RHD LLC
Rachel Huff-Doria,
Owner & Director
Guiding change with the collective is hard - but you don't have to go it alone.My name is Rachel and I spent over 12 years leading organizations and campaigns at the intersection of civic engagement, advocacy, and culture change.At RHD LLC, we help civic-minded leaders build alignment, capacity and actionable plans to guide meaningful change.
About RHD LLC
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About Rachel
If you’re a non-profit or civic leader preparing for change – from undertaking a planning process to leadership transition or organizational growth – you know the same cookie cutter planning and engagement processes don't work.As a former executive director, campaign manager, registered lobbyist, and member of countless boards, committees, and coalitions, Rachel has seen first-hand the pitfalls that can happen when planning and engagement processes fail to account for the complexities of real people.Pitfalls like...
A stalled out plan because your team is moving in different directions.
A watered down plan because compromise was the only vision for success.
A checklist of activities that fails to connect with the desired impact.
A process that leave participants feeling like they weren't heard.
Teams that get stuck in conflict, rather than finding generative action from it.
Non-profit, civic, and coalition leaders who work with me find:✅ Clarity on their priorities.
✅ Alignment on the best path forward.
✅ An actionable plan for the future.
✅ Greater capacity to lead collaborative work with Staff, Boards, Committees, and Coalitions.
✅ Continued trust building with the communities they serve.I focus on helping leaders get things done, while fine-tuning their collaborative leadership skills and processes to drive change.
Who we work with
Non-profit organizations
Coalitions
Planning firms
Government agencies
Cross-sector collaborations
Civic and non-profit leaders...who desire to have collaborative, playful, and equitable processes, plans, and partnerships that strengthen community, leadership, and strategy.
How we help
At RHD LLC we provide facilitation, thought partnership, and co-design for collaborative processes with civic and non-profit leaders who are looking to strengthen leadership, community, and strategy while planning for the future.
Rachel uses the tools and mindsets curated from the fields and practice of participatory design, facilitation, non-profit management, leadership development, and organizing to assist clients in achieving their goals.Applied principles include:
Empathy - based research builds deeper understanding of challenges and desires, resulting in more effective solutions.
Strength - based leadership builds confidence in one’s strengths and a culture of honoring each others’ diverse contributions.
Clarifying roles and expectations gives everyone space to succeed.
Vision and values alignment allows stakeholders to build the big picture together.
Commitment to practice helps groups get comfortable with the discomfort of learning and growing in community.
Services to build alignment, capacity and actionable plans
We work with our clients through the following methods:
Co-design
Facilitation
Workshops
Advising
Leaders we have worked with are seeking to thoughtfully guide change in these areas:
Leadership transitions
Strategic framework and planning
Coalition development
Committee development
Organizational growth
Community engagement
Internal communication
Collaborative leadership
non-profit strategy and capacity
Rachel uses the tools of facilitation and participatory design to support non-profit organizations and coalitions in developing strategic vision, alignment, and capacity.This includes:
Mission, vision, and values statement creation and refinement
Strategic plan and priority facilitation and development
Critical conversation facilitation
Strategic visioning facilitation and alternate pathway planning
Organizational development and capacity building
Highlighted Project: Strategic Vision and Framing with American Jobs for America’s Youth - Montana
Leadership and communication
Rachel uses the tools of facilitation and participatory design to better understand and strengthen leadership, communication, and civic development skills with individuals and groups.This includes:
Leadership transition and onboarding co-design and facilitation
"Visioning workshops" for teams who need to develop an aligned vision for shared leadership or collaboration
"Reset workshops" for teams who are working through challenges and need to redevelop a vision and ground rules for collaboration
"Leadership advising" for leaders and teams in need of thought partnership to reach a particular goal
Highlighted Project: Facilitation with Montana Nonprofit Association's Catalyst Leadership Development for Nonprofit Professionals
community and partner engagement
Rachel uses the tools of facilitation and participatory design to support work with communities, networks, and coalitions on planning efforts.This includes:
Community and partner engagement co-design and facilitation
Collaborative advisory and decision-making groups co-design, facilitation, and advising
Highlighted Project: Grassroots Engagement and Community Design for the Missoula Midtown Masterplan
Highlights
on facilitation
"Rachel shows up in a way that invites participation and intention, and is constantly leading from that space. She makes space for everyone to contribute and show up. Her attention to detail, clarity, and thoughtfulness stand out, as well as her ability to adapt and improvise as needed. She is deeply present as a leader."
