Bring CompassPoint to Your Organization
Learning as a team can be a powerful way to shift practices, systems, and culture across your organization. CompassPoint is now offering "in-house" learning experiences that build upon the content from our public workshops and can be tailored specifically for your organization's goals around growth, learning, and change.
What distinguishes our approach to capacity building and consulting?
We are a values-driven team of nonprofit leaders, bringing our collective wisdom, creativity, lived experiences, shared passion for social justice, and years of knowledge about the nonprofit sector and working in social movements to every partnership and project. Most importantly, we create conditions for you to do the same.
When we partner with organizations on capacity building and consulting projects focused on deep organizational change, we center relationships while applying an equity lens. We know that building trust together helps us get to the heart of a problem or structural issue. Moreover, healthy and resilient relationships get equity done. And to achieve equity, our approach prioritizes the resourcing of relationships by identifying and exploring how they are impacted by power, privilege, and systems of oppression.
Ultimately, we believe people already have the insights and solutions they need to reach their team or organization's goals—we're simply here to co-create the space and support to identify and draw them out. We are focused on working in collaboration with leaders and organizations—not reinforcing ideas of top-down expertise.
If you're new to learning with CompassPoint (or if it's been a while), we encourage you to explore our vision and values, register for one of our public workshops so you can experience our content firsthand, or read our blog to learn a little bit more about us.
If our approach resonates with you and aligns with your objectives, please fill out a brief Inquiry Form to provide us with initial insights, or send us an email if you have any questions. Our team will be sure to follow up with you within the next 7-10 business days. We look forward to exploring opportunities to collaborate with you!
Available Offerings
Facilitation of Courageous Conversations
Interpersonal Workplace Mediation
Facilitation of Courageous Conversations
At CompassPoint, we know that multiple truths can exist at once. We see courageous conversations as a pathway for individuals, teams, and entire organizations to uncover these truths together even as they generate tensions, because we believe greater alignment and deepened relationships can be found on the other side.
Through this offering, we support you and your team/organization in co-creating a structured container for the conversation that invites in vulnerability, empathy, discomfort as a catalyst for learning, and focused listening. This includes establishing community agreements and identifying, mitigating, and shifting power imbalances as they arise before and during a conversation. We recognize that when power perpetuates the status quo, conversations may not unfold with the honesty and courage deserved by all, which is why it is critical for us to facilitate with an analysis of power dynamics and how they may impact whose voices we hear in the space. It is our intention and objective as facilitators to ensure that we cultivate conversations that go beyond simply "naming" truths and towards actually facing these truths collectively, in service of team development and shared learning.
Key Details on Process + Deliverables
1-2 Facilitators. These facilitators will support either a single conversation or a series of conversations involving at least four staff and/or board members.
Preparation and Context Download. This involves gathering perspectives from at least two individuals involved, with a focus on understanding the core issues that necessitate the courageous conversation.
Debrief Process. The debrief process includes defining next steps and establishing accountability mechanisms that build upon the outcomes of the courageous conversation.
Virtual or In-person Options Available! We offer flexibility on conducting the conversation(s) virtually or in-person, depending on needs, preferences, and logistical considerations.
This offering builds upon content from two of our public workshops, Conflict Resolution with Power and Privilege in Mind and Facilitation Skills: Creating Powerful and Purposeful Meetings
Interpersonal Workplace Mediation
We believe that centering people and relationships gets equity and justice work done. It is essential to tend to the relationships in our workplaces in order to maintain a healthy, resilient, and sustainable work culture where everyone feels safe, supported, and can thrive.
Of course, even the healthiest workplaces can struggle when a conflict surfaces and goes unaddressed. Outside mediation is one practice that can be used when a conflict between co-workers cannot be resolved internally. Although conflict often has negative associations, we view conflict as normal, inevitable, and as an opportunity for generative learning and transformation. Our trained mediators create supportive spaces for individuals, regardless of organizational “rank” or title, to approach their conflict with principled engagement and on equal footing, which opens up the possibility of lasting and transformational change that can shift power imbalances.
Key Details on Process + Deliverables
Intake Sessions. We will gather information on the history, perspectives, needs, and hopes from parties involved in the conflict. We will also provide an overview of the mediation process and can offer coaching if needed to prepare parties for mediation.
Mediation Sessions. We will schedule two sessions (adjustable as needed) for the involved parties to address their conflict and engage in structured mediation, which will be facilitated by two certified mediators.
