OUR PHILOSOPHY
Iron Sharpens Iron specializes in group facilitation, implementation coaching, community engagement and strategic planning for businesses, non-profit organizations, community coalitions and government agencies.
We honor the following principles in all of our work.
Co-designing mindfully for meaningful results.
It is paramount that whatever we design supports your local context, and we take time to truly understand the target audience, stakeholders, and the culture involved. We will always meet with you one-on-one to understand your needs, and then thoughtfully design a proposal that will help you get lasting results. We recognize that lots of organizations have the desire to improve, and even have great ideas. But ideas without execution are futile. We believe in co-designing (it’s iron that sharpens iron, after all) to develop and execute feasible strategies.
Guiding the group through its journey.
We are not the experts of your organization...you are. At Iron Sharpens Iron, we like to accompany the group on its journey. We may recommend some fine adjustments (we like to sharpen, remember), provide clarity, and work toward aims with you. We provide templates and materials to you because we believe that having the appropriate tools for reaching your aim is critical.
Cultivating a culture of curiosity.
Our aim is to evoke creativity and new thinking, because we believe you often learn more from your questions than you do from your answers. In a world of constant distractions, taking time to be curious is critical to organizational breakthroughs. We help evoke creativity by inviting divergence, guiding convergence, encouraging new synapse links, and cultivating constant inquiry and curiosity.
Fostering an environment for full participation.
We ensure that all perspectives are heard in group retreats and meetings to engage group members and help resolve emerging issues. We utilize a host of proven facilitation techniques that are friendly to both introverts and extroverts and allow a richness of voices.
Fail early. Fail fast. Fail forward.
We believe you often learn more from what didn’t work than from what is working. We encourage cultivating a growth mindset that welcomes innovation and small test changes.