Library
Ideas and practical resources for people who lead teams, bring people together, and help organizations do their work well.
Featured
Three practical guides that show how our ideas help with everyday work.
How to Run a Better Board Conversation
Plan a discussion, help everyone participate, and leave with clear decisions.
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How People Develop New Abilities
What helps people put new knowledge and skills into practice after a training.
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How to Make Collaboration Work
How partners make decisions, share responsibilities, and coordinate their work.
Get the guideGuides & toolkits
Frameworks, field guides, and toolkits on leadership, learning, working together, and organizational capacity.
How to Run a Better Board Conversation
Practical ways to prepare a discussion, support participation, and make decisions clear.
PDF guide and toolkitGet the guideHow to Make Collaboration Work
How partners make decisions, share responsibilities, and keep working together through change.
PDF guide with exercisesGet the guideHow People Develop New Abilities
How practice and support help people develop new abilities.
PDF frameworkGet the guide
What Helps People Work Together
The relationships and shared practices that support coordination and follow-through.
PDF reference guideGet the guide
How We Know Whether Our Work Made a Difference
How to assess a training or project and make claims the evidence supports.
PDF frameworkGet the guide
Conditions for Impact™
How to examine the conditions that affect whether a strategy can be put into practice.
PDF diagnosticGet the guide
What Makes Good Work Possible
Why knowing what to do and being able to do it are different.
PDF frameworkGet the guide
What Shapes People's Ability to Do Their Work
How people's abilities, relationships, and working conditions affect one another.
PDF frameworkGet the guide
How We Approach Our Work
How we understand a situation, choose a response, and learn from what happens.
PDF frameworkGet the guide
How We Think Change Happens
Why change depends on what people and organizations are able to do.
PDF frameworkGet the guide
Dignity by Design
How everyday service choices can help people feel respected and understand what to expect.
Articles
Short pieces on what we are learning from our training and facilitation. Sign up for the newsletter to get each new article when it is published.
Sustainability Is Infrastructure
What nonprofit boards and new executive directors need to succeed after the hiring paperwork has been signed.
Read the article
Why people can know what to do and still struggle to do it
Who has the authority to make this change?
When staff feedback has nowhere to go
How relationships affect an organization's work
What else to examine when a team asks for communication training
How leaders can support the development of trust
How to tell whether a workshop changed anything
What helps people use their learning after a workshop
How individual abilities become useful to a team
Videos
Short videos, each on one idea you can use. The newsletter shares each new video.
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The thinking behind our work
These frameworks explain how we think about learning, ability, relationships, and working together, and how those ideas guide the decisions we make in training and facilitation.
- Theory of ChangeWhy change becomes more possible when people and organizations can act on what matters, adapt when circumstances change, and sustain progress over time.
- The Ecology of Human RepairHow what happens within people, between them, and around them affects what they can do.
- Beginning With CapacityWhy knowing what to do and being able to do it are different, and what affects whether people can use what they know.
- Conditions for Impact™How to check whether the conditions around a strategy can support it.
- The HRW MethodologyOur eight steps, and the question we ask throughout: whose knowledge could change what we understand or decide?
For a shorter introduction to how we work, see Our approach.
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Each issue includes new articles, practical resources, and invitations to upcoming conversations.