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Before you start your next strategic planning process, take 10 minutes to pressure-test how you’re planning to engage the people who will be affected by the work.

☑️ Have we identified who needs to be heard, including people who are often left out of these conversations?
☑️ Are we clear on what we actually want to learn from each group?
☑️ Are we offering different ways for people to participate, rather than relying on one engagement method?
☑️ Have we made participation as accessible as possible and accounted for people’s time?
☑️ Do we understand the cultural and organizational context people are navigating right now?
☑️ Have we acknowledged any history of people being asked for input without seeing meaningful change?
☑️ Do we have a clear process for synthesizing what we hear without losing the nuance or misrepresenting people’s experiences?
☑️ Have we planned how we’ll close the loop and show stakeholders what happened with their input?

The checklist is a place to start, not a place to stop. Good stakeholder engagement lives in the details in between.

Who are you hearing from? Who might still be missing? What are people actually telling you? And what are you going to do with it?

We dig into these considerations, along with lessons from our work with organizations and communities, in Beyond the Checkbox: 9 Practical Lessons in Stakeholder Engagement from the Trepwise archives.

🔗 http://trepwise.com/beyond-the-checkbox-9-practical-lessons-in-stakeholder-engagement/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=stakeholderlessons

Strategic plans are built to give organizations direction. But what happens when the conditions around that plan start to change?

That’s where adaptive planning can help.

Rather than forecasting a single future, an adaptive approach asks organizations to consider multiple possible futures and build in scenarios and contingencies along the way.

For nonprofits, this can mean adding an adaptive layer to an existing strategic plan instead of starting over. Or, for organizations developing a new strategy, it can mean using adaptive planning from the beginning while still grounding the work in a clear long-term vision and organizational purpose.

The goal isn’t to become reactive. It’s to create enough flexibility to respond when circumstances change without losing sight of where you’re headed.

If your strategic plan is starting to feel out of step with the world around you, adaptive planning may be worth exploring. Learn more about Trepwise’s Adaptive Planning Sprint: https://trepwise.com/what-we-do/adaptive-planning/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=adaptiveplanning

A quick reminder: the second public roundtable on the future of New Orleans’ Civic Center is coming up!

📍 September 30 | 6:00 PM
Morris F.X. Jeff Sr. Recreation Center in Algiers

Come learn more about the planning process, ask questions, and share your perspective on the future of these important civic spaces.

RSVP and learn more: https://bit.ly/MCACPublicMeetings

We hope to see you there!

We’re excited to partner with FUEL to facilitate this RFP process. If you’re interested in learning more, join us tomorrow for the Q&A session at 11:30am CDT!

FUEL, with our hub-and-spoke partner Geaux Scale, is building a Founder Support Network and has opened the Request for Proposals (RFP) submission process!

Founder Support Network members will bring their expertise and resources to FUEL’s portfolio of founders to build on its rich ecosystem of industry, investor, technical, and entrepreneurial partners by identifying and supporting entrepreneurial talent in FUEL’s technical areas. The proposal submission window is now open and closes October 7.

Join us tomorrow for our Q&A webinar at 11:30 a.m. CDT! To register for the webinar and learn more about the Founder Support Network, visit https://fuelouisiana.org/fuel-founder-support-network

Summer camp, Trepwise style. ☀️🏕️

Lauren Siegel and the Trepwise team recently joined Reconcile New Orleans for a retreat built around ownership, collaboration, adaptability, and a little bit of play.

The team spent the day celebrating wins from the first half of the year, connecting that progress back to Reconcile’s mission, and getting clear on what’s ahead through December.

One team building challenge had the team stranded on a deserted island, tasked with setting up camp and figuring out how to survive together. Then came the twist: the young people Reconcile serves had crash-landed on the island, too. Suddenly, the strategy had to shift.

It was a fun way to put some very real skills into practice: sharing resources and knowledge, adapting when circumstances change, and taking individual and collective ownership.

