Stakeholder Alignment Session for Federal Grant Program
Client: Federal agency managing $400M grant program across 12 states
Challenge: Program review meeting scheduled with OMB, agency leadership, state partners, and oversight committee representatives. Previous meetings had devolved into finger-pointing about delayed rollouts. Agency needed decisions on program adjustments, not another session documenting problems everyone already knew.
What We Did: Pre-session stakeholder calls to understand what each group was protecting (OMB: budget accountability, states: implementation flexibility, agency: program integrity). Designed 4-hour session structure separating problem diagnosis from solution development. Facilitated session focused on committed decisions with clear ownership.
Outcome:
- Session produced 7 committed decisions vs. typical “action items for next meeting”
- All stakeholders agreed to revised rollout timeline in single session
- State partners and federal team aligned on flexibility framework
- Program adjustments approved without requiring additional OMB review
Services Used: Executive Facilitation
