CASE STUDY
COLLEGE HOUSING NORTHWEST
ORGANIZATIONAL & COLLABORATIVE DESIGN
The Challenge
College Housing Northwest, a student housing organization, needed to strengthen multiple aspects of their operations: marketing that resonated with students, board-staff alignment, operational clarity around roles and responsibilities, facilitating organizational conversations, building capacity for staff, and strategic planning that could adapt to rapidly changing contexts. The Executive Director was committed to centering student voices and building organizational capacity.
Approach
This engagement demonstrated truly adaptive partnership—continually adjusting roles and focus areas based on where support would be most valuable to the organization. Through deep listening to staff, sensemaking about context, values and mission clarifications, we were able to design and build systems that improved the operational efficiency of the organization. Work was conducted over a period of four years.
Specific work included:
- Design and story workshops to enhance marketing strategy
- Co-Design and Facilitation of Annual Board Retreats
- Design and facilitation capacity building through training
- Conducting accountability alignments and clarification
- Creation of a customized goal setting and accountability system for staff
- Development of a strategic framework vs. a strategic plan
- Synthesizing the COVID-19 experience with journey mapping
The Impact
- Built organizational capacity through training and coaching
- Created an adaptive strategic framework that responds to changing contexts rather than rigid plans
- Developed sustainable goal-setting and reporting processes still in use
- Improved board-staff communication and alignment through annual working retreats
- Became an embedded partner who learned alongside the organization
- Demonstrated adaptive consulting—shifting roles and focus based on organizational need
Capabilities & Roles
Capabilities Utilized: Strategic Illustration, Visual Facilitation & Harvesting, Collaborative Design
Roles Fulfilled: Strategic Illustrator, Visual Synthesizer, Collaborative Team Member
“I had this thing I need help with, and Jessica creates structures—light structures, gentle structures, clear structures — for people to feel safe and comfortable in so they can release the treasures hidden in them. Jess knows people need to connect, be seen, and heard. With her, the design-in-action never stops; she will flow, morph, move, dance, change, and alter however it needs to be altered, whenever it needs to be. It is about the process, about the collective product, about working together, creating together, designing together. I feel a deep sense of personal accomplishment. Jess gives this as a gift. It is not “about Jess”, it is about the process, about the collective product, about working together, creating together, designing together.”
– Dave Garnand, Executive Director
