
OrgCentrik™
A DEI Change Partnership Framework To Transform Organizational Culture
A Human-Centered Strategy for Building Inclusive, Bias-Free, and High-Trust Workplaces
The OrgCentrik™ DEI Change Partnership Framework is CircleUp Education’s overarching strategy for transforming the internal culture, systems, and relationships within organizations. It is not a single tool or training—it’s a modular, plug-in change approach built to meet organizations at any stage of their journey, from basic training implementation to full-scale structural and cultural transformation.
What sets OrgCentrik™ apart is that it doesn't just focus on what to change—it addresses how to change and sustain that change. It’s a composite approach that blends relationship-based engagement, data-informed decision-making, adult learning theory, and behavior reinforcement science, all while centering equity and inclusion.
A Central Dock for Change: Where All CircleUp® Services Converge
OrgCentrik™ can be adapted for light-touch training-only engagements, integrated DEI strategy partnerships, or full-scale, long-term culture shift campaigns. It’s designed as a “change ecosystem dock”—meaning all other CircleUp offerings (like The Biascend Collection™, The DREAM Assessment™, or Restora™ Conflict Services) can plug directly into it, guided by a cohesive approach that aligns values with practice.
From Awareness to Action: Solving the Challenge of Sustainable Change
OrgCentrik™ is designed to answer one of the most common organizational challenges:
“How do we actually create long-term change—not just awareness?”
Whether it’s bias, discrimination, breakdowns in communication, misaligned policies, or systemic barriers—OrgCentrik™ provides a scaffold for:
Designing effective and equitable systems and practices
Addressing the invisible cultural norms that reinforce exclusion
Measuring change in behavior, beliefs, and structural outcomes
Sustaining impact through repetition, reinforcement, and reflection
OrgCentrik™ is deployed when organizations want more than a one-time training. It’s ideal when:
There is a need to implement and measure DEI change beyond compliance
Clients want support co-developing policies, norms, or engagement strategies
Leadership desires culture shift, not just knowledge building
There are conflicts, breakdowns, or trust gaps requiring a systemic response
Clients seek a comprehensive approach with coaching, planning, facilitation, and accountability
Powered by Proven Models, Blended with CircleUp’s
Tested Strategies
OrgCentrik™ isn’t just inspired by theory—it’s engineered from the most trusted change models in the field and refined through CircleUp’s real-world experience. By blending the ADKAR Model, Kotter’s 8-Step Process, Lewin’s 3-Stage Framework, and Prochaska’s Stages of Change with CircleUp’s hands-on strategies for equity, communication, and culture-building, we’ve created a comprehensive approach to transformation. We also embed Culturally Responsive Teaching and Liberatory Design Thinking to ensure power, identity, and emotional safety are not only acknowledged—but centered. The result is a deeply human change process that shifts not only systems, but hearts, habits, and behaviors.
The OrgCentrik™ Framework
A 7-Step Multilayered, Evidence-Informed Change Partnership Approach for Sustainable Transformation
OrgCentrik™ blends behavioral science, organizational change theory, equity-centered design, and restorative practices to meet organizations where they are and move them toward where they need to be. Its tiered, adaptable design allows for use in short-term initiatives, as well as full-scale organizational transformation. It also serves as a “docking system” for other CircleUp services, including our DREAM Assessment™, Biascend Collection™, The Future of DEI, CivilRise™, Conflict Restora™, CircleSage™, and CircleRestora™ Services— allowing our best tools to be deployed with strategy, intention, and alignment.
The OrgCentrik™ Framework
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OrgCentrik™ begins not with action, but with alignment. Through facilitated sessions with key stakeholders, our team engages in deep listening to understand your organizational identity, recent history, and the lived experience of those impacted by your culture, systems, or policies. This discovery phase is grounded in relationship-building and seeks to define what success actually looks like—on your terms. We assess timelines, resource capacity, and historical context, but also surface unspoken dynamics, emotional tensions, and prior initiatives that may influence engagement. This step becomes the foundation of trust, mutual understanding, and shared expectations.
Identify core pain points, root causes, and intended outcomes
Clarify timelines, reporting needs, and internal bandwidth
Discuss past initiatives and common barriers to progress
Establish partnership norms, values, and success metrics
Align expectations for the depth and scope of work—whether it’s a light-touch training contract or a full transformation strategy
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We move into a multi-method, human-centered data gathering process. Our team facilitates focus groups, stakeholder interviews, and organizational scans that go beyond surface-level insight. In addition to collecting new information, we also review and analyze existing reports, surveys, and past initiatives to build on what your organization has already explored. We gather not just quantitative feedback, but qualitative, culture-specific intelligence that reveals where breakdowns may be occurring—between policy and practice, between mission and morale, and between leadership intention and staff experience. This phase is designed to be trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and deeply illuminating—helping to paint a full picture of both the current state and its underlying root causes.