Outcome Documentation. We will document and prepare mediation outcomes for the involved parties, and aim for mutually agreed-upon commitments to move forward collaboratively.
This offering builds upon content from our public workshop, Conflict Resolution with Power and Privilege in Mind.
Peer Coaching Circles
Coaching is a way of communicating that can transform power dynamics in liberatory ways. Coaching skills can help put into practice the idea that the people closest to the problem are closest to the solutions. When we coach each other, we center self-determination, create space for accountability, and unlock each other’s leadership gifts. Patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, and other systems of oppression thrive when “solutions” are imposed on our bodies and our communities without our participation or consent. A coaching approach can counter the impact of these oppressive systems by inviting us to engage in focused listening and inquiry as skills through which we can support others in finding their clarity and their solutions.
We believe that anyone, regardless of their position, has the potential to grow and help others grow through coaching skills. Peer coaching circles are a way for you to build your coaching skills and to experience being coached in support of your own growth. CompassPoint can provide guidance, structure, and resources for launching peer coaching circles with your team or organization.
Benefits
- Confidential network of peers
- Real time support for real issues
- Disrupt "imposter syndrome"; build belief in yourself and others
- Build interpersonal leadership skills
- Renew purpose and motivation
Basic Principles
- Finding the right problem is as important as solving it
- The person with the problem is the expert on the problem, and closest to solutions
Key Details on Process + Deliverables
Scoping Process. We refine the scope and roles of the project based on your team or organization's needs and capacity. Dates for training and number of participants are confirmed.
Training Sessions. We will facilitate one coaching skills training and one peer coaching training over the course of several sessions for all participants.
Peer Coaching Circles Launch. Peer coaching circles begin with CompassPoint facilitation in each of the launch sessions.
This offering builds upon content from our public workshop, Coaching Skills for Leaders.
Team Culture Building Retreats
At CompassPoint, we know that spending intentional time with your teams can pave the way to building trust, gaining alignment, celebrating wins, and overcoming moments of organizational adversity. We also know that retreats can feel risky, emotionally charged, vulnerable, and challenging, especially for those on the margins within their organizations.
Our approach to retreat facilitation is to fully understand two things: the current culture a team has, and the aspirational culture a team is working towards. Given this, we strive to create retreat spaces for teams that honor both what’s present in the room and what a team is striving to achieve. We center joy, consent, embodiment practices, and authenticity as ways to connect with others in our facilitation practice. We prioritize co-designing retreats with our partners so they know what to expect before stepping into the room.
Key Details on Process + Deliverables
Co-Design Process. Our team will partner with 1-3 individuals from your organization.
Partnership with Team Leaders. We are willing to partner with team leaders to co-facilitate specific content.
Retreat Design. We can design 1 to 3-day retreats for teams or the entire organization, depending on your needs.
Facilitators. 1-2 facilitators will support you throughout the process.
Logistics Coordination. Requires at least one organizational contact to coordinate logistics of the retreat (e.g., location, food, timing, etc.).
This offering builds upon content from two of our public workshops (Manage Your Energy, Reclaim Your Time: A Path to Personal Sustainability, Facilitation Skills: Creating Powerful and Purposeful Meetings) and our cohort-based learning series, Self-Care for Black Folks.
Workplace Equity and Justice Assessment
We believe that creating just and equitable workplaces requires identifying, mitigating, and addressing power imbalances. Our workplace equity and justice assessment provides organizations with an in-depth assessment of current equity and justice opportunities and challenges across every facet of the organization. We co-design the assessment with an internal team at the organization, conduct an in-depth analysis of the data, and provide feedback on what is working well and what changes can be made to align with equity commitments and justice-oriented strategies. Through this partnership, we provide a fresh perspective on working toward internal equity and justice that can be central to an organization’s theory of change.
Key Details on Process + Deliverables
Survey and Assessment Creation.
Interpretation of Survey Results. 1-2 consultants work with an internal team at the organization to interpret the survey results.
Intensive Report. Includes qualitative and quantitative insights plus CompassPoint team’s synthesis of data collected.
Guided or Facilitated Meaning-Making. With a designated team or the entire staff at the organization.
Recommended Next Steps. Includes a clear plan for your organization's future actions.
This offering builds upon content from our public workshop, Centering People During Organizational Change and Transition.
