co:collective

In a post-pandemic world rattled by economic turbulence and a volatile political climate, leaders must build organizations that have a clear north star, remain adaptable to change and simultaneously cater to the needs of diverse stakeholders: investors, employees, and customers.

co:collective, a creative and strategic transformation partner, helps organizations develop leaders who can successfully navigate change and transformation and build more purpose-driven cultures.

"To succeed today, businesses must have a compelling purpose that drives their actions and guides their decisions. We work with leaders to put purpose into practice to create more possibilities for organizational stakeholders, ultimately building more generative organizations," says Kit Krugman, Partner and Managing Director of organization and culture design at co:collective.

Most organizational leaders not only need support identifying their north star, they also need support in operationalizing it effectively across the business to drive impact. co:collective's team of organizational psychologists, cultural anthropologists and business strategists balance their deep understanding of social and system dynamics with a pragmatic understanding of how to influence business operations to bridge the gap between an organization’s vision for what’s possible and the work that makes that vision real.

co:’s services are distilled into six categories: purpose development, purpose activation, organizational health assessment, organizational design and transformation, employer branding, and the future of work. co:’s team supports leadership development across all these activities.

Purpose development involves co:collective's team working with clients to define their higher purpose, align critical senior executives to that purpose, and create the guiding language that determines how it influences the organization (values, operating principles, etc.).

For purpose activation, leaders are coached through best practices in dynamic change leadership, change narrative development and team engagement strategies.

Building from purpose, co: delivers services across the spectrum of organizational transformation: small and large scale organizational and team design, decision-making, process design, cultural and behavior transformation, and innovation capacity-building.

The power of story plays a critical role in the work co:collective does with leaders as a critical catalyst for change and organizational transformation.

In addition to the organization + culture design offering, co: has deep expertise in brand and business strategy and experience design. The co: team leverages this expertise to support leaders in employee value proposition development, employer brand and employee experience design.

While partnering with client organizations, co:collective typically follows a four-phased client engagement methodology: understand, align, design and advise (or implement).

• The Understand phase ensures a thorough and systematic understanding of its client’s cultural and organizational infrastructure. co: performs an organizational health assessment to gain an overview of a company's culture through various methodologies, such as interviews, surveys, demographic research and onsite visits.

• The Align phase brings together critical stakeholders and decision-makers to align to key insights, implication and potential shifts needed in the organization.

• The Design phase introduces the element of cocreation, partnering with leaders and their teams to explore changes to the organizational ecosystem.

• In the final step, advisory services are offered for implementing those concepts and improving management and leadership capabilities.

Throughout the work, co: considers the process itself as a form of intervention, working with leaders to model a more co-creative and collaborative approach to dynamic and generative change.

To succeed today, businesses must have a compelling purpose that drives their actions and guides their decisions. We work with leaders to put purpose into practice to create more possibilities for organizational stakeholders, ultimately building more generative organizations

co:collective has helped leaders across a wide range of Fortune 500s and leading non-profits to galvanize their organizations and drive change. The firm is currently partnering with the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) to develop its first strategic plan in nearly a decade. Amid broad political attacks on higher education and urgent questions being raised by students and their parents about the value of a degree, co: is helping KCAI to articulate the unique value of this world-class art and design school.

They are working with the university president and a group of leaders and community stakeholders to define an inspiring vision and values for the nearly 140 year old institution. From that singular vision, the team is co-designing a series of strategic initiatives to bring the plan to life and position KCAI to continue to be an innovative leader in arts and design education. The strategic plan draws on the unique combination of authenticity and ambition that defines the Kansas City creative community, and bring its value to an increasingly global community of students and alumni.

Moving forward, co:collective plans to build on the combined power of its collaborative methodology and human-centered design expertise to further enhance its core offerings. It is determined to deliver the most innovative leadership development services to ignite transformational change across more organizations, worldwide.