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Welcome

Insyte Partners is a transformation consultancy.  We guide and accompany courageous organizations and leaders who want to innovate, align around shared vision or take daring collective action. For over 20 years, we have been working across sectors to create the conditions for deep exploration, generative conversation and bold experimentation. Through leadership labs, visioning, and culture work, we create the shifts of mind, heart and will needed for transformative change.

How can we help you uncover the highest potential for your organization, your people, your ecosystem or you? 

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About Us

About Us

Insyte Partners is a transformation consultancy. We guide and accompany courageous organizations and leaders who want to innovate, align around shared vision or take daring collective action. For over 20 years, we have been working across sectors to create the conditions for deep exploration, generative conversation and bold experimentation. Through leadership labs, visioning, and culture work, we create the shifts of mind, heart and will needed for transformative change.

We are results-oriented and know how to tap the intelligence that already exists within and across organizations. We tap the intelligence of mind, heart and body–in doses that align with purpose and culture. 

Our work is part of an emerging field of practice called “awareness based systems change.” We help people see their own habitual patterns of thinking so they can shift their “interior condition” to create the conditions for real change. 

The framework that unifies all our work, Theory U, comes from Otto Scharmer and colleagues at MIT’s Presencing Institute. Insyte is a go-to partner for the Presencing Institute. The logic of Theory U is that to truly understand a system you must try to change it. To change a system, you must change the “consciousness” or mindset of the people within that system. To shift mindset, you must put people in settings where they can see and sense emerging future–their organizations and their own. 

Theory U is many things: a taxonomy for “transformation literacy,” a process framework to co-create transformative change, a leadership view, a set of practices. Blending insights from science, movement-building, the social arts, organizational development, innovation and contemplative practices, Theory U is a reliable framework for activating  organizational and societal renewal. The Insyte team are senior practitioners with the Presencing Institute and part of the PI faculty. Liz and Marie are graduates of a two-year master class.

Insyte’s approaches are particularly relevant in our increasingly complex and interdependent world, ever changed by COVID, the racial awakenings spurred by George Floyd’s death, and the heartbreaking conflict in the Middle East. 

Everything we do is grounded in dignity, equity and creating the conditions for each person to bring their best thinking and their whole selves to the questions at hand. Because trust builds at the speed of relationships, we put a premium on the quality of listening, conversation and relationships. 

While we have always prioritized “getting the whole system in the room” to see and sense the future that’s needed to come into being, we’ve deepened our approaches to create spaces for healing and integrating new understandings of our individual and collective stories. 

Over and over, we have delivered on this promise: By the end of our time together, we will have generated the “action confidence” you need around a vision that is aspirational, attuned to the moment, and informed by the environment. We can’t do this alone—it’s always in partnership with leaders—and we have done it dozens of times.

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What We Do

What We Do

We work closely with leaders, helping them fine-tune their leadership craft and achieve unprecedented results. Most of our work falls into these categories:
    • Strategic Planning 
    • Community Listening Journeys
    • Culture Co-Creation
    • Collective Impact
    • Leadership Development Labs
    • Innovation Labs
    • Team Retreats
    • Coaching

Strategic Planning

      • Create a (living) strategic plan – not a binder that sits on a shelf
      • Deeply engage employees, communities, or potential partners in essential questions
      • Regenerate legacy infrastructures or institutions that just aren’t working anymore
      • Slow down and tap the wisdom within an organization
      • Build “action confidence” around a shared vision 
      • Prototype new ways of being and doing for the future

Community Listening Journeys

      • Engage all corners of a community in conversations and experiences of consequence
      • Activate latent networks
      • Co-convene with partners (or entities formerly seen as competitors) on complex issues
      • Strengthen capacity in the individuals who make up your community to listen deeply to each other
      • As a community, collectively define shared aspirations for the future

