Fresh thinking for public and non-profit leaders
At Connor Claire, we share strategic insights, policy trends, and lessons from the field to help your organization grow stronger, smarter, and more equitable. These aren't just ideas — they're road-tested reflections from work we've done across Canada.
2026-11-04
In a small or growing nonprofit, levels aren't about hierarchy. They're about being clear on the kind of work each role does, so the Executive Director can lead and staff know where to turn.
Read More →2026-10-28
How many people should one manager lead? There's no magic number. Here's what tips the balance, and why manager skill matters more than team size.
Read More →2026-10-21
What benchmarking really means, and why its greatest value is the ideas it brings back, adapted to fit your own organization.
Read More →2026-10-14
Before anyone draws a new org chart, agree on what any new structure has to do. Design principles turn opinions into a shared test.
Read More →2026-10-07
When the pieces of an organization stop fitting together, good people fill the gaps until they burn out. Here are the warning signs your organization may be out of alignment.
Read More →2026-09-24
Every strategic plan involves trade-offs. Here's how one Board worked through three of them, and what changed once the tensions were named out loud.
Read More →2026-09-02
I met a leader this week who exemplified everything I think of as great leadership. It sent me back to the research afterward, and it turns out what I saw in that conversation isn't just inspiring. It's backed by decades of evidence.
Read More →2026-08-26
A social housing waitlist can take a decade to move. Here's what happened when one regional government stopped just administering that wait and used real research and co-design to make it work better for the people stuck in it.
Read More →2026-08-19
Real co-design lives between two traps: the blank page, and the almost-finished solution dressed up as engagement. Here's what almost three decades of facilitation taught me about the middle ground, where evidence sharpens the questions and the people in the room build the answers.
Read More →2026-08-13
Growth tests an organization's HR practices, whether it happens gradually or through partnering with other agencies to deliver a program. Two examples from the field show what outside expertise adds either way.
Read More →2026-08-05
A program review and a program evaluation ask two different questions. Mixing them up costs time and money before the work even starts.
Read More →2026-07-22
Strategic plan, service model, or org design? They're not the same thing, and getting the wrong one doesn't just waste time. It can leave the real problem untouched.
Read More →2026-07-09
What makes policy consulting work, and what makes it fall short, usually comes down to a few fundamentals. After three posts on the craft, here's what I keep coming back to.
Read More →2026-06-30
Part three in a series on the craft of policy consulting: how to tell what kind of advisor you have hired when the decision is already made.
Read More →2026-06-24
Part two in a series on the craft of policy consulting: why trust, more than methodology, determines what a project can actually produce.
Read More →2026-06-17
The first post in a new series on the craft of policy consulting: why naming internal alignment before a project begins saves time and money.
Read More →2026-06-10
Part Four of a four part series: Why governments hire outside policy expertise
Read More →2026-06-03
Part Three of a four-part series: Why Governments Hire Outside Policy Expertise
Read More →2026-05-25
Part Two of a four-part series: Why Governments Hire Outside Policy Expertise
Read More →2026-05-07
This is the third piece in a short series on strategic planning in constrained systems. Earlier posts focused on a recurring reality: [When strategic planning surfaces problems the organization can't
Read More →2026-04-22
Strategic planning often brings clarity to priorities, even in the face of structural constraints.
Read More →2026-04-08
Inclusive engagement is often identified as a requirement—but rarely reflected in how the work is designed.
Read More →2026-03-25
The pressure on shelters is not temporary. It is structural. A new national report from Women's Shelter Canada makes something harder to ignore.
Read More →2026-03-18
One thing that always makes me a little queasy when doing strategic planning is when the process surfaces structural issues that are beyond the organization to actually solve.
Read More →2026-02-25
Policy work is where solutions to complex problems live. Homelessness. Poverty. Access to healthcare. These aren't problems solved by a single program or a good press release.
Read More →2026-02-18
When provincial initiatives intentionally allow local variation, performance measurement needs to account for shared outcomes, local priorities, and time horizons.
Read More →2026-02-12
Frontline workers are having to work two jobs, live with roommates, or leave a profession they love because what they get paid doesn't allow them to feed their families.
Read More →2026-01-28
Since January, I’ve been attending Community Safety and Well-Being (CSWB) Action Team meetings in Prince Edward County. Even in that short time, I’ve been struck by the level of collaboration and comm
Read More →2026-01-07
With the start of a New Year, and a new life in a new community, I've been reflecting about systems and patterns. I'm sharing these reflections not as an expert with answers, but as a practitioner trying to make sense of a complex moment.
Read More →2025-09-18
By Susan Underhill , Principal, Connor Claire Group & Amanda Parriag , Principal, ParriagGroup Men must step up Last week, the NHL lifted suspensions for the five former Hockey Canada players acquitte
Read More →2025-09-11
By Amanda Parriag , Principal, ParriagGroup & Susan Underhill , Principal, Connor Claire Group When budgets tighten across the public sector, downsizing follows. These processes are governed by collec
Read More →2025-08-12
Across Canada, elder abuse and gender‑based violence (GBV) are too often treated as separate issues. Yet older adults, particularly women and gender‑diverse seniors, frequently experience abuse that s
Read More →2025-07-24
Leading with integrity when it matters most By Susan Underhill , Principal, Connor Claire Group & Amanda Parriag , Principal, ParriagGroup Across Canada, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) have be
Read More →2025-07-16
By Susan Underhill , Principal, Connor Claire Group & Amanda Parriag , Principal, ParriagGroup When we talk about financial abuse of older adults, it’s easy to imagine something obvious: someone forgi
Read More →2025-07-03
By Susan Underhill , Principal, Connor Claire Group & Amanda Parriag , Principal, ParriagGroup While many campuses are investing in bold new visions of student success, two of the most basic student n
Read More →2025-06-24
By Susan Underhill, Principal, Connor Claire Group The future of gender-based violence (GBV) services is gender-inclusive Women’s shelters have long been pillars of safety, advocacy, and care. But tod
Read More →2025-06-23
By Amanda Parriag, ParriagGroup and Susan Underhill, Connor Claire Group In Canadian post-secondary institutions, non-academic student supports, such as mental health services, housing navigation, foo
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