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About Sarah

:: Photo by Midori Jordan ::
Sarah Murphy-Kangas is an organizational development practitioner and principal of MK Consulting. She’s known for her positive approach to helping groups surface “undiscussables” that might be impeding their success. Sarah specializes in helping caregiving organizations find resilience and wholeness in the midst of difficult work.

She has an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Antioch University Seattle and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Washington. She serves on the board of the Community Consulting Project, on the curriculum committee for Seattle’s Leadership Tomorrow program, and is an adjunct faculty at Green River Community College. Sarah lives with her family in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood and has been known to spend many hours in her kitchen.

 

 

 

 

Healthy organizations learn from and honor the past, focus on the present, and prepare for the future. Good work is done and employees appreciate and challenge one another. Standards are high, but there is grace for mistakes.
The following are some principles and methods that guide our work of facilitating wholeness in organizations, whether we’re working with the whole organization,
a team, or a leader:

  • Our approach is collaborative. You’re the one who knows most about your organization. If the problems were easily solved, you would have solved them already. Pre-packaged programs or solutions might be appropriate for technical problems, but they don't work for complex human systems. Our first inclination is to ask good questions and listen intently.
  • Our approach is appreciative. There are many things going right in your organization, even if they haven’t been talked about or noticed in a while. Our most important work is to notice those things and build on them. We won’t ignore or deny problems, but we won’t be consumed by them, either.
  • Commitment is more important than plans. Organizations need to plan and be strategic. But the best plans in the world can’t stand in for lack of commitment. Whether your organization is experiencing great change, planning for the future, or trying to build more trust, our approach builds commitment along the way. Changes don’t stick when they’re “rolled out,” but when they are negotiated together.
  • We speak the truth gently. One of the primary values in having an outside perspective on your organization is that we’re able to surface things that might be hard for insiders to face or talk about. Our commitment is that we’ll be honest with you, we won’t shy away from sensitive issues, but we’ll do it in the context of the respectful relationship we’ve built with you.
  • Engagement is more powerful than information. Training can be an important part of organizational growth. But information isn’t a change strategy. Involvement is. When people are building honest and productive relationships with one another, things get done. We seek to move beyond training, engaging with our clients and helping employees engage with one another.
  • Crisis work and caregiving organizations require a special kind of intervention. We specialize in working with organizations whose mission it is to help people in crisis — police departments, 9-1-1 dispatch centers, hospitals and medical clinics, social service agencies. If you’re a chaplain, nurse, first responder, or social worker, your work is hard in a way that being a landscaper or accountant isn’t. You are around other people’s trauma. This is absorbed on an individual level and systemic level. It might show up in things like high turnover rates, cynicism, or burnout. Our Staying Strong process helps groups and their leaders stay resiliant in difficult work.
  • We practice “just in time” design. As a group process is unfolding, things change. New learnings or questions emerge. We are skilled at changing course when the group needs it.