Hand in the Dark Consulting helps you answer:

Why are we doing this?

What do we want to be true when we are finished?

 

EVALUATION

Evaluation is not judgement.

We can help you identify what success is for you and how to measure it so you can better align activities and resources with your mission.

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LEADERSHIP

Leadership is for everyone!

Supervising, managing, or any kind of role that directs or influences the work of others - we can support you in understanding the unique skills needed for succeeding with others

LEARNING

We are always learning; your intention determines what you are learning.

We custom design and deliver learning products so you can navigate what’s next

Confidence inspires action

 

Assessment and evaluation based on quality data provide leaders with reliable information to make strategic and actionable decisions with more confidence.

We can help you define, distinguish, and measure strategic success points.

 

Evaluation projects have included:

  • creating program evaluation processes, measurements, and standards

  • evaluating volunteer engagement and support

  • providing assessment of information systems

  • providing research data for elite recruitment and leadership assessment

  • assessing strategic plan alignment with program activities

  • evaluating learning program effectiveness

Evaluation Resources for Nonprofits

 

Confidence is the primary indicator of leadership success

Leadership isn’t only for top executives. When you can recognize quality leadership, you can focus your support of those leaders. Leadership can (and ought to) be practiced by every member of an organization, which contributes to overall agility and resilience for everyone.

We can flip the script on elitism by partnering with leaders to create dispersed networks of leaders who can lead from any position or role.

Projects in this area have included:

  • training for new supervisors in coaching, adult learning, and communication

  • leadership workshops for women in nonprofits

  • coaching faculty in academia and apprenticeship

Learning, training, and development that fits

 

You know learning and change is vital for your organization’s health, but you don’t have the time or resources to curate a structure that fits your needs. Change from the inside out is messy and you don’t know where or how to start.

We’ll help you assess what’s working, what’s missing, and what’s available in your budget to establish a strategic learning culture. We listen to our clients’ unique desires and constraints so that we design a solution that is just right, just in time.

 

Projects like this have included:

  • implementing a learning program for a mid-size nonprofit with workshops, original online content, LMS, and role-based curriculum

  • scoping and implementing a management and leadership development program for a mid-size nonprofit through stakeholder collaboration, external partnerships, and business research

  • creating learning pathways for apprentices in Washington state to achieve academic degrees that facilitate workplace advancement

Alaa Salah leading a Sudanese protest for freedom and women in 2019.

Alaa Salah leading a Sudanese protest for freedom and women in 2019.

Women Leading

Women have been blocked from formal leadership positions around the world for millennia, but women have been leading the whole time. How this has been happening is highlighted and refined using research-based concepts of Seeking, Connecting, Doing, and Leaping.

This counterintuitive workshop does not teach anything, but reminds and defines for women how we have been successfully leading from the margins and under the radar of the “powers that be.” Participants are provided with models of women leading around the world, and practice with activities that embody leadership skills.

Contact us for the benefits for women and men in understanding how women lead, bringing collective support and success to groups, teams, and organizations of all scales.

Learn2Learn

The tools we’ve been handed for learning are too few and too ineffective.

This workshop distills scientific research and experiential wisdom to bring you understanding and tools to make the most of every workshop, course, training, or class.

Contact us for a FREE Learn2Learn 90min workshop to help you supercharge your Team’s learning.

book cover of Make It Stick

You can read the book, too.

black woman looking directly at camera

Discernment is reclaiming your fear and power

Use Fear or be Used by IT

Fear can help you achieve your goals. Really.

Recognizing and utilizing different aspects of fear can keep you aligned with your best self to move forward through volatile, uncertain, chaotic, and ambiguous times.

Fear is our most primitive and reliable alert system; however our culture has abused this system to the point that we can no longer discern actual alerts that need our attention from the noise of constant fear activation in an “attention economy.”

Contact us if you are ready to reclaim your fear for your own purposes so you can reclaim your power in the world.

Find the it on Amazon

For unprecedented times…

Dr. VanderWeil wrote Apocalyptic Best Practices during 2020, based on experience and research gathered from the previous decade.

Designed with accessibility and connection in mind, this book helps people navigate sudden, massive change and the fear that goes with it.

Begin your practice with the book Parker J. Palmer says will help you “not only survive our era, but help transform self and the world in the process.”

Apocalyptic Best Practices is available for purchase from Amazon.

To learn more about Dr. Elisebeth VanderWeil, the author, check out her website.

“The project really did fulfill all of our expectations and really exceeded them with regard to how easy it all was. Truly painless and actually enjoyable—even if we were talking about serious topics.” - Seattle Audubon Society

“The whole class was worth my time and beneficial to my self-improvement.” - Seattle YMCA employee

“We especially appreciate that you quickly built such a high level of trust - what an amazing project team.” - Dale Turner YMCA

“I was amazed and impressed with how Elisebeth managed to focus our thoughts and energies, and that we came up with our new focus for the group.” - The Healing Center