Alpinista specializes in inviting everyone touched by a complex challenge to shape the future together.
“Anna led our organization through our first strategic planning process. She has definitely helped take Urban Roots to the next level of organizational evolution and growth. It was not your typical cookie-cutter planning process: it was a lot of fun with loads of capacity building activities that enabled us to grow as a team. All of my board members loved the strategic planning process and many of them have followed up with her to facilitate at their own organizations.”
Alpinista's strategic development offering is comprised of a variety of services that help you enhance your approach to strategy-making, strategic planning, and build capacity for strategic work within your organization. Many organizations would like to include a variety of stakeholders in their strategic development, from clients to board members and community partners, but aren't sure how. We can help you include and engage everyone, and learn how to facilitate meaningful work together.
Deepening Purpose and Preparing for Surprise
When you partner with Alpinista to help your group design or reimagine your core offerings, every member of your team is invited to work at the top of their game, thoughtfully reflect on their experiences in the work you share together, and courageously share their boldest ideas. Team members will emerge with a deeper sense of purpose and a heightened understanding that strategic development is an ongoing, responsive, reflective process and practice, and that in today's changing landscape our definitive plans are helpful, but we must also be prepared for surprise.
“Anna’s approach is inclusive and inquisitive. She is able to dial into each person’s individual perspective and offer them the opportunity to voice their ideas without fear. Anna also makes it very clear that her goal is to empower others with these tools so that they can effectively step into her role: instead of building a dependency on her + her techniques, she openly shares her tools with others so that the organization can continue to grow under the guidance of its own leaders. This is one of the most unique aspects of her approach, one that builds value and investment in it’s own people.”
Meaningfully Including Everyone
Strategic development works best when those who are closest to the work are deeply involved in the process, and evaluation, program development, and organizational strategy work in complement with one another. Most of us recognize that we are most successful when our work emphasizes local wisdom and the strengths of the people most closely involved with our efforts, but figuring out how to involve people in a meaningful way can be a challenge. When you work with Alpinista, engaging everyone becomes a core component of the process and your team learns specific methods to meaningfully invite everyone to shape the future as we work together.
Building Capacity Along the Way
Alpinista believes that the people closest to the work are in the best position to facilitate its development, along with key partners. When we work with groups on their strategic development, we also strengthen the capacity of staff to continue strategic development long after we have stopped working together. We want to help you learn how to do this valuable work so that you can strengthen your efforts and learn as you go, reducing or eliminating your need to receive strategic development consultation in the future.