Home-Aside
“Ellen has a deft touch and a capacity for holding steady and staying focused in the heat of difficult conversations. Her openness to new and creative ideas enables her to be a remarkable resource for groups and teams dealing with complex issues and relationships.”
—Marty Linsky
Faculty, Harvard Kennedy School;
Co-Founder, Cambridge Leadership AssociatesAbout-Aside
“Ellen is a master facilitator who makes everyone in the group feel validated and inspired as they work toward a common goal. She is able to tackle the most complex organizational issues with extraordinary skill and dexterity.”
—Barbara E. Will
Dartmouth College Associate Dean of the Arts & Humanities
Services-Aside
“Ellen brought invaluable skills to our nonprofit organization as we struggled to identify how to best streamline and use our energies. She has a piercing mind and genuine warmth which she combines with high energy and a unique ability to help groups find consensus.”
—Heidi Webb
Past Board Chair,
Webb Innovation Center for DyslexiaClients-Aside
“Ellen helped bring our Board forward, clarifying our goals and vision. A year later, her work is still discussed at most Board meetings. People remember what she says. She is a diamond for the organizations and companies she works with.”
—Susan Winship
Director, Sudanese Education Fund
Contact-Aside
“Ellen helped us find our voice.”
—Cathy Cogen
Director, National Interpreter Education Center,
Northeastern University
Author Archives: bluesagepartners
TeamBuild September 2017: A mission to remember
I’ve been thinking about mission statements lately as I draft one with a board that I am on and remind myself to follow my own best advice. I believe that a mission statement that is aspirational, short, and uses ordinary … Continue reading
TeamBuild July 2017: The value of values we recognize
One exercise I do with teams is to explore shared values about how they want to work. The challenge is to unearth values that are inherent in the culture and values that the team aspires to – but with language … Continue reading
TeamBuild June 2017: Bullies
When I started consulting, I didn’t believe there were adult bullies. I was wrong. In my May blog, I talked about “radical empathy” for difficult or oppositional people. But some people are not just naysayers. Bullies can be covert and … Continue reading
TeamBuild May 2017: Radical empathy
Recently, when I was working with a distinguished senior team, there was one individual that I didn’t like or trust. I knew this was not a good thing and called one my favorite mentors to talk about it. “I know … Continue reading
TeamBuild March 2017: The one-text approach
What do you do when you have a team that is complicated or stuck that needs to come to consensus? One of my favorite tools is a version of the one-text approach in Getting to Yes.[1] Perhaps the most famous … Continue reading
TeamBuild February 2017: Name the elephants in the room
I bring to my work an instinct to be forthright and name “the elephant in the room,” that problem or risk that no one wants to discuss. Even with multiple “elephants,” I’ve found that it is more beneficial to surface … Continue reading
TeamBuild January 2017: Go to the balcony
A decade ago, twenty-five leaders from Delaware assembled for a full day to work on a blueprint for education for the state. A renowned international consulting firm presented research on education around the world. As the consultants worked their way … Continue reading
July 2016: Volunteerism
Voluntourism is a fraught concept. Are we helping or hurting when we build a house in New Orleans, hold babies in an orphanage in Kenya, or construct a fence for a clinic in Nicaragua? In 2013, the Hewitts went to … Continue reading
June 2016: How to spend 80,000 hours
A year ago I wrote about Effective Altruism, a movement that promotes using evidence-based data to not just do good, but to do the most good. Now I am running into college students and recent grads researching their careers by … Continue reading
April 2016: Women on Waves
About two months ago, as our son Trevor was being evacuated from El Salvador (Peace Corps closed its program there due to violence) and our daughter Leah continued with her work in Guatemala, we watched as the Zika crisis heated … Continue reading
