Since its founding, Urban Schools Human Capital Academy (USHCA) has emerged as a leader in professional learning and reform for school districts’ Human Capital departments. USHCA found themselves at an organizational inflection point, wondering how best to increase their scale and impact. USHCA approached Jodi Akst as a partner in this work, after securing a two-year grant from the Carnegie Foundation to support their growth planning efforts. Together, USHCA and Jodi created a scope of work designed to answer the following critical question: How can USHCA increase the scale of its direct service work in terms of revenue, clients, and influence?

Over the course of nine months, Jodi engaged in a highly collaborative approach to achieve the goals of the project. Jodi’s approach blended an outcomes-focused structure with room to adapt based on learnings along the way. She introduced structure by breaking the work into phases - each phase with clear objectives, concrete deliverables, and a kickoff meeting with USHCA stakeholders to build alignment and clarity. Jodi created room to adapt and collaborate by bringing multiple voices into the work, involving various stakeholders in appropriate phases of work, and reaching final on all decisions and deliverables through an iterative process with the USHCA team. This intentional approach honored clients’ expertise and time, and it informed the creation of a set of deliverables that USHCA stakeholders were deeply invested in and ready to use to adapt their future ways of working. The deliverables included:

• A SWOT analysis to act as an input for the growth plan

• Client and Financial Data Analysis to answer the questions of 1) What do the past three years tell us about revenue trends? 2) What do the past three years tell us about client engagement with our service offerings?

• Goals, Roles, & Roadmap which included 1)The high-level growth strategy approach 2) the design of a new team structure, 3) three-year goals by priority and service area, 4) another view of the three-year goals by business strategy vs. product delivery, and 5) a three-year roadmap of USHCA initiatives and activities by service area and aligned to goals

• Budget and Growth Models with three years models for both the organizational budget and the growth (revenue) plan

USHCA’s collaboration with Jodi changed how their teams operated, strengthened how their leaders lead, and positioned the organization to achieve their desired scale and impact. Specifically, when Jodi followed up with CEO, Betsy Arons, six months after the project concluded, Betsy shared that the shifts they made to roles of the team allowed for greater autonomy among leadership, more collaboration among team members, and more strategic decision making. The organization increased its operating margin to work towards an increase in their reserves. Team members felt increased ownership over business decisions, and they increased their business development, equipped with clear goals. USHCA shifted from a disconnected way of operating to an integrated way forward, and they grew their business as a result.

Prospect Hill Academy (PHA) is Massachusetts’ top-performing charter school. They needed a strategic business plan to complement their existing academic strategy. Located in Somerville and Cambridge, PHA serves ~1,000 students in grades PreK to 12 from diverse racial, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds. In 2021, 97% of PHA graduates enrolled in college.

The Leadwell Group (Leadwell)’s vision is to ensure every organization reaches its desired impact. Over the course of five months, Leadwell Co-founder, Jod Akst, engaged in a highly collaborative approach to achieve the goals of the project. Leaning on Leadwell’s signature approach of deep listening and strong synthesis, Jodi moved the project team through a process that resulted in a PHA Board Strategic Plan.

Through 1) a SWOT analysis that included numerous interviews with stakeholder to act as an input for the growth plan, 2) a tightly facilitated in-person, two-day retreat to align on strategic areas and overarching goals, key metrics and key milestones for each strategic area, and 3) financial modeling in partnership with PHA’s CFO, Leadwell partnered with the Board to reach their big goals for this work. An external consultant telling an organization what to do never results in successful change or outcomes. Leadwell knows this. Jodi ran the project with an involved Project Committee and the project was run in phases to get buy-in at every stage. Jodi shifted or pivoted the work as needed when relevant data or information pointed the project in a different direction. This resulted in a plan in which the Board was invested and able to move forward.

Specifically, the PHA Board Strategic Plan allowed the Board of Trustees (BoT) to commit to:

• Uphold PHA’s mission and identity

• Set direction for school size, and ensure the PHA charter includes sending districts to meet Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s requirement of having 80% of students come from towns included in the charter

• Provide a plan for improved facilities for the students and staff for years to come

• Ensure the BoT and the school have strong leadership after the current BoT Chair and Head of School transition out of their roles

Upon competition of the project, the clients said:

“Jodi did a great job of keeping us on target, getting everyone's input, helping us distill complicated issues, and most importantly creating a final product that not only was supported by all, but most importantly will drive the Trustees to action in support of our mission.”

"Jodi is a thoughtful and skilled facilitator with a keen strategic mind and strong education sector subject matter expertise. She was just what we needed to help our school understand and navigate very complicated circumstances"

City Year Tulsa was ready to create their next 5-year strategic plan. What might they learn from the landscape? What might be possible?  City Year Tulsa is committed to helping students see the possibility of their future. City Year is committed to challenging students academically, supporting their well-being, and empowering them to thrive as learners and in life. In imagining their next strategic plan, the City Year Tulsa team sought to ground their process in the voices of the community. They wanted an external partner to co-design and implement a robust stakeholder engagement process. 

Leadwell designs spaces where individuals share bravely. Leadwell listens deeply and translates diverse perspectives into a clear path forward. City Year Tulsa selected Leadwell to design a stakeholder input process and curate themes to inform their strategic priorities. Leadwell started by creating a research agenda, clearly articulating the big questions that City Year Tulsa sought to answer. With this foundation, Leadwell designed a stakeholder input process, including focus group questions for staff, AmeriCorps members, alumni, students, and families. Leadwell also designed a full-day retreat agenda to engage the City Year Tulsa Board in an analysis of opportunities and risks. Leadwell observed the Board retreat and focus groups, collecting data and summarizing themes. City Year Tulsa Leadership Team members and Leadwell debriefed the ideas that emerged and identified potential areas for strategic focus. 

This partnership allowed City Year Tulsa leaders to fully engage and participate in the process, while Leadwell created the structure, captured data, and summarized learnings. By the close of the stakeholder input process, City Year Tulsa was equipped with clear potential priorities to inform the creation of their strategic plan. In City Year Tulsa’s words: 

“Leadwell was instrumental in helping us develop our strategic plan and keeping us on track with our timeline. Christina was a pleasure to work with - always so positive and engaging. Her ability to synthesize all the feedback from our various focus groups and extract our key areas of opportunities and targets for the next 5 years is excellent. We would love the chance to work with Christina and Leadwell again, and would definitely recommend their services!” - Paul Davis, Executive Director, City Year Tulsa