Productivity and team wellbeing need each other.

Back in July, Franklin Street partnered with Elemental Impact to design a convening focused on a critical issue in climate finance. "The Missing Middle” refers to that precarious stage when companies are too big for seed funding but too small for growth capital. Hundreds of companies are developing technologies to slash carbon emissions, so addressing this funding gap is crucial to scaling their innovations. Failure to act could be disastrous—climate scientists warn we must reduce atmospheric CO2 to below 350 ppm to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, yet we're currently around 420 ppm¹.

To tackle such a vexing challenge, we gathered 22 leaders from climate finance, climate tech, and philanthropy, along with two visionary entrepreneurs to pool our expertise, leverage the opportunities in the Inflation Reduction Act, and explore how to create a new type of investment fund that blends private capital and philanthropy to keep these “missing middle” companies growing.

One of the most critical conditions for success at this convening was the trust and rapport that developed quickly among the participants. Many of the attendees knew each other circumstantially but weren’t closely connected. Yet, in this room, they were willing to open up to each other, share their ideas and even their past failings, and work collaboratively toward solutions.

When we advise teams on how to set the conditions for effective collaboration, clients often expect us to say they should start with an icebreaker like building spaghetti towers or silly check-in questions. These exercises can break the ice, get people laughing, and shake off the formality of typical meetings. But I’m not convinced they’re the key to unlocking the deep trust and camaraderie necessary for doing rigorous work.

In fact, at Elemental’s convening, we didn’t do any of those things—and yet, we left having accomplished an extraordinary amount and feeling bonded. This experience has led me to reflect on the reasons behind our success.

Productivity and team wellbeing need each other.

The idea that shared purpose strengthens teams isn’t new. Countless business authors, researchers, and practitioners have told us about the power of aligning around common goals. Harvard Law Professor Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio makes this point through an example I particularly like: “Much like a musician who follows the notes meticulously, a team member armed with a well-defined goal knows precisely what is expected of them. This clarity benefits the individual and contributes to the collective harmony of the team, ensuring that everyone plays their part with precision and purpose.”²

But knowing our shared purpose and acting on it together are two different things. And it’s no surprise that taking action in a rare team retreat or offsite can feel tricky.

As leaders, we often feel a tug-of-war between doubling down on productivity and investing in relationships. We hold off on pushing too hard because we don’t want to burn people out. And on the flip side, we pull back on fostering connection because we need to meet deadlines and hit targets. But we think choosing one or the other is a false choice.

At Franklin Street, we aim to avoid the trap of “manufacturing urgency”—that grind mode where we push ourselves simply because we feel we have to. It takes a toll on our well-being and, honestly, the quality of our work³. But we also know that working hard as a team is not incompatible with a healthy culture. In fact, we believe that creating meaningful work together is one of the most powerful ways to build trust and foster strong relationships. Sometimes that means debating nuanced ideas and working through tensions. Sometimes it also means experiencing the thrill of breakthroughs that lead to greater cohesion and accountability. And that process, while difficult or even tiring at times, is key to a strong team.

Outside our own team culture, we’ve been infusing ambitious work into recent projects to advance an organizations’ missions while also building trust and connection. Coming back to the convening with Elemental: We spent four days defining the future shape and size of a new “missing middle” fund, sharing ideas, debating their merits and drawbacks, and iterating an eventual proposal. On the heels of this convening, Elemental began the process of recruiting an advisory board to oversee the fund and plans to launch the fund early in 2025. Convening attendees continue to want to work together and deepen their relationships: our WhatsApp group is firing off and people are gathering for impromptu meet-ups to sustain their energy and conviction.

At its core, hard work on a shared project satisfies both the drive for productivity and the need for connection. It’s not about choosing between hitting goals and building strong relationships—it’s about leveraging one to strengthen the other.

How has your team sought to balance productivity and team well-being? Have there been times when the two felt in tension—like you were either pushing for results at the expense of relationships or holding back on productivity to prioritize connection? What strategies have you found for integrating both sides of this coin in a way that feels sustainable?

1. Climate Science Basics. (2024). In 350.org. https://350.org/science/ ↩︎
2. Cecchi-Dimeglio, Paola. (2023). How Leaders Use the Power of Goal Alignment. Forbes: Leadership Strategy. ↩︎
3. Okun, Tema. (Updated 2023). PROGRESS IS BIGGER & MORE | QUANTITY OVER QUALITY. Divorcing White Supremacy Culture. ↩︎

How the Opportunity Trust is reinventing school boards one fellow at a time.

