offerings

We work with organizations and leaders who are looking to become intentionally relevant and impactful in the context of a challenging and constantly changing sociopolitical landscape. We offer solutions focused on culture, people, and strategy. Our capabilities integrate three core areas of practice:

organizational assessment

We use a mixed-methods approach to understanding an organization’s processes, practices, and ethos. Our methods include listening sessions in focus groups or interviews, observational analysis, and traditional surveys. The learnings we derive from our assessments, coupled with our objective of driving imaginative, practical, and sustainable change, inform the insights we generate and deliver back to our clients.

collage representing the organizational assessment of third settlementes

We assess organizations through:

Organizational Structure and Culture Health Survey

Our customizable organizational survey is designed to gauge employee experiences and perceptions and provide a baseline snapshot of perceptions of the current state of an organization’s structure, culture and belonging.

Listening Sessions

We conduct focus group sessions and one on one interviews designed to learn about the experiences of stakeholders and gain insight into organizations’ issues, opportunities, and growth areas.

Real Time Observations

Using principles of ethnographic observation, journaling, and measurement, we observe organizational culture in action, to glean insights into hierarchies, communication, and relationships.

testimonials

Amnesty International USA
Paul O’Brien
“In a series of five integrated rigorous reports, they gave us a thorough diagnosis and a pathway forward for living up to our stated values and strengthening our culture. Of the 35 final recommendations they ultimately shared, our community committed to advancing all of them.”
FCB Global
Executive, Global Ad Agency
“Their facilitation skills are outstanding: informed by deep subject matter expertise and an ability to manage nuance in a way that has diverse participant groups feeling seen and supported.”
Prospect Park Alliance
Morgan Monaco
“Third Settlements’ approach is to become fully immersed into an organization's culture, understand their norms and personalities and gracefully guide leadership to find common ways of being and approaches to working together.”
Baltimore Ravens
Elizabeth Mearman
“Together, Third Settlements created and continue to develop the Diversity Action Committee, wrote and continue to bring to life an inclusion statement, constantly cultivate a culture of inclusion, tackle workplace challenges, expand the concept of “diversity” and offer educational opportunities to develop employees into future inclusive leaders.”

LEARNING FOR TEAMS & LEADERs

We design and facilitate experiential, community-building, and learning sessions for leaders, managers, and teams. Grounded in 30 years of experience facilitating diverse groups, our workshops are cohort-based and draw on the power of intergroup dialogue to explore the prism of current topics organizations face—the dynamics of conflict, managing across differences, and fostering a productive multigenerational workplace, to name a few.

photo collage with an elephant and trees representing the roots of third settlements.

Some of our workshops include:

Inclusive Leadership Series

We provide a five-part learning and practice series for teams and cohorts that builds the awareness and skills to effectively lead diverse teams in dynamic work environments.

Adaptive Leadership + Change Work

We design and facilitate change processes that empower organizations to reimagine and transform existing systems, structures, processes, and policies to align with their aspirational values.

Grounding Workshops Identity, Language, and Allyship

We have designed three foundational sessions on identity, language, and allyship that we can scale for any size team and deliver virtually or in person.

Community and Culture Building

We have created and led customized workshops and retreats for leadership teams and whole organizations that explore issues of conflict, communication, roles, power, and group development.

strategic
transformation

We guide leaders and organizations through a strategic journey that positions them to dream, be bold, and map a path that inspires and compels the organization forward. Our approach is holistic, drawing on diverse perspectives beyond the planning committee and integrating them into a dynamic, adaptable framework. Through interconnected learning phases, we encourage leaders to listen to voices, test ideas and explore insights before committing to action in a generative and safe space. We explore cognitive and cultural readiness for change, ensuring organizations understand their current state and how it can ready themselves for transition. We help leaders and planning teams name their North Star, choose their strategic pillars and identify the measurable outcomes paired with a sustainable implementation plan that will support their mission.

a photo collage describing third settlements approach to helping their clients

We assess organizations through:

Discover & Draft

In this initial phase, we bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Through a deep discovery process, we gather insights from your team and stakeholders, reviewing key documents and engaging in visioning sessions to uncover strengths, challenges, and opportunities. The result is a clear understanding of your current state, which lays the foundation for strategic planning.

Defining the North Star

We guide your organization through a future-focused approach, leveraging adaptive leadership and innovation practices to define a clear mission, vision, and set of core values. By reflecting on your past and exploring future possibilities, we align your team around a shared direction, ensuring that your organization is poised to tackle challenges and seize opportunities.

Refining the Priorities

With your North Star in place, we refine strategic priorities through collaborative workshops and stakeholder engagement. A custom criteria rubric helps guide decision-making, ensuring that your final strategic priorities are clear and actionable. This phase solidifies the path forward, balancing ambition with practicality.

Strategy Validation & Approval

After priorities are set, we validate the strategic plan through rigorous testing and refinement with key stakeholders, ensuring alignment and readiness for execution. The final strategy is then presented for approval, ready to guide your organization’s next chapter.

Action Planning & Strategic Plan Finalization

Turning strategy into action, we collaborate with your team to create a detailed action plan that connects your vision, goals, and resources. Through iterative feedback sessions, we refine this plan to serve as a clear roadmap, guiding your organization from vision to tangible results.

approach

We use a latticework of practices that equip our partner clients to:

  • 1

    Identify growth opportunities in their organization’s knowledge base, culture and structures.

  • 2

    Through facilitated sessions, we immerse teams in participatory experiences that help them understand and address issues and barriers  to progress.

  • 3

    Practice  how to engage with one another to build trust and deepen relationships and co-generate solutions.

  • 4

    Work from theory to practice by introducing organizational science research most relevant to the organization’s need, and integrating it into practical steps to address the issues of the moment.

As we traverse the terrain of our wide ranging work, our methods evolve. We embrace new tools and techniques to empower teams, communities, and organizations on their journey of self-discovery. Yet, amidst this evolution, we remain steadfast in our core objective: to facilitate change that resonates with the intrinsic values of those we serve. Our client management process is rooted in partnership and mutual respect, and along the way, we provide individual, responsive coaching sessions for senior leadership, management, and staff members on navigating organizational challenges.