Culture Co-Creation

      • Bring intention, vision and courage to listening to all corners of an organization, across roles, geographies, and identities
      • Co-shape a culture that aligns with an organization’s DNA, vision and what’s needed and wanted to navigate times that are both turbulent and hold great potential
      • Access collective wisdom 
      • Break cycles and initiate profound change
      • Create the conditions for healing and moving through entrenched relational patterns 

Leadership Development Labs

      • Build individual and collective leadership that is courageous, compassionate, and curious
      • Give groups of leaders at all levels who share common purpose the gift of time, reflection and a supportive “container” to reflect on, explore and activate their highest potential
      • Cultivate leadership that is attuned, aware, and right for the times

Innovation Labs

      • Future proof a company or organization by engaging a team of emerging leaders in exploring the future together
      • Tackle tough issues where the public, private, and nonprofit sectors all have an interest
      • Design, test and activate experiments that bring about new ways of working, thinking and being
      • Break through stuck thinking and patterns
      • Move toward a future different from the past in a way that creates the space for healing and forgiveness

Team Retreats

      • Move toward a future different from the past in a way that creates the space for healing and forgiveness
      • Align teams around shared values and goals
      • Address a tricky problem like trust
      • Break down the silos teams operate in and encourage leaders to try on eco-system leadership

Coaching

      • Give leaders at all levels the gift of time, reflection and a supportive “container” to reflect on, explore and activate their highest potential
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Our Approach

Our Approach

The feedback we get is that we are different from other consultants. Our approaches are novel and clients tell us they appreciate our stance. They like that we provide guidance where it’s needed by leading the change process, and that we create the conditions for stakeholders to make the substantive decisions about their own and their organization’s future. We listen closely and always customize our approach for each client. We also own our role as trusted partners.

What makes Insyte’s work unique is that by incorporating various methods and tools learned throughout our 25 years of experience of design and facilitation and combining them with the wisdom and power of Theory U, we have created processes that produce impactful and sustainable results for organizations and the people in them. Theory U has three major stages. We design our processes to follow the same progression:

    1. On the “left side of the U” (Sensing) we clarify core questions and key assumptions for the organization and its leaders. The work here is to immerse ourselves in environments that provide insight to those questions and inspiration around the trickiest questions. Decisions typically aren’t made here; the focus is on generative exploration.

       

    2. At the “bottom of the U” (Presencing) we create the conversations and the quiet needed for collective inner knowing to emerge. The task at the bottom of the U – for individuals and for the organization – is to access a felt sense of “knowing”– “Who am I? What is my work?”

       

    3. On the “right side of the U” (Realizing) we engage head, hands and heart to translate intent to action by crystallizing decisions into a strategic framework, activating prototypes of the new and/or building implementation infrastructure.Insyte uses a blend of focused dialogue in large and small groups, learning journeys to places that inspire breakthrough thinking, brief mindfulness practices, dialogue interviews, poetry, art and movement, reflection and more.

Elements of our approach include:

  • High Engagement

  • Social innovation

  • Collective Action

  • Virtual Spaces

  • Personal Transformation

  • Awareness-Based Systems Change

  • Embodying the Emerging Future

 

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The Results

Results

We are proud of the results we have produced as trusted partners to clients from a wide range of sectors. Whether it’s a government agency, a global company, a growing nonprofit, a small entrepreneur, a school district, a multi-faceted community, or any combination of the above, we get to know you well and co-create a solution that gets you the results you want — plus some.

BELOW ARE SOME STORIES:

Some of our best work has happened in this sector.  Our work has included leading a team of emerging leaders to future-proof their company and/or lead “from the future” rather than re-enacting patterns of the past.  