To say that school boards today are divisive is an understatement. Recently, these hyper-local institutions have taken center stage in some of our most charged, national debates. What books should kids read? How should we teach American history? Who gets to decide?  

The discourse is polarized, often hostile, and exhausting. But Jesse Dixon and Brittany Hogan, our partners at The Opportunity Trust (TOT), see untapped potential. Jesse and Brittany share an unwavering belief in good school governance. They are obsessed with the unfulfilled promise of school boards and won’t stop until boards make good on their obligation to serve all kids equitably. We could all learn from their persistent – even stubborn – hopefulness. 

Last year, as part of TOT’s mission to increase access to high-quality public schools for all young people in St. Louis, Jesse and Brittany launched a 6-month School Board Fellowship (SBF) for 15 aspiring school board members and education advocates to learn the ins and outs of board governance, wrestle with political conflicts in their own backyards, and imagine a new paradigm for what boards could be. We collaborated with Jesse and Brittany to design and launch TOT’s inaugural SBF. The first year of the fellowship was a success: 85% of fellows committed to joining or running for a school board. Now the team is poised to launch the next cohort. 

We sat down with Brittany and Jesse to understand why they see school boards as the next frontier and how their sense of outrage and optimism come together to fuel their drive to make schools better, more equitable places for everyone.

Yvonne: There is no shortage of problems in education. Why did you decide to commit your time and energy to reimagining school boards?  

Jesse: I see school boards as a microcosm of democracy, a distinctly American idea: local communities shape their schools. Yet, we know that school boards are grossly underutilized. School systems are wildly under-delivering for the vast majority of kids – particularly historically marginalized students – and that is not seen as a dire problem by most school boards. 

At TOT, we believe in our bones that all kids can learn at the highest possible level. Boards theoretically exist to ensure that we fulfill that promise, but they need to be dramatically rebuilt to fulfill that mission. Our goal is both to reimagine what boards do and to ensure that the right people have the opportunity to serve on boards. 

Yvonne: You could have taken lots of different approaches to tackling this problem. Why did you decide to launch a fellowship to bring together prospective school board members? 

Jesse: Typically, when we think of boards we think of executives or people who can fill a gala table. Excellent educators with expertise and parents who are fighting for their own kids don’t always feel like they have a seat at the table. If we want excellent governance, we need to bring in new and different kinds of voices to serve as board members. So, our first aim in creating a fellowship was  to widen the tent and bring new people to the table. 

Our second goal was to prepare people for how to serve on boards. It is astonishing that school board members, who are ultimately accountable for the learning outcomes of entire school systems, take on these roles without training about how any of it works. 

Yvonne: It can be overwhelming to imagine reforming a system that is so old and entrenched. How do you help people stay motivated and committed to making change when the road is long and at times, grueling? 

Brittany: As James Baldwin said: “For these are all our children, we will profit by or pay for whatever they become.” An investment in our children is an investment in our country and our future. That, alone, is enough of a reason to stay committed. I also think that when the work is hard, it’s so important to provide a space for people to be vulnerable and share their experiences in education — the good and bad. Creating this fellowship gave people community and helped us all feel like we’re in this together. We don’t do enough of that in education. 

Jesse: When you actually look at state law on what a school board is required to do, there isn’t much detail. So the idea that it all can be wildly reimagined – that we can reinvent structures that are democratic, student-outcomes-based, and equitable – is really inspiring. When we share windows into innovative bright spots all around the country, people get excited about the possibilities in front of them. It’s not all doom and gloom. 

"The idea that it all can be wildly reimagined – that we can reinvent structures that are democratic, student-outcomes-based, and equitable – is really inspiring."

Yvonne: You’re about to launch a second cohort of School Board Fellows. Why do you want to build a community of fellows? How does that help your cause?

Jesse: It's a game changer — having a network of trusted allies can be the difference between making the hard decision that leads to meaningful change and opting for the easy way out. When people have a strong support network, they gain the confidence to stand by their convictions, especially when they are the lone voice of dissent on a critical issue. This sense of emboldenment is essential for driving innovation and fostering a culture of accountability within boards. 

