Your Cultural Architect, Sara Ness, at Work

Real Problems, Real Solutions.

How Lack of Connection & Culture Lead to the Downfall of a Prestigious LA Club

How does one “design” culture? This is a question that a private club in LA recently asked. They were looking to help create a welcoming space for members, where even awkward Hollywood execs and entrepreneurs could relax and enjoy themselves.

Approach: The club sought solutions on two fronts: enhancing staff's relational skills and implementing systemic designs to facilitate effortless interaction.

Solutions:

• Proposed a "phase transition" upon entry to signal a shift from the outside world.
• Conducted training for hosts to engage guests with conversation starters and non-verbal cues.
• Designed spaces with specific activities to encourage member connection. 

Outcome: Despite recommendations, the club's reluctance to prioritize culture and connection led to financial distress, with key members departing.

Key Takeaway: Prioritizing genuine human interaction over aesthetics is crucial for fostering belonging and loyalty, ultimately driving long-term success.

From Stuck to Inspired: How Gaining Clarity Encouraged Action

One of my clients is a brilliant facilitator in her own right, just starting work with larger organizations. She was struggling to put in a proposal to a big potential client. She felt uninspired and stuck, and wasn’t sure why.

 Approach: Join my client in a collaborative exploration of her client's goals, which initially included broad objectives like "conflict resolution skills" and "better communication culture."

 Solutions:

• Goal Refinement: Together, we refined the client's objectives, breaking down overarching goals into actionable components
• Detailed Exploration: Considered factors such as de-escalation techniques, communication strategies, and feedback structures.
• Clarity Seeking: Rather than submitting a vague proposal, we developed a list of specific questions to gather clarity from the client, ensuring alignment and feasibility.

Outcome: The client, reinvigorated and empowered by the collaborative process, approached the proposal with newfound clarity, avoiding overcommitment and ensuring alignment with their capabilities, promptly following up with a targeted list of inquiries to refine it further.

How Seek Healing Was Able to Build a Resilient Community and Alleviate pressure on Leaders

Seek Healing, an organization dedicated to supporting recovering addicts through social health practices, faced the challenge of building strong community networks while minimizing the strain on individual leaders. As their consultant, I worked closely with community leads in three locations to address key issues such as network facilitation, conflict resolution, and fundraising.

The Challenge: Conflicts among members often escalated quickly, burdening community leads with urgent matters and disrupting daily operations.

The Solution: To alleviate the pressure on individual leaders and promote a more sustainable conflict resolution process, we implemented a Conflict Council. This council provided a structured approach for addressing member concerns, allowing for a period of consideration before escalation. By involving multiple members in the resolution process, we created a safer and more collaborative space for conflict participants to share and resolve their issues.

The Outcome: The introduction of the Conflict Council significantly reduced the urgency of conflicts, enabling community leads to focus on other tasks critical to the organization's success. Members felt empowered to address their concerns within a supportive framework, fostering a stronger sense of community and resilience within Seek Healing.

Key Takeaways: Implementing structured conflict resolution processes and involving multiple members in resolution efforts not only alleviates pressure on leaders but also fosters a safer and more collaborative organizational culture. Prioritizing community resilience supports stronger connections and contributes to the long-term success of the organization.