We transform the way organizations work together and in their communities.
Together we can transform organizational cultures, communities, and systems by helping you navigate change, embrace divergent viewpoints, and achieve internal alignment and coherence. Our team can review and improve your organizational culture, foster healthy human relationships and communication, clarify roles and decision-making, support your people and teams as they adapt and navigate change, and embed race and social equity in all that you do.
Our Services:
- Facilitation and Mediation
- Team Building and Conflict Management
- Strategic and Tactical Planning
- Strategic and Tactical Planning - IDEA+J (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility & Justice)
- Evaluation and Management Studies
- Change and Project Management
- Organizational Assessment and Design
- Continuous Improvement
Organizational Health Services and Products
Our approach requires a systemic perspective, an awareness of how complex systems behave, and a willingness to pause the stage of curiosity and inquiry rather than move quickly to a solution. This approach fosters efficiency because it results in iterative outcomes that actually work.
When things are truly complex, no one person can fully understand the challenge and what change is needed. We work with organizations and leaders to tap into the inner wisdom within their organizations, communities, or systems and the people within those structures.
Facilitate Meetings, Summits, & Retreats
Sometimes more can get done when an outside consultant designs and facilitates your organizational gatherings. We can help you stay on track and accomplish specific objectives in a single or multiple days. We utilize facilitation processes that engage everyone in meaningful and productive ways, and can weave in learning opportunities as needed. Another powerful tool we can use is graphic facilitation, which graphically captures your ideas as they are occurring in real time.
Team Building & Conflict Management
Athena has extensive experience facilitating workshops in organizations throughout the public and private sector. We excel in helping participants gain a greater understanding of their team and their skills, as well as of their organization as a whole, while fostering productive and empathetic community.
Strategic & Tactical Planning, Including Equity Planning
In strategic and tactical planning, Athena's partners are experienced in helping leaders define and identify their goals and objectives on both a large and small scale. Our partners excel at identifying persons or communities that may be disproportionally affected, and building internal strategies for fostering socially equitable practices.
Evaluation & Management Studies
Organizations are constantly changing, and our partners excel at helping them evaluate and respond to dynamics both within and outside of their management structure, as well as evaluation of the organization considered as a whole.
Change & Project Management
Change management enables the people who contribute to change within organizations and communities, and project management facilitates quality work in collaborative settings. We prepare, equip, and support individuals as they navigate organizational change as well as individual or ongoing projects across a variety of scales.
Organizational Assessment & Design
A key product that Athena utilizes for organizational assessment is our Social Capital Assessment tool which was designed to enable an organization to survey and assess their baseline and ongoing levels of trust and social capital. Social Capital consists of trust (having to do with an individual’s willingness to take a risk or be vulnerable – or simply participate – based on a belief in other’s trustworthiness), norms (related to values), and networks (the flow of knowledge and information, and the number and quality of social connections).
Continuous Improvement
Our general continuous improvement methodology is informed by the best practices perfected by Toyota that are called kaizen, Lean, or the Toyota Management System. This methodology rests on two key pillars: process improvement and respect for people. It invites teams to look critically at any process and identify which tasks add value, from the customer’s perspective, and which do not. It teaches us how to study lead-times and cycle times to improve delivery and end-to-end flow from the start of any process to its end. The methodology also can be leveraged to understand and improve the level of quality of any product or service.
We also offer a comprehensive leadership development program that is designed to strengthen the professional relationship between managers and their teams called Simplify Work. It is an effective subset of Lean tools and methods that focuses on the emotional intelligence in successful change.
Organizational Health work in Practice
Strategic Plan
The Washington Statewide Reentry Council was developed in 2016 by the state legislature for the purpose of promoting successful reentry post-incarceration. Athena Partner Crystal Wade teamed up with Susan Mason, a formerly incarcerated community leader, to work with community members and collaborate on developing a clear and impactful 3-year strategic plan for the council. Susan’s role involved engaging stakeholders directly impacted by incarceration, including currently and formerly incarcerated individuals, their families, and a broad spectrum of reentry organizations and stakeholders in Washington State.
Organizational Health Stewards
Many Athena Partners and Collaborators work within this Line of Business. Talk with our Organizational Health Stewards to find out which consultant might be a great match for your needs.
