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

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

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

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)

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

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