Brico
works
hey, changemaker!
Let’s do change... better
At Brico Works we are your co-designers in building a better world. We partner with social impact leaders and change agents to help them tackle those sticky issues that keep them from moving their mission forward.
Think of us as your partner in evolving how work gets done, so you can focus on doing good, better.
In the dynamic landscape of social impact, the challenges are as unique as they are daunting. Traditional approaches are losing their edge, and the playbook of yesterday falls short in today's complex scenarios.
We are systems thinkers, creative disrupters and nonprofit nerds who see the potential and passion that social impact organizations have and want to find a way to move you towards your mission faster.
We believe that everyone's journey toward meaningful change is unique but doesn't have to be solitary.
What we do
Change Design for Impact Organizations
At Brico Works, we co-design transformative change to upgrade how your mission-driven organization operates. From initiating new programs to leading digital transformations, we offer custom-tailored services and training, aiming to foster lasting change and make a resonating impact.
At Brico Works, we're inspired by the principle, 'You can't tend a garden from the bench.' In our consulting approach, this means we're not distant observers; we're engaged guides. We walk alongside you through the transformation journey, offering insights and tools, not to do the work for you, but to empower your team to thrive.
Our involvement is calibrated to your needs – providing support where necessary while ensuring your team's autonomy and creativity remain at the forefront. This way, new practices and ways of working are not just implemented but are organically embraced and sustained within the unique culture of your organization.
Our courses and workshops are designed to make change design principles accessible to all organizational levels. Our resources are adaptable to your needs, whether you're a solo change agent, small team or a large entity. We can help build your change capabilities.
Our online courses allow you to learn at your own pace, applying insights directly to your work. Alternatively, our interactive in-person sessions bring the collaborative spirit of Brico Works to your learning experience. Each course promises to have a little fun while equipping you with tools and capabilities to adapt and grow your mission.
The Brico Collective and Change Lab are unique spaces dedicated to social change leaders (and aspiring leaders). Here, we bridge the gap between nonprofit functions and innovative 'future of work' concepts. Our community is a hub where leaders and change agents learn, share, and apply new ways of working, specifically tailored to the nonprofit sector's unique needs. It's where visionary ideas meet practical nonprofit challenges, fostering real transformation.
A sampling of our services...
Impact Frameworks
The Brico team will help you design strategic tools used to plan, measure, learn, and communicate the social or environmental impact of your organization's initiatives.
Tech Roadmaps & Rollouts
Brico will assist you in planning and implementing new (or your current piecemeal) technology strategies, helping organizations leverage modern tools effectively. Assess your tech stack (or lack thereof).
Setting Up Team Rhythms
We work with you to establish a consistent and productive workflow among team members, fostering effective collaboration and efficiency when you are together and apart.
Building Team Change Capabilities
We can assist in coaching leaders through change and fostering adaptive and agile transformations within your teams. Move your work from managing change like a project into building capabilities for change at all levels.
Let’s Connect on Consulting
Workshops for Teams or Random Groups:
- Changemaker Prep: A workshop designed to prime leaders for building effective change systems and capabilities within their teams.
- Wayfinder Prep: A course that guides participants in the art of facilitation, crucial for navigating change processes.
- From Proving to Improving: A program that activates your learning practice for impact, moving from merely demonstrating results to enhancing performance.
- Team Labs: Interactive sessions for teams of 3-8 to collaboratively work through projects, addressing tensions, testing solutions, and equipping for future challenges.
- Custom Team Off-sites: Tailored retreats that facilitate strategic planning and team bonding without breaking the bank.
Online Courses offer various topics:
- Changemakers Toolkit: Provides core tools for change capabilities.
- Theory of Change to Practice of Change: Guides in transitioning from theoretical change models to practical application.
- The Brico OS: Teaches how to design a unique operating system for your organization.
- Iterate to Innovate: Highlights the role of prototyping in social change initiatives.
- From Silos to Loops: Focuses on improving teaming through designing effective feedback flows.
- Tech Roadmaps & Rollouts: Assists in planning and implementing technology strategies.
Join our Newsletter
Brico Collective
The Brico Collective is a community of changemakers dedicated to fostering connection and collaboration. It serves as a platform for idea exchange and collaboration, aiming to enhance the impact potential of each member through mutual support and a sense of belonging.