Yvonne: One of the things that strikes me about both of you is how hopeful – even cheerful! –  you are about your work in spite of the extraordinary challenges. Where do you find your hope to stay the course?  

Jesse:  I went to a private elementary school, a public middle school in Los Angeles, and then a private high school. I had friends in middle school who were smarter than me but had different life trajectories because they didn’t attend a college prep high school like I did. I knew my friends were capable of so much, but their potential was limited by the schools they attended. I know we can figure out how to provide a high-quality education for every student. It simply has to be possible. 

Yvonne: What do you most hope for the school board fellows who participated in the fellowship this year? 

Brittany: I'm hoping that they join a school board or run, but if they take away one thing, I want them to internalize that transformation doesn't mean taking on everything in a broken system. Transforming a system requires that you find your strengths and direct them to whichever part of the system you’re best poised to change. When we channel our strengths together, that’s when we see the whole system shift. We’re building that movement together.

Three themes from last month's studio's session.

We’re often asked to share the methods behind the madness here at Franklin Street and it sounds something like this: 

“We have a big team retreat coming up. How do we make sure it's substantive and still helps people recharge? How do I strike the balance?”

“Our team has a huge goal to accomplish so we carved out a full 3 days to go deep on it — help!”

“I’m about to facilitate a big strategy sprint for the leadership team and I want to make sure the agenda feels like something I’m uniquely able to lead.”

Last month we set out to answer these tricky questions. We codified our “methods” for the very first time and brought 15 leaders from across sectors together for a 2-day Studio Session. We shared our design tools, provided space, and created a community for them to design experiences that inspire in their own contexts.

Not only that, but each participant brought a real project with them to design during our time together. They brought high-stakes board retreats, team culture reset moments, cohort-based experiences, and more. Over two days, we contemplated how best to design intentionally with learners in mind and prepared and practiced to facilitate those experiences with confidence and authenticity.

During the Studio Session, we spoke with our participants to learn what resonated most. Three themes surfaced during our conversations and we’re offering them now in the form of “advice”. Think of these like three provocations to consider as you design meaningful experiences of your own:

Design in community

Designing in isolation inhibits creativity. Participants at the Studio Session shared that they often design their experiences in a silo without the benefit of collaborators to spark new ideas. Mark Gabriel from Embark reflected on the challenges of working solo, saying, “Most of the time, I sit by myself and I spin on all these ideas in my head. I think [my spinning] is related to this attitude of perfection and wanting to reveal the perfect design.”

There’s often a sense of pressure for facilitators to have all the answers. But in reality, “it’s so important to show vulnerability and ask a peer how to improve my design or a participant how I can make their experience better,” Mark reflected. “The session helped me recognize that there’s a community of thought partners I can lean on to help me and make my work better.”

Balance spaciousness and constraints

Professional gatherings are often tightly scheduled, but the Studio Session emphasized the importance of allowing space for processing. Bianca Van der Meulen from Lean Solopreneur said that the Studio Session, “enabled me to hold a problem without forcing myself or feeling any pressure, so my stuck places untangled themselves. When I try to solve a complicated problem, it's as if the more directly I approach it, the more complex it gets.”

We kicked off the session with a series of prompts for participants to consider like:

• Using no more than 7 words, describe your identity as a facilitator.
• What commitments do you believe are essential to be an effective facilitator?

By reflecting on these questions, participants had space to think more broadly about why they do the work they do. “The Studio Session provided so much space to think gently. It was a low-stakes place for my brain to just be and reflect,” Bianca shared. 

Enable your learners to unlock real challenges

Workshops are most powerful when your participants can apply the learning to relevant challenges and projects. To enable your learners to do that, get to know them to understand where they feel stuck in their work. Before the session, we hosted office hours to understand what participants are grappling with. Richard Maez from Ednium said, “the Studio Session was so different because we came with a real product to work on and received real-time feedback from other facilitators.” By making progress on a specific work task, the skills they learn are more likely to stick and will instill a new sense of possibility in how they approach their challenge. “It was inspiring to see professional development done in a new way.” Richard said.

As you reflect on these three provocations, we want to know — what go-to moves would you add to this list for designing experiences that are rooted in a strong purpose? With this first Studio Session under our belt and tons of rich feedback from our participants, we are eager to refine and share our methods with our partners and the Franklin Street community at large. Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest news on upcoming Studio Sessions and for more on our favorite design and facilitation methods!

