership development, coaching conversations, and distributed leadership. Tara designed and facilitated workshops that helped leaders use curiosity, empathy, and stakeholder engagement to strengthen school improvement efforts and create greater ownership of change throughout their organizations.
This long-term partnership reflects Tara's belief that meaningful change happens through listening, adaptation, and deep collaboration rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.
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While serving as a Partner at Leadership+Design, Tara designed and facilitated a year-long leadership development experience for the executive leadership team of an independent school.
Working in close partnership with the Head of School, she designed a series of retreats and professional learning experiences that responded to the team's evolving needs throughout the year. The engagement included fall and spring retreats, half-day learning sessions, and ongoing leadership development designed to strengthen relationships, build trust, and create greater alignment across the leadership team.
Together, the team developed a shared language for leadership, explored leadership competencies and practices, and engaged in conversations about culture, communication, and how they wanted to lead together. Throughout the experience, Tara intentionally incorporated reflection, play, and moments of joy, creating space for leaders to reconnect with one another, their purpose, and the work they were doing together.
By the end of the engagement, the team had greater trust, stronger alignment, and a shared understanding of how they wanted to lead together.
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While serving as a Partner at Leadership+Design, Tara worked alongside the leaders of two independent schools during a significant merger process.
She designed and facilitated a cross-school design task force that brought together representatives from both communities to build relationships, deepen understanding, and help shape the future of the merged school. Through a structured design process, participants explored the history, identity, values, and impact of each school while developing a deeper appreciation for what each community brought to the merger.
Together, the task force co-created a set of design principles that helped guide decision-making for the newly merged school and provided a shared foundation for the community moving forward.
At its core, the work was not just about organizational change. It was about helping people navigate transition, build trust across communities, and create a sense of shared ownership in what came next.
How We Work
We start by listening.
We get curious about what people are actually experiencing, what may be underneath it, and what the organization hopes to make possible.
Then we design together.
What comes next might be a leadership experience, a retreat, a listening process, a series of conversations, or something we haven't imagined yet. The form follows what we learn.
And we pay attention to what changes.
We identify what success should look and feel like, then look for evidence that the work is making a difference.
Types of Organizations We Work With
Businesses
Nonprofits
Independent Schools
Public Schools and Districts
Mission-Driven Organizations
What’s happening in your organization?
You don't need to have the challenge perfectly defined or know exactly what kind of support you need. Bring what you're noticing, what feels stuck, what is changing, or what you hope could be different, and we'll start there.
Working with Individual Leaders
We also work with individual leaders one-on-one. If you are navigating a career transition, carrying a leadership challenge, or simply ready to invest in your own growth, that work lives here.