Change Cohorts
Change Cohorts are Mastermind groups centered on enhancing change capabilities. They provide a platform for sharing experiences, learning, and addressing change implementation challenges collectively, aiming to boost each member's change-driving ability within their organizations.
Change Lab
Sometimes all you need is a set of fresh eyes. The Change Lab is a collaborative space for changemakers to design solutions and ignite change. It offers resources, tools, and a supportive environment for experimenting with new strategies and approaches to drive change. Bring your problems.
The Brico Flow
How We Work
The Brico Flow is a dynamic process designed to guide organizations through a journey of growth and adaptation. It's about starting small, learning through doing, and gradually building up to tackle larger challenges. When we work with you this will be initiated multiple times.
We start by gathering insights and kickstarting the change process. What are your big (and little) dreams and what might be holding you back from achieving those? We work with you to find the tensions preventing you from doing your best work & the safe spaces to try and make change.
- Uncover and map out your organization's unique landscape.
- Pinpoint pivotal areas ripe for transformation.
- Start small; learn big.
Next, we focus on creating the right conditions for change. This means supporting you to free up capacity and ensuring your organization has the space to work through the changes effectively. With everything, we start small and grow overtime.
- Prioritize for impact
- Pause to reflect
- Pace to sustain
- Pitch the sludge
- Power up your tools
- Propel others
Here, we begin to experiment with simple and innovative practices and ideas, continuously refining them based on feedback and outcomes. It's a dynamic phase of trial, learning, and adaptation. What to expect:
- Co-created design
- 6-8 week timeframe
- Clarity on the work, team, and how we will measure success.
Finally, we concentrate on reflecting on what didn’t work and amplifying your success. We share the lessons learned and scale up the strategies that worked, broadening their impact across your organization.
- What worked?
- What didn’t?
- How can we grow?
Bricolage
At the core of Brico Works is the concept of "bricolage," a term used to describe the act of creating from a diverse range of available things. We believe that change comes from doing, learning, and growing. It's about experimentation, resourcefulness, and creative problem-solving. In a world that is increasingly complex and uncertain, traditional methods often fall short. A "bricolage" approach allows us to adapt and find solutions that are tailored to the unique challenges at hand.
"The only source of knowledge is experience."
-Albert Einstein
What is org design?
We look at organizational design as constructing an organizational operating ecosystem - an interconnected and evolving environment where the alignment of collective goals and individual strengths fosters growth, adaptability, and a positive impact on both the team and the wider community.
Why
sets the direction and the overarching goals
(the mission and purpose)
What
defines the concrete steps, initiatives, and actions to achieve these goals
(the strategy and objectives).
How
the way people, processes, and practices within the organization interact and function together to execute the why and what. (The operating ecosystem)
Purpose
teaming
People
decisions
Tools
connections
Growth
Structure
practices
impact
Process
The operating ecosystem is the beautiful, messy place where people, processes, and practices within the organization
come together
The Power of Transformation: Seeing is Believing
Co-creating more impactful work experiences for change makers
There will be challenging moments where the tensions will make you snap back to the old ways of working.
That’s ok...
Over time, you’ll start to feel and see changes in the way your team is working, connecting and growing.
Our approach is to begin by taking the first step and making small, yet meaningful improvements each day.
Intrigued? Let’s Talk
Transformation takes time. It will feel exciting and scary and crunchy. If you commit to starting down the path and making intentional movement you will find a new way of working.
- You and your team find a renewed sense of energy.
- Meetings that make sense for improved collaboration rhythms.
- Practices for creating space for the work that matters.
- Optimized digital tools with use of new and existing resources.
- Improved clarity for strategy & decision making.
- Ability to build capacity in new ways.
- Enhanced program quality to boost reach & impact.
- Space for continuous learning and improvement.
- Greater resilience through enhanced adaptability.
- Expanded toolkit of skills and practices.
- Higher staff engagement.
- Lower staff turnover.
What Change Looks & Feels LIke
Symptom:
How does tension feel or show up for you?
Team may feel confused about who to approach for approvals or guidance, leading to delays in project execution and a lack of accountability.
Traditional Fix:
Ways this is typically handled.
Top down directives on decisions. Push the decision up or over until it’s made.