Focus groups with frontline staff and leadership
Key informant interviews with internal and external stakeholders
Review and synthesis of past assessments, reports, and survey data
Environmental scans of workplace culture, norms, and communication dynamics
Cross-analysis of new findings and existing data to identify patterns, disconnects, and opportunities
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Once the data is synthesized, we don’t disappear into a boardroom to generate recommendations. Instead, we return to your stakeholders and co-analyze the findings. This is where clarity, alignment, and sometimes recalibration happens. We explore what’s affirmed by the data, what’s been challenged, and what new priorities might emerge. It is not uncommon at this stage for organizations to shift their focus slightly as new truths come into view. We encourage candid dialogue, protect psychological safety, and begin designing change in partnership—not isolation.
Share findings in clear, accessible language
Highlight alignment and misalignment between stakeholder hopes and system realities
Explore previously unidentified patterns or contradictions
Validate, challenge, or recalibrate priorities
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Based on our shared understanding, we create your MomentumMap™—a detailed, strategic roadmap that lays out the building blocks of change. The MomentumMap™ includes proposed trainings, reinforcement tools, optional assessments, and communication strategies that align with your specific goals. It anticipates barriers and builds in excitement-building moments. This roadmap also identifies what’s needed to go beyond awareness—such as reinforcement strategies, small habit-forming nudges, and team leader toolkits. The MomentumMap™ brings together all aspects of the change ecosystem so that your work doesn’t end with a one-time training—it evolves into a sustained movement.
Recommended trainings and services (e.g., DREAM Assessment™, Biascend Collection™, CivilRise™)
Reinforcement tools to promote behavior change and cultural embedding
Communication strategies to build excitement, curiosity, and alignment
Suggested timelines, rollout strategies, and accountability mechanisms
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With the roadmap in hand, our design team goes to work. Every service we deliver—from DEI training to leadership coaching to restorative policy review—is customized to reflect your voice, your environment, and your community. We avoid off-the-shelf solutions and instead tailor language, examples, and models to match your culture and the equity goals uncovered in our discovery and assessment phases. This is also when we integrate other CircleUp offerings such as the DREAM Assessment™, PersonCentrik™, or the Biascend Collection™, depending on what your MomentumMap™ calls for.
Organizational language, context, and cultural tone
Pain points and power dynamics surfaced in the assessment
Intended transformation goals—at the system, team, and individual levels
Integration with current tools (e.g., IPPs, restorative practices, evaluation frameworks)
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Implementation begins with intention and agility. Our facilitators, consultants, and project leads deliver services in tandem with embedded reflection points that ensure real-time adaptation. Rather than delivering a service and walking away, we remain in dialogue—gathering feedback, tracking shifts, and making mid-course corrections as needed. Our focus isn’t just on delivery—it’s on embedding concepts into habits, ensuring relevance, and measuring behavior change in ways that matter to your team.
Implementation of training, coaching, or consulting sessions
Real-time adjustments based on participant feedback
Reporting systems for tracking participation and engagement
Internal surveys or focus groups to gauge impact as you go
Collaborative checkpoints to ensure we're on track
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Change isn’t finished when implementation ends. The final phase is focused on durability. We help your team design sustainable infrastructure, including internal accountability practices, tools for culture maintenance, and leadership coaching to ensure the change lives beyond our partnership. This is also where we transfer knowledge—helping your team become the stewards of continued progress. We support you in translating values into practice and culture into strategy, so that inclusion becomes embedded, not episodic.
Creation of internal culture tools (e.g., decision-making rubrics, reflection protocols)
Ongoing leadership coaching and advisory
Policy and practice review for equity alignment
Staff-led champions or affinity group support models
Integration of tools and practices into onboarding and evaluation systems
Bring OrgCentrik™
To Your Workplace!
Schedule Your FREE 30-minute assessment meeting today!
Interested in working together? Schedule your free assessment meeting today!
Let’s Connect Today!
Hours
Monday–Friday
7am–7pm Pacific Standard Time
Phone
(510) 470-5290
Location
Oakland, California | & Your City!