A facilitator’s guide to navigating group dynamics.

Last Saturday, I took my 5-year-old daughter to a birthday party at our local playground. Watching little kids navigate social time is an anthropological experience: first, there’s the total lack of decorum (which I obviously love) — the vocal volume, the range of facial expressions (grimaces, total blankness, maniacal grins) and the incapacity to feign even a modicum of interest in, well, anything? But examine the scene more carefully, and you’ll realize that playground antics don’t look all that different from most of our workplace gatherings. 

“You’re it!” screeches Towering Kid with side-swept bangs. Smaller Sidekick cackles, whacking (note: ‘tagging’) unsuspecting loner who turns away to burrow in mom’s legs. Coffee spills. Helpful Kid cleans it up. A gallery of Perimeter Kids munch on Pirate’s Booty watching the scene unfold, attentive but happily removed, using cheese dust to “fingerpaint” a nearby swing. Tag concludes instantaneously. Very Loud Kid broadcasts that it’s now time for everyone to zig-zag, backwards. 

Kids, they’re just like us! What’s striking is just how early our social habits take root. And, no surprise: when we aren’t intentional about setting the conditions for cooperative play, the loudest voices tend to reign supreme. So, if you want to understand the different roles that adults play in our grown-up spaces (see: the visionary, the deflector, the peacemaker) then look no further than your local playground where you can watch group dynamics at play — literally. 

Group dynamics manifest even in the most innocent of settings beginning from the moment we learn to walk. Whether we’re on the playground or in the boardroom, we all impact dynamics in groups.¹ And when we are members of complex institutions – our workplaces, schools and community centers — factors like authority, credibility and influence come into play. 

At Franklin Street, we think a lot about how to design and host experiences for all sorts of groups – from large, cross-functional teams working in mission-driven organizations to cohorts of professionals who are meeting for the very first time. Next month, we’re launching our very first Studio Session: Design and lead experiences that inspire. Professionals from across sectors and geographies will come together to think deeply about what it takes to foster the right conditions for diverse groups of people to build rapport, cultivate trust and ultimately, learn and create together. And this matters, because we know that groups that have a positive dynamic are nearly twice as creative than groups that don’t.²

When people convene for a shared experience, they bring different identities, experiences and backgrounds to the table to form a collective personality. As a designer and facilitator, your job doesn’t stop after you've finished writing your agenda. Before you step into the room, you have to get a real handle on who holds sway and who is vulnerable to being sidelined. 

So, what can you do to prepare? Work with the information you have: you may know the team well (they could be your own colleagues!), or you may not know anyone in the room. Perhaps you’ll have the opportunity to host 1:1 phone calls prior to your event to get to know people, which we recommend. Either way, you need to consider:

Who will be in the room? Where is the potential for friction? Convergence? How can I harness these dynamics to create opportunities for learning and productivity?

At Franklin Street, one way that we routinely prepare for facilitation is to take a look at our session plan and ask ourselves five power-mapping questions. These questions help us think proactively about how to ensure that everyone – no matter their identity, positional authority, or learning and participation styles – can contribute meaningfully. These are not meant to be value judgments: an alpha is not a bad actor just because they wield influence; nor is a skeptic negative because they hold a critical lens. We all play important roles in groups, and the key is to create an inclusive environment and use practices that distribute power equitably across the group.

Download the power-mapping questions

Here’s how we use them: the designer sits down with a teammate and asks each question out loud. We share what we know about each participant, debate our respective hypotheses about where influence lies and then assess whether the activities and modalities we’ve envisioned for our gathering are the right ones to manage the dynamics in the room. As we inevitably uncover risks in our own design, we revise our plan to integrate new tactics that will maximize the chance that everyone will feel empowered to contribute.

Recognizing dynamics ahead of your gathering is crucial for fostering an inclusive environment. Yet, you have to remember: these 5 questions demand that you make some pretty blunt assumptions about the group. While we encourage you to map dynamics as best you can, it’s just as important that you don’t get too attached to your hypotheses. Really, keep an open mind: once you get in the room, you might discover that you're wrong.

In the end, your job as a facilitator is to prepare as best you can and then sense and respond to what’s in front of you. Mapping group dynamics can help you anticipate who’s the reigning tag champion, but you never know: you might end up being surprised by the person who hides behind mom’s legs when they’re “it.”

