Tell us what you’re working through.

What working with Confluence can look like

• Building a scalable microcredential and learner-record ecosystem. Helping a community college connect employer needs, credential design, learning and employment record infrastructure, employment pathways, outcome measurement, and the internal capacity to manage and scale the work.
• Developing an AI strategy through a job-embedded program. Supporting a university as it partners with a local employer to align academic goals, workforce relevance, governance, student support, and learning from implementation.
• Improving and scaling student mentoring. Designing and facilitating a community of practice where mentors and program leaders learn from experience, strengthen their practice, and inform program decisions.
• Researching AI investment and adoption. Conducting grant-funded research into how higher education institutions invest in, govern, and adopt AI—and what those choices mean for their people, practices, infrastructure, and capacity.
• Establishing more inclusive technology-procurement governance. Helping a community college system broaden participation in technology decisions, strengthen understanding and support for selected tools, and reduce duplicative spending.
• Redesigning university leadership and support. Helping an institution rethink its leadership team, staffing model, governance, and support structures by clarifying roles, decision rights, relationships, and dependencies.

What we might do together

The activities vary, but each is in service of something the organization needs to understand, decide, change, or build.

• Listen across the organization and synthesize what we hear so people can see a fuller picture.
• Surface what is already working, what people value, and the capacities the organization can build from.
• Assess readiness and organizational capacity so plans reflect current conditions rather than assumptions.
• Map stakeholders, initiatives, dependencies, and decision-making so important connections and gaps become visible.
• Facilitate strategic choices and tradeoffs so priorities and commitments become clearer.
• Design governance and decision processes so people understand how they contribute, who has authority, and where ownership sits.
• Convene cross-functional groups to build shared understanding and coordinated action.
• Build communities of practice and other structures that spread knowledge and strengthen practice.
• Turn learning into practical plans, tools, and repeatable practices the organization can carry forward.

Most engagements combine several of these activities as understanding, action, and learning develop.

Help shape the Confluence Capacity Assessment

Confluence Network is developing a practical assessment to help organizations understand their capacity to navigate complex change.

The assessment is designed to surface a profile that can help an organization identify recurring strengths to build from, areas where capacity may be uneven or constrained, and differences in how people across the organization experience the work.

We are inviting a small number of higher education institutions, systems, and organizational units to participate as early pilot partners. Pilot partners would:

• Invite people from different parts of the organization to complete the assessment.
• Receive a facilitated profile of organizational strengths, possible pressure points, and differences in perspective.
• Use the findings to identify questions, opportunities, and possible areas for development.
• Help us learn where the assessment is clear and useful—and where its questions, process, or reporting need improvement.

At this stage, the Confluence Capacity Assessment is a developmental tool. It is not yet a validated measure, institutional benchmark, certification, audit, or rating. Pilot results are intended to support organizational learning and improve the assessment—not to rank or compare institutions.

Each pilot will be designed around a clearly defined organization or unit, with agreed expectations for confidentiality, data use, and participation. The organization retains ownership of its interpretation, decisions, and next steps.

If your institution is navigating significant change and would value a structured view of the capacities supporting that work, we would welcome a conversation.

Designed with you, not handed to you.

Confluence Network brings structure, facilitation, and an outside perspective. Your organization brings the knowledge, context, authority, and relationships needed to make the work real.

We shape the engagement together, adapt as new understanding emerges, and leave decisions and ownership where they belong—with you.