Case study · Strategy & Facilitation
A plan the whole
team could carry forward.
Strategic planning and facilitation for KC Can Compost — a process built for inclusion as much as rigor, producing a 45-page 2025–2027 plan the nine-person team helped write.
The client
Kansas City Can Compost (KCCC). A Kansas City nonprofit that diverts food waste while creating dignified, living-wage employment for people overcoming barriers to work.
The challenge
A stretched team at an inflection point — and a plan that had to work for every kind of contributor.
- 01
KCCC was at an inflection point. The team had just launched a partnership with the City of Kansas City and put the first fleet of smart compost cans into the community.
- 02
The opportunity was enormous — less than 10% of the region’s food waste is composted today — but the team was stretched, lacked SOPs and a shared dashboard, and ranged across roles from operations to executive leadership.
- 03
Any planning process had to work across very different roles, literacy levels, and ways of contributing — and produce a plan the team would actually carry forward.
The approach
Built for inclusion as much as rigor.
I designed a process built for inclusion as much as rigor. It started with an anonymous survey of all nine employees — to surface what people would say candidly that they wouldn’t say in a room. Those insights anchored two days of in-person workshops.
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Bond
Build trust before ideas — so every voice is in the room.
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Go Wide
Open the aperture; gather every possibility, no filtering.
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Narrow In
Cluster, debate, and choose what actually matters.
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Get Specific
Turn priorities into measurable, owned goals.
Inside the two-day workshop
- 01
Step Into the Circle
A physical warm-up that built trust without requiring words.
- 02
Future Headlines
Anonymous ideation of what success looks like, synthesized and upvoted by the group to create consensus.
- 03
Magazine SWOT
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats with a twist — expressed through cutouts and drawings as well as words to accommodate different literacy levels.
- 04
Landscape Analysis
Small-group studies of peer organizations to surface adoptable strategies and pitfalls.
- 05
Pillars, Priorities & SMART Goals
Moving from the wide net of ideas down to clear, measurable goals tied to a logic model.
The outcome
A plan aligning 7 departments — and momentum within weeks.
- 45 page co-created strategic plan
- 9 employees — every voice in the room
- $10M funding goal: KCCC’s own facility
- 5 Northstar goals set
A 45-page co-created 2025–2027 Strategic Plan, including:
- A clarified vision, mission, and values
- 5 Northstar Goals — including a $10M funding goal to own and operate KCCC’s own compost facility
- 7 organizational pillars with priorities, goals, and tactics for each
- A full nested sub-plan for the Green Core Training program
- Full SWOT, landscape analysis, and team-superpower mapping in the appendix
Seven organizational pillars
Within weeks of the process, KCCC had:
- Clarified company-wide strategic goals and department-specific SMART goals and KPIs
- Built a centralized place to track goals and KPIs across the organization
- Acquired dedicated office space — a top-stated need from the survey
- Initiated SOPs across key workstreams
- Updated and refined their organizational pillars and priorities
“Lauren has a wonderful way of balancing fun, relatability, and strong facilitation with real strategic rigor. She made strategic planning feel energizing and accessible rather than rigid or overwhelming. She is creative, strategic, fun, and incredibly effective at helping teams move from ideas to alignment and action.”
Bring a process like this to your team.
Interested in a strategic planning process for your organization? Tell me about the moment you’re in and I’ll respond within three business days.
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