Grove

Grow stronger together.

Some work belongs to more than one organization.

When organizations come together around a shared goal, the potential can be significant. But collaboration does not become effective simply because everyone agrees that the work matters.

Collaborative Design helps organizations build the relationships and structures that allow shared work to actually work. We help groups clarify what they are trying to accomplish together and create a practical way to get there.

Each organization brings its own strengths, experience, and perspective. The goal is not to make them the same.

It is to help them contribute to something larger while remaining strong in their own right.

How we do the work.

We start with the whole picture.

Organizations are not a collection of separate problems. A change in one part of the work can create pressure somewhere else. A new program can change what a team needs. A growing caseload can expose weaknesses in systems that once worked well. A leadership transition can reveal questions about structure that have been there all along.

The 7 S’s of LaurelRoot’s Success.

Our work is grounded in the LaurelRoot Framework, a seven-part way of understanding organizational capacity, the 7 S’s: Strategy, Services, Structure, Systems, Stewardship, Solidarity, and Sustainability.

These seven areas give us a way to look beyond the immediate challenge and understand what is shaping the work around it. What is the organization trying to accomplish? What does the work require? Who needs to do it, and how will they work together? What needs to be in place to support them? What could make the work stronger together? And what will allow it to hold up over time?

We do not move every organization through the same process or arrive with a predetermined solution. We use the framework to understand the organization in front of us and focus our work where it can make the greatest difference.

We stay close to the work.

We are practitioners first. We have led teams, built programs, managed growth, restructured organizations, developed new service models, and worked through the complications that come with making real change.

That experience shapes how we work. We are not interested in recommendations that look good on paper but fall apart when a team has to implement them on a Tuesday afternoon.

We work alongside the people who will carry the work forward, building solutions that fit the organization, its people, and the communities it serves.

We build capacity, not dependence.

Our role is not to become part of your organization indefinitely. It is to help your organization become more capable.

That means sharing our thinking, building leadership capacity, creating systems people can actually use, and making sure the people closest to the work have what they need to carry it forward.

We are here to help you build through a challenge, not to become a permanent part of your organization. We work alongside your team, helping build the skills, systems, and confidence to carry the work forward. Then we step back and let your team thrive.

Where should we start?

You may know exactly what you need.

You may simply know that something isn't working the way it should.

Either is a good place to begin.

Tell us what you're seeing, what you're trying to build, or where you're feeling stuck.

We'll listen, ask questions, and help you figure out what comes next.

Bring us the challenge. We'll start there.