There’s something I’ve learned after two decades of supporting leaders, communities, and organizations across the country. Most change efforts fail, not because people don’t care, but because they skip the most important steps in creating highly credible change initiatives.
If you’re leading a transformation effort (whether it’s DEI, reconciliation, youth engagement, or systems change work), take a moment to reflect: Is your initiative credible, grounded, and designed to achieve lasting and sustainable outcomes?
The list I’m about to share might sting a little, but it’s meant to empower you.
If you’re leading a transformation effort (whether it’s DEI, reconciliation, youth engagement, or systems change work), take a moment to reflect: Is your initiative credible, grounded, and designed to achieve lasting and sustainable outcomes?
The list I’m about to share might sting a little, but it’s meant to empower you.
What makes a change initiative credible?
During a recent Belonging Matters training, Michael Quinn Patton shared this framework to help teams evaluate their efforts.
A highly credible change initiative includes:
A highly credible change initiative includes:
Here’s the truth: Most initiatives might check off one or two of these. But unless you're intentional about all ten, you're probably missing the mark and wasting precious resources.
Where most efforts go wrong: Skipping the worldview
Here’s the most common trap:
You gather your team. You set targets. You launch programming. You bring in an expert. But you skip the worldview work, and that’s where things fall apart.
When we don’t examine our own lenses, we unknowingly impose our understanding of “solutions” onto others. This creates resistance, erodes trust, and often ends up reinforcing the very systems we’re trying to change.
That’s why Belonging Matters starts somewhere different.
You gather your team. You set targets. You launch programming. You bring in an expert. But you skip the worldview work, and that’s where things fall apart.
When we don’t examine our own lenses, we unknowingly impose our understanding of “solutions” onto others. This creates resistance, erodes trust, and often ends up reinforcing the very systems we’re trying to change.
That’s why Belonging Matters starts somewhere different.
The inside-out approach that works
Start with Self → Engage the Team → Facilitate System Change
We begin with personal reflection because we believe you (the leader, the facilitator, the human) are the most important instrument of change. Then we build ongoing, committed relationships between people and across systems.
Through that process, we affirm five critical human needs for transformation:
Dignity. Voice. Trust. Agency. Belonging.
Who guides the change? Those most impacted.
Another way Belonging Matters is different:
Their lived experience shapes the direction of change, while “everyone else” in the system learns to listen, act, and support that leadership.
That’s the heart of a culture of belonging, and it's how systems actually shift.
That’s the heart of a culture of belonging, and it's how systems actually shift.
What makes this approach credible?
We’ve worked for over a decade to ensure the Belonging Matters framework checks all 10 boxes of credibility.
Whether you’re a municipality, health authority, business, school board, foundation, or grassroots coalition, you deserve an approach that’s scalable, research-backed, principle-driven, and rooted in real human dignity.
Whether you’re a municipality, health authority, business, school board, foundation, or grassroots coalition, you deserve an approach that’s scalable, research-backed, principle-driven, and rooted in real human dignity.
Ready to find out what’s missing in your strategy?
We’ve created a free quiz to help you assess your current social change strategy—and show you what’s working, what’s missing, and where to go next.
After the quiz, you’ll have a chance to book a call with me and explore how to bring the full Belonging Matters Framework and Facilitator Training into your work.
Because transformation doesn’t come from more tools or checklists.
It comes from showing up, staying in the work, and building belonging from the inside out.
Because transformation doesn’t come from more tools or checklists.
It comes from showing up, staying in the work, and building belonging from the inside out.
