The approach
The context changes. The structure doesn’t.
“Envision. Design. Actualize.”® (EDA®) is a facilitation and design approach: a three-move arc run with every group regardless of sector. It draws on behavioral science research and over 20 years of leadership in the social impact sector, and it is applied to technical and non-technical problems alike.
It is why the approach carries into an unfamiliar technical domain and still gets a room to a decision.
The three phases
A three-move arc, run with every group
What each phase is for, and what it has to produce before the room moves on.
Envision
Surface what's possible by grounding teams in shared experience so strategy starts from clarity, not crisis.
Design
Architect solutions through structured collaboration that amplifies the group's best thinking.
Actualize
Convert intent into commitments that survive contact with the calendar.
What an engagement produces
One to three commitments, each with a named owner and a next step, agreed before the session ends. Not a report, not a deck, not a list of themes.
Evidence
Three engagements, three unrelated domains
An applied AI team, a national nonprofit board, and a funder cohort — run consecutively, with the same three-move arc. What each room worked on has nothing in common. What each room left with does.
Applied AI/ML team, mission-driven technology organization
May 2026 · Two days, in person
Who is this model actually for? Envisioning the end-state impact of an eligibility risk-scoring system, then designing evaluation criteria and escalation paths reflecting that vision rather than only model performance metrics.
Who was in the room
- 9 ML engineers and data scientists
- 4 product managers, 1 design researcher
- VP of Engineering, Head of Data, 1 in-house counsel
- 5 program staff who use the tool’s outputs
Actualize produced
A documented harms-review gate before deployment, a named owner for community feedback intake, and a revised definition of “success” for the next model card.
Board and executive team, national nonprofit ($48M annual budget)
January–February 2026 · Hybrid — one virtual session, then a day and a half in person
Envisioning the organization’s 10-year end state, then designing the governance and strategy changes required to reach it. The hardest and most productive block was separating what the board owns from what the executive team owns — a distinction that had gone soft.
Who was in the room
- 19 trustees — private-sector CEOs, litigators, clinicians, two former grantees
- CEO, CFO, Chief Program Officer
- Chief Advancement Officer, Chief People Officer
- 7 direct reports
Actualize produced
Three ideas carried into the strategic plan, each with a named board committee and a staff counterpart.
National funder cohort
June 2025 · Multi-institution cohort
Designing the persona of a co-conspiring funder — participants envisioned the field they say they want to fund, worked backward to what their own institution’s practices would have to become, and named specifically where those practices currently contradict the vision.
Who was in the room
- 18 program officers and senior program officers
- 9 directors and VPs of programs or strategy
- 4 learning and evaluation leads
- 3 trustees
Actualize produced
One to three changes per participant to carry into their own institution — multi-year general operating commitments, a revised due-diligence process, participatory allocation of a discretionary pool.
EDA in practice
Who is in the room is part of the method
Composition is a design decision, not a logistics detail. Every room is built by seating these pairs together.
Program staff who absorb a model’s errors
The engineers who build it
Board trustees who set the direction
The executives who run it day to day
The people who write the memos
The people who approve them
When the room is composed correctly, the hardest block is usually the most productive one.
Formats
Engagements run as single virtual sessions, one- to two-day in-person intensives, hybrid arcs spanning several weeks, and multi-institution cohorts. Group sizes typically run 20–35 people.
Confidentiality
This work runs on candor, and candor is purchased with confidentiality. Sessions routinely surface unresolved governance conflicts, deployment decisions that haven’t been made public, and internal practices leaders are not yet ready to defend externally — so engagements are covered by a working agreement made with each room. References from participants are available on a call, with their consent.
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