Journey of Transformation: ENPRO. “I asked people to take a bet on themselves and assured them that, if they did, good things would happen. My team now is more expansive in mind, heart and body. We are more conscious of the way we communicate with each other and utilize tools and skills that you taught us everyday. We know that we can take a “Learning Journey” to another organization – inside or outside of our sector –  to get new insights and perspectives on our most critical questions. The tools we introduced into our culture changed the way we think about things. I believe you opened up our eyes to see changes in the world that were not apparent before your work. In short, you taught us to listen to what the world was trying to tell us.”  – Eric Vallaincourt (CEO Enpro Industries). Read more.

Stepping Into Boldness: ENERGY EFFICIENCY ALLIANCE (EEA). EEA had a reputation for punching above its weight as a small organization within the clean energy sector sphere. To reach their next level of impact, leadership knew they needed space and time to wrestle with their differences, given the complexity of the energy sector. A packed yet efficient 6 month process yielded a set of powerful pillars and refreshed mission, vision, and values statements. Read more.

MERCK. When this global pharmaceutical company was harmonizing the compensation systems of its two merged companies, they selected us to develop their Change Management strategy.  Read more.

What’s different about Insyte’s approach? Engaging groups of people in conversations and experiences of consequence that lead to clear, robust plans that don’t sit on a shelf, but generate “action confidence.”

LOWER MERION SCHOOL DISTRICT: Lower Merion School District (LMSD) is a large suburban school district outside of Philadelphia that has a national reputation for its excellence in academics and outstanding standardized test scores. Read more.

BIG PICTURE PHILADELPHIA:  Big Picture Philadelphia provides transformative educational experiences for under-served youth through its two school sites, Vaux Big Picture High School and el Centro de Estudiantes High School in our home city. Vaux offers small class size, individualized education plans, real world learning, internships, and advisory. El Centro is an alternative high school serving students who have previously disconnected from school. Above all, the schools are deeply committed to changing the trajectory of their students. When their long-term founding executive director was transitioning out of the organization, they hired us to facilitate their strategic positioning process. Read more.

U.S. FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION: The regulatory arm of this federal agency was under intense public scrutiny to reposition itself in light of new global realities. Funding challenges and the political environment had pitted field staff against leadership. Trust was low. Congress was asking for a strategic plan that the agency as a whole could stand behind.  Read more.

Our Jewish work has evolved into three main categories:

    1. Working with Federations and community conveners to build the capacity to listen to all corners of their communities, activate latent networks, and generate priorities that speak to what people really care about.
    2. Partnering with legacy and emergent organizations to “listen from the future” and generate vision, strategy and prototypes…crossing the threshold from thinking to doing so there’s no going back to the “old ways” that no longer work.
    3. Supporting leaders through journeys of transformation for these times of societal rupture, individually and collectively. 

Aligning Priorities Across a Whole City: HINENI HOUSTON. Jewish Federation of Greater Houston’s new CEO Renee Wizig-Barrios was committed to beginning her tenure by listening to the very diverse community that is Jewish Houston. In just a few months, 1221 Jewish Houstonians participated in 47 Listening Forums, 26 Home Gatherings and 110 Dialogue Interviews. The group aligned on 8 major priorities for the future of Jewish Houston. Listen to the Lab members share about their experience in this video produced by Federation. Read more. 

North Star Alignment: JEWISH STUDIO PROJECT. “Seriously I am not exaggerating when I say that I look at our strategic plan everyday and it is literally serving as our north star for every decision we make as an organization.” – Jeff Kasowitz (JSP Co-Founder and Executive Director). Read more. 

Reimagining Jewish Atlanta: THE FRONT PORCH. Insyte partnered with Jewish Federation of greater Atlanta to co-create a 21st Century template to activate Jewish life. The Front Porch engaged hundreds of Atlantans and generated a community “Framework for Action” and five reconstituted roles for Federation as the “backbone organization. Read about our Uber-Learning Journey to Israel, Prototype Boot Camp that moved us quickly from vision to action, and some of the prototypes that have gained momentum.

While we do many types of work, the standout request is designing and facilitating strategic planning journeys (sometimes day-long, sometimes a few months) where a core group has the conversations of consequence they’ve been craving and crafts a concrete strategic plan that functions as a North Star. 