1. The Mind Tools Content Team. Improving Group Dynamics. Mind Tools, Leadership and Management. ↩︎
2. The Mind Tools Content Team. Improving Group Dynamics. Mind Tools, Leadership and Management.  ↩︎

What Oreos and team meetings have in common

Every Thanksgiving at approximately 6:30pm my mother starts her high-intensity kitchen circuit: a lunge to mix the brussel sprouts, a deep squat to peer down at the illuminated oven, a long jump to baste the bird. At the end of the routine, the competitor leans against the counter and beckons the attention of her rapt audience: "Let me make this clear as day: I will never do this again!" And yet, each year, November rolls around, and there she is, in her competitive garb (apron + sneakers), ready to attack the circuit once more. My mother’s performance has become my family’s most treasured (and amusing) holiday ritual.  

No doubt many of you have holiday rituals too: you might watch football or share a note of gratitude with your dinner companions. Or maybe you resist the hubbub altogether and head to your favorite take-out spot. Every day we perform rituals, big and small. Why do we insist on engaging in these practices? Some might argue that ritual is simply about control, but I wonder if there’s something more intrinsic that motivates us.

Take eating as an example. In the Power of Rituals in Life, Death, and Business, Carmen Nobel makes the case that people who perform a ritual before they eat actually believe that the food tastes better. That must be why I do that wine swirl thing before I take a sip of an exorbitantly priced two-buck chuck at a restaurant and then say to the waiter, “Oh, that’s delightful!” When I eat an Oreo, I must rigidly adhere to these 3 steps:

1. Twist the cookie in order to separate it into two halves. 
2. Scrape off the sweet filling with teeth.
3. Consume each cookie with exaggerated chomps, creating the loudest crunch effect possible. 

To imagine just eating an Oreo sandwich intact… no, no, no! Apparently, my neurosis has a basis in actual research. “With consumption, rituals seem to work because they increase your involvement in the experience" (Nobel, 2013).¹ In other words, rituals help us engage more fully in whatever it is we're doing. As a result, we are more likely to be fulfilled.  

At Franklin Street, we extend the power of rituals to our work. We use rituals to increase predictability in an increasingly unpredictable world; to help us feel a sense of shared purpose as a team; and to express our core values to the communities we work with. I’ll share a couple of examples. 

Predictability 

Every Monday, we host a team huddle during which we answer the same 5 questions: 

Predictability is comforting. It’s soothing to know that on Monday afternoons we gather to connect and run through our week’s priorities. When we ask, “What has your attention?” we are inviting people to share –  openly and humanly – about what’s occupying their headspace. Rituals around connection help teams foster “psychological safety”, and teams with higher psychological safety feel safer taking more creative risks and embracing mistakes as learning opportunities (Gallo, 2023).²

Shared purpose

We also use rituals to stay focused on our collective purpose. Once a month, we set aside a half day to pause and reflect on our strategy. This intermission from the everyday buzz helps us ground in our shared purpose. We remember why we’re doing what we do and focus together on strengthening our strategy. The result is that we find meaning in our work, and that doesn’t just feel good – we actually do better work. Teams who view their work as meaningful are “more motivated, happier, and more productive” (Senz, 2022).³ 

"Rituals around connection help teams foster “psychological safety”, and teams with higher psychological safety feel safer taking more creative risks and embracing mistakes as learning opportunities."

— Amy Gallo, Harvard Business Review

Core values 

Rituals also help us express our espoused values in tangible ways. Every December we give our closest partners and collaborators resources to donate to any organization that they care about. We do this because we believe in contributing directly to communities that we value. 

So, as you wind down for your holiday break, take stock of the little weird rituals that bring you comfort and joy (how do you eat an Oreo?). And ask yourself: what's one small ritual I can introduce to my team at work? Rituals at work don’t have to be complicated or over-the-top. They can be as simple as asking a good question at the beginning of every team meeting. Rituals help us connect more deeply to each other and our shared purpose.

1. Nobel, C. (2013). The Power of Rituals in Life, Death, and Business. Harvard Business School: Working Knowledge, Research & Ideas. ↩︎
2. Gallo, A. (2023). What is Psychological Safety? Harvard Business Review: Leadership and Managing People ↩︎
3. Senz, K. (2022). Rituals at Work: Teams That Play Together Stay Together. Harvard Business School: Working Knowledge, Research & Ideas ↩︎