Corporate impact leaders are under more pressure than ever to prove their strategic value. Yet, the default response might be to present harder: better data, stronger ROI narratives, more compelling decks. But presenting harder doesn't build alignment. It builds skepticism.

Your colleagues in product and engineering likely already have a methodology for solving this problem. Design thinking and design sprints work because they bring people into the problem instead of pitching them a solution. This session makes the case that impact leaders can apply that same approach internally by redesigning the conversations they're already having without adding more to an already stretched team's plate.

With the median CSR team at a large enterprise comprising just four people, there's little margin for walking out of an executive meeting without alignment. Every room has to count. This session offers a practical framework for making that happen by replacing the presentation dynamic with a facilitation practice that turns stakeholders into participants and builds durable internal support for impact strategy.

Drawing on two years of embedded human-centered design capacity-building with a nonprofit program leadership team, and a facilitated alignment intensive with a merged corporate team, this session demonstrates what changes when facilitation replaces presentation — including faster internal alignment, stronger stakeholder ownership, and teams internalizing human-centered design as a leadership skill.

Attendees will leave with a framework for identifying which internal conversations would benefit most from facilitation design, three facilitation moves that shift stakeholders from audience to participant, and a practical structure for redesigning one meeting they're already running.

Monique Childress is the founder and principal of Horizon Advisory Group, a boutique organizational strategy and coaching firm based in  Atlanta, Georgia. With over a decade of consulting experience —  including prior work at Accenture in Talent and Organization Strategy —  she specializes in strategic planning, leadership development, and  facilitation for mission-driven organizations navigating growth and  transition. She holds an MBA and is a trained human-centered design and  design sprint practitioner. Her work sits at the intersection of  organizational strategy and participatory design, helping leadership  teams move from alignment in theory to alignment in practice.

Design Sprints Work for Products. Why Not for Your Impact Strategy?