Our purpose

The Center for Organizational Reform [COR] exists to teach and support individuals and organizations facing change, crises, overload, and complex problems.  COR’s services are based on values of systems health, justice, respect, compassion, and collaboration in human endeavors.  Through the provision of teaching, consulting, leadership development and support, organizational assessments, and research, COR supports those who lead and serve others.

COR’s Services consist of…

• Educational events – COR offers workshops which represent a range of topics, scope, and venue in areas which strengthen human skills – both individual and collective – to respond more effectively to a complex world.  These activities range from monthly informal community events to workshops of varying scope and topics to an annual symposium on organizational health.  Some events are offered periodically, and others on a one-time basis.

Convenes leadership and orgs to collaborate, facilitate coalitions

• Capacity training – COR trains others in the basic knowledge, skills, and dispositions which underlie its work.  In addition, our Basic Certification Program is open to anyone wanting to document evidence of competence in any of eight “professional helping” areas.  All of those who deliver COR’s services are certified in the requisite area.

• Consultation and tailored assistance – COR responds to requests for direct support, training, facilitation, and crisis sense-making to organizations of all kinds.  Essentially, all of COR’s services can be tailored specifically to the needs of groups and organizations of all kinds.

Facilitation of task forces, board retreats

• Leadership development – Perhaps one of the most frequently requested

Behind the scenes coaching, mentoring; helping leaders make sense of what’s going on in their organizations and what steps will be effective in responding; ongoing support, both strategically and for professional development

• Organizational culture assessments - COR helps leaders do check-ups on the state of their organization’s internal culture as a first step of planned organizational improvement efforts.  In other words, we help obtain a basic cultural snapshot of the organization [a picture of “what is”] which can then be used as a baseline to gauge improvement toward greater effectiveness goals [“what we want”].

COR’s assessments can range from smaller “wide-angle” diagnoses to deeper, more focused descriptions of “what’s going on around here,” depending  on the goal and intended change efforts.  All of COR’s cultural assessment consultants possess COR certification in this area.

• Research and scholarship – COR conducts applied research, prepares literature reviews, makes professional presentations at numerous scholarly events, and conducts program evaluations.  These efforts all share the purpose of assisting others to create organizations that are both more effective and healthier.

Who we serve:

As an educational non-profit organization unaffiliated with any theological or political ideologies, COR serves individuals or groups who want to make sense of and learn how to do more than “cope” in a world which seems increasingly out of control.  Our clients tend to be confused, stuck, hurting, and/or exhausted, about how to respond to difficult situations – particularly within their organizations.  Clients approach COR because they are not willing to settle for mediocre coping mechanisms in complex situations; rather, they want to use their experiences as opportunities for continued personal and organizational learning.

These clients come from organizations in all sectors of society.  However, most of our client organizations are from those “human-helping” organizations that exist to serve others in some way.  Educational institutions, nonprofit agencies, governmental departments and community groups, religious congregations of all faiths, religiously-affiliated organizations, and healthcare settings compose the majority of COR’s clientele.

Although the majority of COR’s clients are geographically located in the Pacific Northwest, an increasing percentage of our clients are dispersed both nationally and internationally.

How we work:

Everyone who approaches COR for help has a unique story, and our first response is to listen and understand the story which others bring to share with us; this step is critical to tailoring our subsequent assistance specifically for this client, with this story. But almost everyone – particularly as they share stories of their workplaces or schools or religious congregations – describe organizational dynamics that include many similarities:

• People feel overloaded and completely “full.”  They cannot imagine  packing one more thing or one more problem into their lives.

• They face increasing “time poverty” and a sense of psychological “press”  in their personal, as well as in their organizational, lives.  In addition, in  economically challenging times, most of us aren’t as able to “buy”  temporary solutions to these problems (e.g., baby-sitters, take-out food,  house-cleaners) or even to “step off the treadmill” for a short time (e.g., getting a periodic massage, taking a vacation).

• They have trouble understanding why their workplace/group/  congregation functions [or, more often, doesn’t function] as it does.   Things have stopped making sense.

• Within the organization, key groups have tended to become more  polarized in the midst of growing distress.  This distress and polarization are  usually either palpable or undiscussable or both, and has created a  deteriorating interpersonal climate.

• People feel that they have exhausted their own problem-solving abilities in  helping to resolve any of these situations or to make things better for  themselves and for their own clients.

To resolve the specifics of individual situations, and to respond to one or more of the more common dynamics listed above, COR brings expertise and experience in the specific skills of:

• Helping people tell the truth to each other about what is happening in their own situations.

• Creating environments in which others listen to diverse truths in ways that bring the best parts of themselves to this effort, rather than using what is heard as a means to further manipulate their own ends.

• Often, helping others find the words to describe situations that have driven their voices underground.

• Teaching people about the nature of change – both human and collective – in ways that promote resilience, rather than seeking “quick-and-dirty” techniques for controlling change and other people.

• Having extremely difficult conversations with others whose behaviors are perceived as harmful to the group and its efforts.

• “Holding” those [individuals and groups] who are in extreme pain, whether chronic or acute, as a first step toward healing the injuries they have sustained.

• Increasing trust, compassion, and personal responsibility in groups, even – or especially – in the most difficult of times.

• Supporting clients to learn how to strengthen the internal health of their organization while simultaneously strengthening its productivity and the quality of its services or products.

We have taken the time to describe our approach in writing for those who are interested in the theoretical and philosophical foundations of COR’s work.

How to Support COR

As a 501[c][3] tax-exempt organization, your donations to COR are tax deductible.  We rely on donations to help us provide a sliding fee scale for COR’s services to groups and organizations, as well as scholarships to educational events for individuals who otherwise might not be able to participate.

Your check or online contribution will be warmly welcomed and carefully used in support of COR’s mission.