JOIN A LEARNING COHORT
Live and interactive training + one-on-one coaching support to change the way YOU change the world.
Join a community of visionary, next-level changemakers, who are growing beyond the social impact status quo to transform how they work and create social change.
Do you want to:
- Learn new skills you can use in any type of uncertainty?
- Gain confidence in your solutions in hours and weeks instead of months and years?
- Feel invigorated and connected to your personal purpose, your mission, the stakeholders you support, and your daily work?
- Connect with other Frustrated Changemakers who just like you are asking big questions and taking new action?
Introducing the PAUSE Status Quo
Problem-Solving Cohort Series
Discover your power to shift how you see yourself, your work, and what’s possible in the sector.
This is an eight-session training and coaching series
customized for professionals just like you to learn how to:
- Change your work habits and PAUSE in uncertainty
- Get clarity on any challenge so that you can save time, money, and create deeper impact
- More deeply connect to your vision, and to your internal and external stakeholders
- Be more empathetic and identify areas of potential bias in a supportive and kind environment
- Brainstorm abundantly and test potential solutions before you build
- Rapidly gather all forms of data to influence leaders and your next steps
Key takeaways from my most recent COHORT
after THEY Learned to use
the PAUSE framework. 🎉
“Staying stuck in impossibility is not useful. There are a whole lot of possible steps/phases in between impossibility and possibility. It is not a black and white option, but rather a range of gray to be explored.”
”Do not assume that you have the full picture until you have the full picture!”
“A reminder that slowing down, asking questions, and engaging stakeholders is not a waste of time. You know what assuming does....”
Timing and Content Overview
I know what it’s like to be pulled in multiple directions, with little time, so I have optimized the series to fit your busy schedule and learning needs.
The cohort includes three elements.
1. The cohort includes 8 live learning sessions (ranging from 2 - 2 1/2 hours each) following a schedule with 3-week breaks between sessions to give you time to complete the learning you need to make rapid progress in your area of uncertainty.
2. You will be expected to spend about 3 hours each week to advance your learning between the live learning sessions. This time will be used primarily for reading (via paperback, ebook, or audiobook), and conducting empathy interviews and solution tests.
3. Each cohort participant will receive 8 one-on-one coaching sessions (30 minutes each) throughout the process.
All content and coaching will be delivered online via Zoom.
July 14th - Information session at 10am PST to help you learn more about this opportunity!
Week of July 21st - One-on-one calls to learn about you and discuss your challenge and stakeholders.
August 6 @ 9am PST - Session 1 (2.5 hours) - Get to know each other and your challenges
In this initial session, we will connect, share, and dive into the first skill of the PAUSE Framework, Package the Challenge.
We will discuss the benefits of PAUSE-ing, the background and why of the PAUSE framework, and a review of the challenges and all stakeholders impacted.
The first hour of this session can be attended by leaders of your organization so that they get a taste of the framework. By the end of the session, you will begin to focus on your challenge and stakeholders and you will complete an organizational assessment.
1 week break
August 13 @ 9am PST - Session 2 (2.5 hours) - Focus on PAUSE, Assess Uncertainty and Understand Stakeholders
This session is focused on discussing our positionalities and biases and exploring your Knowns and Unknowns about your challenges and stakeholders. We will also focus on empathy including the practice of active listening, crafting great questions, and learning strategies to identify key insights.
By the end of the session, you will have an extensive list of what you know for sure and what you still need to learn about your challenges and stakeholders. You will craft high-quality empathy interview questions and design a plan to conduct outreach with your stakeholders.
3-week break - to include one coaching session
September 3 @ 9am PST - Session 3 (2 hours) - Debrief and share learning from your empathy interviews
This session is focused on reflecting upon and sharing your learning from your empathy interviews and adapting your strategies to complete additional interviews.
3-week break - to include one coaching session
September 24 @ 9am PST - Session 4 (2.5 hours) - Focus on PAUSE, Solution Testing
This session is focused on cohort participants sharing the learning they achieved during their stakeholder interviews and discussing alignment with their original hypotheses.
By the end of the session, you will have brainstormed and prioritized potential solutions, and then select one potential solution to break into its component assumptions that you will then prioritize. You will design a solution test and design a plan to conduct your test and gather insights.
3-week break - to include one coaching session
October 15 @ 9am PST - Session 5 (2 hours) - Debrief and share learning from your solution testing
This session is focused on reflecting upon and sharing your learning from your solution testing and adapting your strategies to complete additional learning activities.
3-week break - to include one coaching session
November 5 @ 9am PST - Session 6 (2 hours) - Focus on PAUSE, Evidence-Informed Decision-Making
This session is focused on sharing the results of all of your solution tests and crafting your next steps for additional empathy interviews, additional solution tests, further research, etc. By the end of the session, you will have a plan for how you will continue to extend the learning around your challenge.
