You Don’t Need a Vendor. You Need a Co-Conspirator
When we started, we weren’t looking to become vendors. We weren’t interested in checking boxes, finishing a scope of work, and walking away with a polished PDF and a handshake. The kind of work we do doesn’t really work like that anyway.
And frankly, neither do we.
The best projects we’ve been a part of didn’t start with a clear deliverable. They started with a question. Sometimes it came up in casual conversation: “How do we get our leadership team to actually act like a team?” Or sometimes it came in hot after a crisis: “We need a strategic plan, and we need it fast, but also can you help us make sure people actually use it?”
What made those projects successful wasn’t just the strategy or the facilitation or the coaching frameworks. It was the relationship. The mutual trust. The feeling that we were in it with them - not just contracted to solve a problem, but committed to building something better together.
That’s the difference between a vendor and a co-conspirator.
There’s a place for vendors. They execute efficiently, deliver what’s asked, and wrap up cleanly. But that’s not the kind of partnership most leaders need when navigating real organizational change.
A vendor drops into a retreat, delivers a slide deck, and disappears until next year. A co-conspirator notices when the real tension shows up between slides 6 and 7 and changes the plan on the spot to dig into what’s really going on.
A vendor interviews your team and hands you a report about structure. A co-conspirator stays long enough to see how that structure either unlocks or strangles culture.
We define a co-conspirator as someone who’s not just invested in the deliverable, but in the outcome, and in the people trying to get there.
That looks like:
Holding space for complexity instead of trying to over-simplify it.
Making room for resistance and helping navigate through it.
Challenging assumptions, not just reflecting them back.
Helping a team name the real issue - not just the comfortable one.
It also looks like showing up with honesty when something’s off, adapting when a scope needs to shift, and staying present even after the final deck is delivered. Because that’s when the real implementation begins.
A vendor gives you what you asked for. A co-conspirator gives you what you didn’t know you needed, because they’re watching for what’s unsaid, unasked, or quietly avoided.
Co-Conspirators in Action
We were first brought in to conduct an organizational effectiveness study - one that required us to listen carefully, ask the right questions, and offer an honest reflection of where things were working and where they weren’t. What started as a discrete project quickly evolved. They saw that we understood their organization and its culture, not just the chart and structure, but the context behind it. They commissioned three additional studies, each focused on a specific division with unique dynamics and challenges. From there, we began coaching the entire senior leadership team, facilitating retreats for the executive cabinet, and designing professional development for mid-level leaders and administrative staff. None of it was surface-level work. It meant navigating hard conversations, confronting long-standing tensions, and helping leaders make some tough calls. But along the way, something shifted. We stopped being the “scary consultants” and started being seen as part of the team. Trusted. Integrated. In it with them.
That only happens when there’s trust. And trust doesn’t come from sending over a contract. It comes from showing up in the work as more than a service provider. It comes from listening well, adapting quickly, and being honest when the path forward is murky.
We’ve coached leaders through reorgs, launched year-long strategy processes, facilitated retreats that cracked something open. And more often than not, we’ve been called back not because of what we delivered, but because of how we made people feel in the process. Heard. Seen. Believed in. Challenged, too - but with care.
This model isn’t about stretching projects longer than they need to be. It’s about building the kind of relationship where we already understand your context, your people, and your pressure points. Where time isn’t wasted explaining why the org chart is messy or why the leadership retreat needs to land just right this year. We already know. And that fluency lets us go further, faster, and with less friction.
We get to design more than a plan. We get to design how you show up in the plan.
There’s a reason so many of our clients come back, not with “new projects” but with “can we talk something through?” It’s not because we’re magicians. It’s because we stay long enough to care about the outcome. And because we lead with the belief that the best work happens in partnership, when we’re co-conspiring toward something that matters.
If you’re looking for a vendor, you’ll have a lot of options.
If you’re looking for someone who’s ready to dig in, adapt with you, and tell you the truth (kindly, but clearly), we should talk.
We don’t just show up with answers. We co-create solutions that fit your reality.
