I Providestrategy partnership & facilitation for collaborators
There is tremendous value in connecting our diverse ideas, strengths, challenges, perspectives, experiences, and resources across teams, organizations, and partners. And it doesn’t accidentally happen. I can help you create supported space for honesty and optimize the collaboration you know is possible.
STRATEGY PARTNERSHIP & FACILITATION FORagencies & internal teams
Your leadership teams, workgroups, Board, departments, and entire staff create powerful opportunities for collaborative advantage. As such, they are (or could be) involved in sharing and aligning perspectives, ideas, insights, and in making countless decisions about what and how to move things forward. This can bring strategy to life and help create culture that makes values real and people feel seen and supported. Teams clarify the what, implement the how, and are aligned around a shared why.
In my work with internal agency teams, I help create healthy connection, clarity, and culture. I facilitate strategic conversations and planning that connect people and ideas with intention – so that they can help others flourish too.
I work with organizations of all sizes, (for now, just those based in the Eastern US), focused on community and population health improvement within public health, healthcare, and the non-profit sector.
STRATEGY PARTNERSHIP & FACILITATION FORmulti-stakeholder partnerships
Solving problems and building strategy in complexity aren’t business as usual. Complexity requires us all to work differently, and better together, to accomplish what no single organization or person can figure out, or do, on their own. This work is messy (in good & challenging ways). It’s human at every level, requires listening and effective communication (up-down-sideways-and-diagonally) and is simultaneously technical, operational, strategic, cultural, and political. It’s a lot.
When it feels like “it’s working,” it renews our hope, fuels our passion, and advances us forward. When it doesn’t, it feels like a frustrating waste of time that can take us backwards when it comes to trust and possibility. We must plan and proceed in this work with intention.
I help partners like yours build connection and strategy in this complexity. I support multi-stakeholder partnerships and collaborations (virtually and in-person) who aim to contribute to humans flourishing—locally, regionally, statewide, or nationally.
Heather has been working to assist with our organizational strategic plan over the last year. I cannot overstate the amazing opportunity this investment has been! Heather is a truly gifted facilitator, who works to create safe space for full engagement, while creating organized and deeply meaningful structures to support the work. While our final product is a plan, the process to get us to the “finish line” has been invaluable and frankly has strengthened our leadership and membership engagement in ways we could not have anticipated. Heather is incredibly supportive and works to provide customized planning and products, based on the organizational realities. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with Heather and would HIGHLY recommend her work.
Working with Heather and her team has been worth every penny. She takes the time to truly understand your needs and provides written documentation outlining how the experience will unfold. Her delivery is exceptional, and she follows up in writing after each session. Heather's facilitation skills are outstanding, and team members leave the sessions feeling heard. Her understanding of systems and frameworks is valuable, but what truly sets her services apart is her appreciation for people and the value they bring.
I highly recommend Heather Gates for any strategy facilitation needs. She and her staff have consistently provided exceptional expertise and guidance. Their insightful approach, coupled with effective facilitation skills, played a pivotal role in aligning our team of data collaborators and fostering innovative strategies. A valuable asset to any organization seeking strategic excellence.
Heather facilitated two phenomenal department-wide staff meetings for Orange County Health Department. She created a safe space for the team to share and acknowledge what we have experienced and accomplished during the past 3 years, both personally and professionally. She introduced a new way of thinking about our current realities that validates we are all humans that must process both facts and feelings. As a result of our time with Heather, we are creating a culture that “stands in the &".
As always, Heather was absolutely spot on with a well-crafted exercise we needed to journey through data and help us arrive at a consensus about what was most important. Her prompts generated the appropriate conversations and questions among our group to efficiently work through some tricky space.
While I had worked with Heather on several projects over the years, my new team at Mount Sinai had the privilege of working with her as part of our strategic planning and team redesign process just before the pandemic hit NYC. Heather's ability to connect with individuals and draw out insights from even the most reluctant members of the team really made the process invaluable. It set us on a positive path in working together that served us well during an incredibly stressful time. Heather approaches her work with a genuine curiosity about humans and how they function together as teams and organizations. Her years of experience and technical know-how were very evident to my colleagues and teams and many commented on how much they learned about themselves and our organization as a result of our work together.
Heather facilitated a two-day COVID-19 after action review for our internal and external response partners. It was a moment to debrief successes, challenges, and opportunities of improvement for continued growth across the department. It was also a safe space to reflect on shared experiences and collective learning. Heather was phenomenal in facilitating and ensuring the review was everything it needed to be. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner!
Heather Gates helped with facilitation, brainstorming, and leading our group to key strategies. This was critical in the formation of our organization. She has helped in all stages of the genesis process from first concepts to operations strategy. She will be a part of any future strategy development. In addition to tremendous competence, she is a pleasure to be around.
Heather Gates has a knack for listening, considering context, and helping realize clear options forward. I appreciate her organized results-based approach and her ability to capture the work in writing. Stakeholders find her presentation style builds trust and promotes consensus.
Heather consistently takes the time to understand not just the project but the people leading and taking part in the project. There is a unique understanding that no matter what the process brings it will be the people who carry it out. At the end of each meeting or exercise with her, I leave with a better understanding of where our team is headed and what role I play in those next steps and their success.
Heather is a master at guiding a group toward clarity. Our work often involves uncertainty and complexity and she has really helped us cut through that to have an action plan to propel us forward. Finding a skilled facilitator who can inspire the team and make space for honest dialogue that is solution-oriented and also organized for action is hard to find. I highly recommend her services.
We just completed our strategic planning process with Heather Gates, and we could not be more pleased. Heather is professional, talented, knowledgeable, and a lot of fun. The benefits of Heather’s work with our group extend beyond producing a strategic plan document. Our members are now energized to move our organization to the next level.