The Spark Session
Every solution you need is already here. My job is to help you find it.
A facilitated alignment experience built on the Ignite from Within™ methodology. Designed for organizations and teams that need to get into the same room, get on the same page, and leave with real decisions, not just a feeling of having talked. But it does something most alignment sessions don't: in addition to organizational clarity, it produces a personal insight in every person in the room.
AT A GLANCE
Format
Half day (3 hrs) or Full day (6 hrs)
Group size
Up to 30
Pre-work
60-min discovery call + participant pre-work
Deliverables
3 documents within 5 business days
Location
In-person or virtual
Investment
Contact for pricing
What the Spark Session is
This is not a meeting with a facilitator. It is a carefully designed experience that surfaces every voice, honors every perspective, and draws the solutions out of the people who were already holding them. People arrive to align around a strategic priority. They leave having learned something about themselves and about human behavior that they did not expect and that stays with them long after the session ends.
INVESTMENT
HALF-DAY SESSION
$X,XXX
3 hours · focused priorities, post-transition, initiative launches
FULL DAY SESSION
$X,XXX
6 hours · complex alignment needs, teams in conflict, strategic planning kickoffs
Teams in Conflict
When relationships have frayed, trust has eroded, or communication has broken down. The Spark Session creates the conditions for honest conversation without blame. Every voice is heard. The path forward is built together which means everyone owns it.
Post-Leadership Transition
New leadership brings new energy and new uncertainty. The Spark Session helps a team that has been through change find its footing, aligning around shared values, clarifying roles, and building the relational trust that makes the work possible.
Launching New Initiatives
Before an initiative launches, every voice needs to feel like it counts. Skeptical staff become invested staff the moment they realize their input will actually change something. Name the skepticism. Don't pretend it isn't there.
Strategic Planning Kickoffs
Before a strategic planning process begins, the people who will carry the plan forward need a real hand in shaping it. That's the only reason any strategic plan ever gets implemented.
INVESTMENT
HALF-DAY SESSION
$X,XXX
3 hours · focused priorities, post-transition, initiative launches
FULL DAY SESSION
$X,XXX
6 hours · complex alignment needs, teams in conflict, strategic planning kickoffs
The pre-work process
The Spark Session begins before anyone enters the room. Kristy immerses herself in the organization until the problem feels like hers. This is not background research. It is the foundational act of the methodology.
Discovery Conversation
A 60-minute conversation with the organizational leader or point of contact. Kristy asks enough questions to understand the situation from the inside, the history, the people, the dynamics, the stakes, and what a successful session looks like for this specific room.
➜
Participant Pre-Work
A short, focused prompt sent to all participants in advance designed to begin the thinking process before the session starts and to signal from the first moment that every voice will matter.
➜
Environment Assessment
Kristy considers the physical and logistical conditions: how participants were invited, what the room signals, and what setup will create the best conditions for honest participation. Voluntary vs. mandatory attendance changes everything about the opening.
➜
Custom Session Design
Using everything gathered, Kristy designs a session flow customized to this specific team, this specific challenge, and this specific moment. The Ignite from Within™ framework is the architecture. The content is always shaped to the room.
The session flow
Every Spark Session follows the six phases of the Ignite from Within™ methodology, adapted to the specific needs of the room. Full-day sessions run approximately 6 hours; half-day sessions move through the same phases with a tighter scope.
Connection & Ignition — 8:30–9:30 AM
Structured connection between Kristy and the room, and among participants. Followed by the Ignition moment: a brain science or human development truth that names something every person in the room has already experienced. Eyes widen. Even the skeptics crack the door.
Shared Reality — 9:30–10:30 AM
Objective-level questions surface the facts. What is actually true here? What are we all looking at? Ensures every person is working from the same picture, not from their own private version of the story. Post-it facilitation methods ensure every voice reaches the front of the room.
Emotional Truth — 10:30–11:30 AM
Reflective questions invite honest responses to the facts. What is surprising? What is concerning? What is energizing or draining? How people feel about the work is not an obstacle to solving it, it is essential information. People who feel heard think more clearly.
Implication & Possibility — 12:30–2:00 PM
The room moves into implication questions. If these are the facts and this is how we feel about them, what do we do? What is in our control? What is not? What does the best possible version of this look like? This is where the solutions already in the room begin to surface.
Ownership & Commitment — 2:00–3:30 PM
The room makes real decisions. Not recommendations. Not next steps to consider. Decisions, owned by the people who made them, which is exactly why they will be implemented. Commitments are named, documented, and assigned. Everyone leaves knowing what happens next.
Integration & Transfer — 3:30–4:00 PM
Individual reflection and collective acknowledgment. People name what shifted for them personally. The group recognizes what was built together. Kristy frames the path forward and what the documentation process will produce in the following five business days.
The deliverables
Within five business days of the session, every participant and organizational leader receives a complete documentation package. This is not meeting minutes. It is a usable set of tools the organization can turn to immediately and return to as the work continues.
The Alignment Summary
A clear, written narrative of what the group surfaced, decided, and committed to. Captures the shared reality the room built together, the facts, the feelings, the implications, and the conclusions. Written in plain language that every participant can recognize as their own work.
The Decision Map
A structured visual record of every decision made in the session: what was decided, who owns it, what it requires, and what success looks like. Designed to be posted, referenced, and used, not filed.
The Participant Action Guide
An individual-facing document that translates the group's decisions into personal next steps. Each participant knows exactly what they committed to, what their first action is, and how their contribution connects to the larger mission. This is the document that makes implementation happen.
How the session adapts to your context
The six phases are always the same. What changes is the entry point, the framing, the brain science example, and the language used to describe the outcomes. Below are four common client contexts and how the Spark Session is customized for each.
Nonprofit Team in Conflict After a Leadership Transition
Opens with a brain science truth about change, loss, and the human brain's threat response, specifically how uncertainty activates the same neural pathways as physical danger. Names it without judgment: what this team has been experiencing is biology, not dysfunction. The deliverables are reframed as a "new shared agreement" rather than a record of conflict resolved.
City Department Launching a New Initiative with Skeptical Staff
Names the skepticism before anyone else does. Acknowledges directly that change initiatives in government organizations have a complicated history, people have seen things launched with enthusiasm and abandoned without explanation. Frames the session as the first real opportunity to shape the initiative rather than receive it. Skeptical staff become invested staff the moment they realize their input will actually change something.
School Leadership Team Needing Shared Vision
Opens with a brain science truth about the difference between shared language and shared understanding, how two people can use the exact same words and mean entirely different things. Anchors the session in the students and families the team exists to serve. The vision emerges from re-igniting why people chose this work in the first place. Deliverables become the team's "Leadership North Star" document.
Corporate or Private Sector Team New to Facilitation
Addresses two concerns directly: that this will feel like therapy, or that it will be a waste of time. Frames the session in outcomes and ROI language: "You are here because you want a decision your team will actually implement." Keeps early connection activities brisk and professional. Deliverables are framed in efficiency and execution language: no ambiguity, no follow-up meeting required.
Most alignment sessions produce a lot of conversation and not enough commitment. People leave feeling like they talked but not like anything actually changed. The Spark Session is different because it is built on a methodology that does two things simultaneously: it moves your organization forward, and it develops the people doing the work.
Ready to bring the Spark Session to your team?
A 60-minute discovery conversation.
No charge. No pitch. Just Kristy doing the homework.