- Shelby Rogala, Montana Nonprofit Association Professional and Organizational Development Director
on strategic planning
"Rachel's input and guidance was pivotal to our successful strategic planning retreat. She brought a wealth of experience to our preparation and planning phase, and during the retreat itself demonstrated her ability to balance flexibility while still achieving the organization's planning goals."
- Andrew Valainis, former MT Renewable Energy Association Executive Director
on collaboration and engagement
"Rachel created a process that was clear, inclusive, and respectful of everyone’s time - it showed in the quality of input we got. The end result is a direct result of her thoughtful facilitation. I’m grateful for her work in helping us build a community-centered Electric Vehicle plan."
_- Devin Filicicchia, City of Missoula Electrification Specialist _
on organizational development
"Working with RHD LLC and LAS Visions was an incredibly positive experience. They brought a level of expertise and professionalism that was both reassuring and inspiring. Their thorough and thoughtful approach to the assessment process made us feel confident that we were in good hands. They were not only evaluators but also partners in our journey towards greater organizational effectiveness."
- Dakota Hall, Alliance for Youth Organizing Executive Director
on thought partnership
"Facing a very short timeline, Rachel was able to develop and implement a strategic plan that she was executing on within 48 hours of her arrival. She was hard working, organized, insightful, and excellent at anticipatory problem solving. We grew quickly to rely on her input and recommendations."
- Frank Garner, Former MT Representative
Approach
Social Impact Design
“We spend a lot time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.” - Dr. Prabhjot Singh
Design thinking is a creative process and approach to solving complex challenges that focuses on:
Empathy (a deep commitment to Understanding human experience)
Idea generation
Developing prototypes (ex: a model or a mock-up)
Testing and evolving solutions
Many people use "design thinking" to create a website or a physical building. At RHD LLC we use the tools and methods from design thinking to facilitate and co-create collaborative engagement processes and projects that support community, leadership, and strategic goals.Rachel is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design & Social Policy Executive Program for Social Innovation Design and holds a B.A. in Communication Studies with an Organizational Communication emphasis from Marshall University.
practice.
practice.
practice.
- a goalkeeper approach
During planning processes, we often act as if we can think and write our way to achieving innovative solutions to complex, uncertain and interconnected challenges.In doing so, we often miss a key ingredient to collaborative problem solving - practice.That's why I encourage leaders to approach collaborative planning processes like a goalkeeper.As a goalkeeper, perfection is impossible but consistency and commitment are key when a single save can make or break a 90 minute game.As a former Division I soccer goalkeeper, I trained over and over to catch the ball in the exact same way.The purpose of this practice was to develop “muscle memory,” or to train your mind and body to catch a ball cleanly so during a high-stakes game, your body will instinctively react and catch a much more difficult save in the same way.
- building "muscle memory" for collaboration
In parallel, I ask organizations, coalitions, and leaders to go beyond having a strategic plan (ex: an organizational plan, an engagement plan, a transition plan, etc.) and to practice and learn during the planning process.To develop capacity to transform systems, we must go beyond designing a road map to follow - we must do the messy work of creating things together, trying things together, and sometimes failing and re-trying things together.We must practice, practice, practice being in community and collaborating together.Practice is challenging - it creates tension.But with tension comes growth.
- Rachel
Rachel Huff-Doria, Owner / Director
RHD LLC
Contact
Need help building alignment and capacity when planning for the future? Send a message and we'll set-up a 15 min call to see if we can help.