Your People Are Your Organization
Every organization is a collection of people working toward something that matters. When those people feel genuinely connected to each other and to the reason they showed up in the first place, everything works better. When they don't, everything is harder than it needs to be.
People are more likely to stay. They collaborate more effectively. They take greater ownership of the work, bring their best thinking to the table, and respond to challenges with creativity and resilience. The result is a healthier culture and an organization that's better equipped to achieve its mission.
We Meet You Where You Are
Sometimes the need is urgent. Culture is eroding, people are leaving, performance is slipping, and something has to change. Sometimes the need is quieter: a leadership team that wants to build stronger relationships, increase engagement, develop its leaders, or create a culture where people do their best work.
Whether you're responding to a challenge or investing in the future, we design experiences that meet you where you are. Together, we help people reconnect to the work, one another, and the mission so they can contribute with greater trust, ownership, and purpose.
You might be here because…
People are leaving, and you're not sure why.
Your teams are technically functional but not truly connected.
Engagement, performance, or innovation has plateaued.
Customer, employee, parent, or community satisfaction is becoming a concern.
Your organization isn't adapting as quickly as the moment requires.
A merger, acquisition, or leadership transition has changed everything.
Your mission feels distant from the day-to-day work.
Leaders are carrying too much alone.
You want to strengthen leadership and build a healthier culture.
You know your organization is capable of more, and you want to unlock that potential.
How We Can Help
Leadership Development
For leadership teams that want to build trust, strengthen culture, and lead with greater intention.
We partner with leadership teams to design learning experiences that strengthen relationships, build leadership capacity, and create a shared language for leadership, accountability, and culture. Every engagement is customized to your organization's goals, culture, and challenges, helping leaders build the trust, confidence, and skills needed to lead meaningful change.
Leadership team retreats and development
Multi-session leadership programs
Conscious leadership frameworks and practices
Executive team facilitation
Culture-building conversations
Retreats and Facilitated Experiences
For teams that need a reset, a reconnection, or an opportunity to move something important forward together.
We design retreats and facilitated experiences that help teams step out of the day-to-day, have the conversations that matter most, and leave with stronger relationships, clearer priorities, and momentum for what's next. Every activity, conversation, and experience is intentionally designed to strengthen relationships, build trust, align around priorities, and create momentum for what comes next.
Half-day and full-day retreats
Multi-day off-sites
Strategic planning and visioning sessions
Custom facilitated experiences
Virtual and in-person options
Transition and Culture Support
For organizations navigating significant change: a merger, leadership transition, shifting market, or moment of uncertainty that requires more than a strategic plan.
We put the human side of change at the center, helping organizations build the culture they want rather than inherit the one that forms by default.
Most consultants focus on the operational side of change. We focus on the human side, because culture, trust, and relationships determine whether change actually succeeds.
Transition support for mergers, leadership transitions, and organizational change
Community and staff listening through empathy research
Culture co-design and stakeholder engagement
Community experiences that honor legacy, build trust, and create shared purpose
Closing and transition with intention
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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 believe in engagements that go beyond a single day. A great retreat or workshop can spark something real, but lasting impact requires follow through. That is why we seek partners who are ready to uncover what is actually happening, set honest goals, and work toward them together.
We start by listening. We design based on what we learn. We measure whether it worked.
Every engagement begins with a complementary discovery conversation about what you need and what success looks like. From there we build something together.
Types of Organizations We Work With
Businesses
Nonprofits
Independent Schools
Public Schools and Districts
Mission-Driven Organizations
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.