Innovation Management
The Jewish Education Project in New York was interested in stimulating innovation in teen programming in the institutions in its network. As part of the coaching team for the initiative, I worked with six varied institutions in the New York area over a period of two years, helping their teams through the ideation, experimentation and implementation phases. Using a variety of tools to analyze and stimulate innovation, and with a combination of facilitation, consulting and coaching (on both an individual and team basis), I supported each institution as they created an innovative program, and an implementation plan.
Organizational Development/Coaching
An innovative, start-up organization focused on Jewish education was looking for support in defining their mission and vision for the future. Working with the Executive Director over a period of a year, we focused on two main areas; individual coaching for the ED, and organizational consulting for the ED and his small staff team. The coaching focused on helping the ED grow his own sense of leadership, as well as identify areas of weakness, along with practicing new skills in those areas. The organizational development focused on helping the ED formulate a coherent vision, mission and logic model that then drove the creation of a strategic plan. I also worked to help the ED develop his Board and his relationship with Board members.
Leadership Coaching
The second-in-command of a national Jewish non-profit organization was promoted to CEO. Despite her long history with the organization, she was challenged to develop new skills for managing her Board and volunteer leaders, create a new culture of team collaboration (across geographic areas) and become comfortable with herself in a totally new leadership role. Through a six-month program of coaching this new CEO experimented with new management techniques, became more self-aware of her communication style, and ultimately became the leader of the organization in more than name.
Program Evaluation
Yeshivat Maharat, a young New-York-based organization that trains women to be rabbinic leaders in the orthodox Jewish community, wanted to gain a greater understanding of the strengths and challenges of its internship program. Through constructive discussion we created a structure for analyzing the internship program, and then, using extensive interviews with stakeholders, I collected data that painted a full picture of the program. A full report outlined the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the program, and made recommendations based on these categories.