What Does a Holistic Approach to Organizational Change Really Look Like?
At Freya + Co, we spend most of our time inside complexity. That complexity shows up in a lot of ways. A statewide public health planning process with competing priorities. Service providers trying to meet quality expectations while staying solvent. Boards sorting out governance roles. Program leaders balancing vision, data, and very real human limits. Individuals having honest conversations about culture and identity in IDI debriefs.
On the surface, these look like very different kinds of work. What ties them together isn’t a single service or tool. It’s a way of working.
Over the past year, one thing has become even clearer to us: organizations don’t change through isolated fixes. They change when infrastructure, relationships, strategy, and learning line up.
Strong foundations matter, especially under pressure
Every organization relies on systems you don’t always notice until they start to strain. Clear roles. Sound management. Reliable processes.
When those basics are in place, everything else gets easier. This year, we saw it again and again. When governance roles were clear, conversations were calmer. When decision paths were transparent, trust grew. When expectations were named, people could focus on the work instead of the friction.
Peter Senge puts it simply: structure influences behavior. When the structure supports the work, people have a better chance to succeed.
Governance and communication are human work
Governance isn’t just bylaws and agendas. It’s relationships, power, and shared responsibility.
We worked with boards and steering committees this year that were navigating real tension. Competing priorities. Leadership transitions. Unclear decision authority. What helped wasn’t rushing to decisions. It was slowing down enough to clarify roles and rebuild shared understanding.
Ron Heifetz reminds us that adaptive work creates space for learning, not quick answers. When boards had room to reflect together, decisions improved and trust followed.
Financial systems serve the mission
Fundraising, budgeting, and accounting aren’t separate from mission. They’re expressions of it.
In evaluation and planning work tied to multi-year funding, we saw how financial clarity supports long-term thinking. When organizations could see how resources aligned with goals, decisions got better. When reporting was paired with learning, data became useful instead of burdensome.
As Donella Meadows wrote, the purpose of a system is what it does. Healthy financial systems make the mission possible.
Flexibility is not a lack of strategy
Our work this year rarely followed a straight line.
We offered support that ranged from facilitation and evaluation to capacity building, IDI debriefs, and coordination. That flexibility wasn’t about doing everything. It was about responding to what the moment actually required.
In learning communities, that meant creating peer spaces where people could speak honestly. In IDI work, it meant meeting individuals where they were. In coalition settings, it meant adjusting processes as conditions changed.
One size doesn’t fit all in complex systems.
Big picture direction comes from shared meaning
Strategy isn’t just a document. It’s a shared sense of where you’re going and why.
In statewide planning and coalition work this year, the most productive moments came when groups paused and reconnected to purpose. Facilitation helped people see patterns, surface assumptions, and align around what mattered most.
Amy Edmondson’s research says it well: organizations learn when people feel safe enough to tell the truth. Shared meaning creates that safety.
What we keep coming back to
Across all of this work, a few things hold steady:
Change is relational
Learning takes time
Structure supports trust
Facilitation is infrastructure
Data works best when paired with reflection
Our role at Freya + Co isn’t to drop in answers. It’s to help organizations see themselves more clearly, ask better questions, and move forward with intention.
Excellence isn’t about perfection. It’s about alignment. And alignment is something you build together, over time.