3-week break - to include one coaching session
Nov 26 @ 9am PST or TBD due to holiday - Session 7 (2 hours) - Focus on Continued Learning and Integration
This final group session will be focused on continued group sharing where cohort participants will discuss their learning and decision-making as they continue to pursue different strategies to design programs, policies, processes, etc.
3-week break - to include one coaching session
December 18 @ 9am PST - Final presentations
This will be a celebration and community presentation so that you can share and enjoy all of your hard work and extensive learning.
Post-presentation/training will include one final coaching session.
MORE Key takeaways from my most recent COHORT after THEY Learned to use the PAUSE framework. 🎉
“The PAUSE framework is a chance to stop just “doing” as you have been, and a method to reexamine past, present and future. Using objective feedback as a way to guide decisions. Challenging held concepts — such as what is possible.”
“Success doesn’t mean you have to actually build the thing. It’s knowing whether it is even possible, and how you could realistically, build the thing.”
”I really appreciate everything Heather did for me. She was always so kind and supportive. She clearly knows her stuff and she is a delight. I am so happy to know her and have her as a resource.”
A little about me, Heather Hiscox (she/her), your guide and fierce cheerleader.
I am a Frustrated Changemaker on a mission to change the way WE change the world.
I am the founder and CEO of Pause for Change and the creator of the proven and proprietary PAUSE framework that helps changemakers address difficult challenges and pursue promising opportunities. I am the author of No More Status Quo: A Proven Framework to Change the Way We Change the World and the co-creator, curator, and host of Possibility Project, an online conversion series and growing community of disruptive changemakers reclaiming our power through meaningful sparks, connections, and action.
I speak at conferences and events about social impact transformation and I have launched several ventures that benefit the social impact sector, connecting organizations to the training, skills, and resources they need to deepen their impact.
During our time together you will learn about
- The Why behind the PAUSE Framework
- How our habits reinforce the status quo
- The importance of clarity in defining challenges in your current practices
- How to consider stakeholders' connections to your challenge
- Why positionality and bias are key to uncertainty
- How empathy is imperative and potentially harmful
- The benefits of abundant brainstorming and testing solutions before you build
- How to use evidence-informed decision-making to influence leaders and your next steps
For more than ten years I’ve had the honor to work with some of the smallest and largest social impact organizations across the U.S. to address a large diversity of internal and external challenges.
Still not sure if this cohort is for you?
Have you ever wondered why in the social sector we rely on:
- Our good intentions to “do good” even when we lack evidence that our solutions will actually improve people’s lives?
- Creating solutions in silos and separation inside and outside our organizations?
- Copying and pasting “best practices” without knowing if they will create impact in our organization or community?
- Waiting six months or a year for pilot studies to wrap up before we see results?
If you answered yes to any of these you might be a Frustrated Changemaker who is exhausted from using status quo skills, creating status quo solutions, and playing along with the game that says “this is how it’s done.”
There is absolutely a better way to address uncertainty and challenges in less time, using fewer resources, to achieve greater impact.
But we need to use new skills to create new outcomes.
“Heather’s positive energy will leave you motivated and inspired. The PAUSE Framework is one of the quickest ways to move from stagnation to authentic action!”
“Heather has the tools and experience to help you focus your energy on what is most important and will get you results.”
“The Park District of Oak Park sought a way to address complex and sticky problems in the organization and the community. However, we kept running into barriers. Pause for Change helped us redesign our process focusing on problem identification, engagement, and testing of assumptions around big ideas. Since we made the change, we have been able to address challenges quickly and effectively.”
Most of the staff and organizations that have learned this approach:
- Save time and money
- Are still using the skills years later
- Have advanced in their careers
- Been highlighted to speak about their success at conferences
- Have referred others and returned for more
- Created new revenue streams and increased grant funding
- Improved recruitment and retention (inside and outside the organization)
- Have healthier collaborations and relationships with colleagues and the community
I know what it’s like to feel the frustration that comes with knowing we can do better to change the world.
There is a more joyful, confident, and connected way to do this sacred work. You don’t have to do this work alone or like me, research and test strategies for a decade plus. You can join a community of other Frustrated Changemakers and start the transformation now!
THE COST
I want to make this opportunity as accessible as possible. I am offering all eight live learning sessions + 8 coaching sessions for just $999.
There is scholarship support available. Please complete this form and indicate your need.
Want to learn more?
Here are some helpful handouts for those who want to learn more about the PAUSE Framework, selecting a challenge, and what to consider to optimize your experience.