Brico Way:
A fresh way of working
Define roles & responsibilities for teams and individuals. Create practices where decisions can be empowered at all levels with the right clarity and expectations. Establish feedback systems. Find ways to meld data and intuition in decision making.
Explore new ways of decision making like Integrative Decision Making.
Outcomes:
- Improved staff morale & engagement.
- Enhanced productivity.
- Improved creativity.
- Increased accountability.
Symptom:
How does tension feel or show up for you?
Employees might experience burnout due to overcommitment. Constant feeling of never being caught up or resentment for the conditions. Causes overwhelm, burnout, and unsatisfaction with work.
Traditional Fix:
Ways this is typically handled.
Long days, overworking, pushing work to the edges.
Brico Way:
A fresh way of working
Coaching on priority-setting tools and alignment with primary goals. Finding safe places to say no and coaching on how to do it.
Outcomes:
- Balanced workload
- Higher job satisfaction
- Clarity of focus on key goals
- Ability to accomplish more at better pace
Symptom:
How does tension feel or show up for you?
Team or organization has a deluge of unproductive or inconsistent meetings that rarely increase productivity and connection.
Traditional Fix:
Ways this is typically handled.
Increased meeting frequency, structured agendas, centralized decision making meetings, etc.
Brico Way:
A fresh way of working
Setting a meeting rhythm to support your work and teams. Stucture meetings according to goals. Set facilators and scribes to support. Build capabilities around running a good meeting. Start and end the meetings with intentional practices.
Outcomes:
- Improved communications
- Faster decision-making
- Better work-life balance
- Increased productivity
About Brico Works
Janie Moore
Founder & Lead Change Maker
Hello! I'm the founder behind Brico Works. With a 15-year journey in the nonprofit sector, my career has been a tapestry of diverse roles, each fueling my fascination with the operational 'nervous system' of organizations. From building cohesive teams to implementing effective tools and processes, my passion lies in creating environments where teams can excel and thrive.
My intrigue has always centered around how teams work together - the systems, tools, and processes that make or break organizational effectiveness. This passion has been the common thread in my career, whether in grant management, development, collective impact efforts, communications, or strategic planning. I’ve always found joy and purpose in giving teams the clarity and drive they need to succeed.
Currently, as the Director of Impact & Strategic Initiatives at the Entrepreneur Fund, I blend this passion with a strategic approach to impact measurement and management. Here, I lead initiatives to optimize our data systems, refine our workflows, and communicate our story of community impact. It's a role that combines my love for data-driven storytelling with my drive to enhance organizational efficiency.
Now, with Brico Works, I'm extending this expertise beyond my current role. Here, “we” represents not just myself but a broader community of change agents and experts I collaborate with. It's about taking the lessons learned, the strategies developed, and the insights gained, and offering them to other organizations seeking transformative change.
We at Brico Works are committed to more than consultancy; we're here to foster a movement of adaptive, impactful nonprofit work. Join us, and let's harness your organization's potential for greatness together.
Meet people where they are
Embrace a grounded approach in organizational design by meeting individuals in their familiar contexts. Making change tangible builds trust and fosters a more receptive environment for transformation.
Start Small, Learn Big
Major shifts in organizational behavior don't always start with grand initiatives. By beginning with small, manageable prototypes, we unlock significant learnings and subtly guide behavioral change.
Roots to Canopy: Cultivating Organizational Growth
True organizational change is a journey from the roots (prototypes) to the canopy (fully-realized transformation). It requires nurturing initial concepts into comprehensive strategies that permeate the entire organizational structure and culture. Remember, not all seedlings reach the canopy.
Change Champions at Every Level
Agents of change aren't limited to senior ranks. Passion and social influence often reside in unexpected places. Identifying and empowering these individuals can spark meaningful transformations.
Planet Positive
Actively integrate a commitment to environmental sustainability into every aspect of organizational design. Our decisions and actions aim to contribute positively to the planet, creating eco-friendly strategies that proactively benefit the environment.
People Centric
Prioritize the diverse experiences, skills, needs, and perspectives of individuals, recognizing that the strength and success of our team and community are the cornerstones of impactful change.
Brico Works
Practices & Principles
Let’s Connect
We would love to learn more about you and your organization. Reach out directly or fill out the form below.
Email: janie@brico.works
Phone: 970.217.9739