Nurturing the Nurturers: PROJECT HOME.“None of us are home until all of us are home.” This is the simply stated vision of Project HOME. Founded in 1989 by Sr. Mary Scullion and Joan Dawson McConnon, Project HOME has become a nationally recognized leader in the fight against homelessness. While best known for its work in providing permanent, subsidized housing for people who had been homeless, it also offers opportunities for employment, medical care and education for members of the Philadelphia community. Insyte is proud to have partnered with Project HOME, an anchor of Philadelphia’s fight against poverty for almost a decade. Read more.

Culture Co-Creation: NATIONAL MEDICAL ORGANIZATION. A year after we left, we received this note from the new CEO: “I call you “partners” and not “Partners,” because I am not referring to your corporate entity, but to the people you are who have stood beside us, guided us, supported us, and cared for us on our journey. You have been invaluable as we seek to transform ourselves. Thank you for everything you’ve done.” Read more.

One-Day Board-Staff Alignment on Strategic Plan: RODALE INSTITUTE. The Board and Executive Leadership had high hopes for their one-day strategic retreat. At the precipice of immense opportunity to expand their impact in regenerative agriculture, what they needed was alignment among the board and staff around a strategic decision-making lens–and a values re-set. After just one day together and some refinement after, Rodale completed a 5-year strategic plan that embeds the organization’s mission, vision and values into their roots as they grow. Read more.

Innovation, Inspiration, and Impact: GLOBAL COMMUNITIES. Just as COVID hit, Insyte was invited to support the merger of one of the largest international NGOs based in the US, Global Communities, with a smaller but impactful partner, PCI. Our task: change management for their merger, a new strategic plan and an intentional focus on unifying the culture. Read more.

Insyte’s most important partnership and deepest source of wisdom comes from the Presencing Institute, where we are a key partner for US-based and global projects. 

GRAY FELLOWSHIP for New York City Principals. Insyte Partners, on behalf of the Presencing Institute, has supported the Gray Fellowship in offering a customized week-long Theory U-based leadership development series for New York City principals. Through dialogue, self-reflection and experimentation, the program is structured to support principals in transforming their schools. Read more.

Activating Ecosystems: SOULARIZE. How does a loose collection of people transform into a tighter, more aligned community? How do we activate an ecosystem? We explored this question in collaboration with Ashoka, CoCreative, and Soularize as we sought to catalyze a new global ecosystem of “spiritual changemakers.” By the end of a 3-day retreat, we connected 130 spiritual changemakers from over 20 countries to each other, created conditions for them to build a common agenda, and laid the foundation for individual and collective action and infrastructure to keep the fires burning. Read more.

On Behalf of the Presencing Institute: LIBERIA UN LEADERSHIP LAB. As close partners with the Presencing Institute, Insyte was lead faculty for the Liberia SDG Leadership Lab, bringing together the UN Country Team first in an extraordinary 3 days of dialogue, reflection and soul searching that resulted in the commitment to 4 strategic shifts. Two months later, together with an additional 15 leaders from civil society, we affirmed the shifts and launched 4 prototypes. Watch a brief video of the experience here. 

Some of our most fun and impactful work is aligning a group of organizations that have shared purpose around common vision so they can collaborate for more impact. 

GET GEORGIA READING: Leaders in Georgia, including the governor, the business community, foundation leaders and education leaders had a “stop the madness” moment and decided to place singular focus on the goal of every child reading proficiently by 3rd grade. At the time, only 30% of Georgia’s students met that mark.  Read more.

DEAF EDUCATION: Read a first-person narrative about our work with leaders in deaf education in Georgia, with a focus on applying Theory U.

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Clients

Our Clients

We work across sectors, within individual organizations and in multi-stakeholder settings.

Read Stories of Results
transformational CHANGE FOR A COMPLEX WORLD