Community Impact Consulting for Collaborative Changemakers New

During this hands-on course, students will work in “Community Impact Consulting (CIC)” teams to co-create innovative solutions for real-world nonprofit organizations and/or social enterprises. Prior to the start of the course, the instructor will secure engagement with organizations from his network who are seeking consulting support. The instructor will act as the lead consultant. Students will have the opportunity to engage with leadership and team members from these organizations. Overall, students will build and enhance essential mindsets and skill sets for not only surviving in, but thriving in our increasingly VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world, regardless of career choice. Students will walk away with a toolbox of principles, strategies, and frameworks that they can apply to future academic and career endeavors. 

The overall learning objectives are as follows: 

• Consulting: Students will learn how to engage with and help empower organizations to achieve their goals. This is distinct from a typical volunteering experience. 
• Strategy: Students will learn strategies and principles for creating successful positive change. 
• Team building and teamwork: Students will learn and practice the foundations for building collaborative changemaking teams. 
• Adaptive leadership: Students will learn principles for leading in diverse contexts.
• Community engagement: Students will learn how to engage with community members with respect and dignity. 
• Problem diagnosis and prioritization: Students will learn how to get to root causes and prioritize problems for clients. 
• Human-centered design: Students will learn how to zoom in. They’ll learn how to ask questions and listen with intentionality. Students will learn how to embed empathy in their efforts and solutions. 
• Social innovation design: Students will learn how to design innovative solutions to systemic problems. 
• Professional communication: Students will learn how to give a consulting presentation.