Engagement length
90 days
Organization type
International nonprofit - community development, disability services, anti-human trafficking
Primary challenge
Growth without operational infrastructure to sustain it
Reclaim is an international nonprofit operating across four countries - Jordan, Kazakhstan, Guatemala, and Argentina - with over 50 staff working in community development, education, disability services, and anti-human trafficking. The organization had been through a period of significant change, and the internal structure had become fragmented in ways that made coordination harder than it needed to be.
When the CEO reached out, the presenting issues were operational: systems and processes that weren't aligned across the organization, communication rhythms that had broken down, limited visibility into the work and its outcomes, and decisions sitting at the executive level that belonged further into the organization. These were the natural result of an organization navigating change - not a reflection of what anyone was or wasn't doing.
The operational challenges were real. But what the organization needed wasn't just a consultant with a process. It needed someone who could work through those challenges while helping the people inside them think more clearly about how they were leading, communicating, and showing up for each other.
The engagement followed the standard four-phase structure - listening, assessment, stabilization, roadmap - but Karen's approach inside each phase was what made the difference. Her method was consultative and coaching-based. She asked more questions than she answered, especially early. The goal wasn't to arrive with a diagnosis. It was to help the people inside the organization develop their own clearer picture of what was happening and what needed to change.
With Reclaim's leadership team, that meant working through the operational challenges - systems alignment, role clarity, ownership gaps, communication rhythms, workflow documentation, visibility into outcomes - while simultaneously doing something harder: helping the CEO and key leaders examine how they were operating individually, not just how the organization was structured. What decisions were sitting at the top that shouldn't be. Where the systems weren't supporting the people using them. How the team was talking to each other - and what they weren't saying.
The coaching wasn't a separate track. It ran through every conversation, every working session, every difficult moment where the operational question and the people question were the same question. That integration gave the structural work its foundation. Documentation and process are the easy part. What Karen brought was the clarity and space for the team to engage with both - and decide how to move forward together.
That's what Karen brought. And that's what made the engagement work.
What the engagement produced
- Clear operational picture across a 50+ person global team
- Working board dashboard with practical reporting rhythms
- Strengthened role clarity and ownership across key functions
- Communication rhythms that gave structure without adding overhead
- Documented workflows for highest-priority operational processes
- Surfaced people-side dynamics that had been limiting the team's effectiveness
- CEO and leadership team with sharper clarity on how they lead - not just what they manage
- A shared language for how the team talks about how they work together