We loved getting to see the Reconcile team bring those same qualities to their work. They’re deeply focused on going deeper with the young people they serve, and they’re intentional about bringing in the right partners to help make that happen.

Unlimited PTO sounds simple enough: give people flexibility and trust them to use it responsibly.

But the policy itself is only part of the equation.

In our latest blog, Jacqueline Cooke shares what five years of unlimited PTO have taught her about what actually makes the benefit work. At Trepwise, that means clear expectations, thoughtful capacity planning, coverage plans, and leaders who model taking time off themselves.

Read Jacqueline’s perspective on unlimited PTO in practice, and what organizations can do to build a culture where people can step away without guilt or unnecessary stress.

https://trepwise.com/unlimited-pto-in-practice-an-employees-perspective/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ptoblog

There’s a lot of work that goes into making New Orleans the kind of city people want to call home and visit.

Recently, Kevin Wilkins and Lauren Siegel had the opportunity to spend time with the team at New Orleans & Company for a retreat focused on the work ahead: taking stock of progress on their Vision Plan and Strategic Goals, setting priorities for 2027, and finding ways to strengthen communication and collaboration across the organization.

Their work reaches well beyond tourism. New Orleans & Company plays an important role in bringing people and investment to the city, supporting the businesses and people who make up the tourism economy, and creating opportunities that reach communities across New Orleans.

We always value the opportunity to get in the room with a team that cares deeply about this city and is willing to have the important conversations about how to make it even better. There’s a lot of good work ahead, and we’re excited to see where this team takes it.

Is your team still considering where AI fits in your organization?

The most grounded approach we’re seeing in mission-driven work keeps people at the center of the process. You start with the questions your team is uniquely positioned to ask, shaped by lived experience and the communities you serve. AI then plays a supporting role in the middle, helping synthesize information, surface patterns, and pressure-test ideas. From there, it returns to people for judgment, context, and final decision-making.

When it’s used this way, AI doesn’t replace human thinking. It creates space for more of it. More time for conversations, relationships, and care.

If you’re interested in going deeper on how to think about AI more intentionally, Trepwise Senior Advisor Matt Campbell unpacks the full framework in his article on AI on Purpose: https://trepwise.com/ai-on-purpose/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=aiblogpost

We're proud to see Tulane University's Wave of Support program recognized for the lasting impact it's having on student mental health and well-being.

Long before the program officially launched in 2021, Drs. Kathy Fields and Garry Rayant brought together a group of partners to imagine a new approach to supporting students. Trepwise was honored to work alongside them, President Michael Fitts, Grant, and many others to help shape the framework behind what would become Wave of Support.

Since then, the program has trained thousands of students, faculty, and staff, empowered student leaders, and helped build a campus-wide culture of care. The success of Wave of Support is a credit to the people who have poured so much into it.

Congratulations to everyone who has helped make Wave of Support what it is today. We're grateful to have been part of the journey and look forward to seeing its impact continue to grow.

https://news.tulane.edu/news/tulane-university-celebrates-wave-support

🎉🎉 New Orleans was named one of World Monuments Fund's Irreplaceable America sites, and it's the only entire city recognized.

New Orleans earned this distinction because of the generations of people who have shaped its neighborhoods, traditions, music, food, art, and way of life. The culture of this city lives in the people who show up for it every day and pass those traditions from one generation to the next.

At Trepwise, we're lucky to work with organizations and leaders who are doing exactly that. Whether they're strengthening neighborhoods, supporting local artists, investing in young people, or tackling the challenges our region faces, they're helping ensure New Orleans remains the city the world knows and loves.

Congratulations to everyone who makes this place unlike anywhere else. We're proud to call New Orleans home and even prouder to be part of the work happening here every day.

Take a few minutes to explore the full Irreplaceable America list and read why New Orleans was selected.

https://www.wmf.org/irreplaceable-america