a)plan coaching

Values & DEIB Commitment

a)plan’s values are the foundation of our culture and our success as a company.  

a)plan’s 7 values and how we practice them:

  1. Gratitude—We focus on what is working, knowing that what we appreciate, appreciates. We celebrate the opportunity to learn from our mistakes and communicate them readily.
  2. Compassionate candor—We tell the truth about what we want and don’t want, without judgment and with empathy and curiosity.
  3. Integrity—We walk our talk.  We keep our agreements or renegotiate them. We are on time. We have clear agendas and efficient meetings.
  4. Promotion—We promote the constant growth and improvement of our colleagues and clients.  We give our best thinking, then support the choice of the decision-maker.
  5. Responsibility—We take responsibility for our actions and results.  We envision then create the future we want, knowing anything is possible.
  6. Diversity and inclusion—Our team and who we serve reflect every form of diversity, because making coaching for everyone includes every one. We understand that differences are powerful tools that can be used to strengthen the whole.
  7. Sustainability—We prioritize our well-being, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, in order to bring our best selves to our clients and colleagues.

More about a)plan’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB):

From the moment of our founding in 2017, a)plan’s leadership committed to building a team that is diverse in race, class, geography, ethnicity, age, gender, physical and mental abilities, sexual orientation, immigrant status, veteran status, religion, and more. We are dedicated to creating an inclusive community, recruiting some of the top coaches in the world, 48% of whom identify as BIPOC and 35% of whom identify as LGBTQ+. 

At a)plan, we facilitate DEIB in our coaching and training, and our entire team weighs in on how to be of maximum service to marginalized and under-represented groups. Our DEIB-related coaching and training includes work with Black Citizen, City and County of San Francisco (case study here), Cities United, Data4Black Lives, the Obama Foundation, Tides Foundation (case study here), and the Weingart Foundation.

In recent years, here are some of the ways in which we have deepened our commitments in this area, beyond our coaching and DEIB training work:

  1. Sponsoring our coaches and staff to participate in facilitated Racial Affinity Groups based on Ruth King’s book Mindful of Race
  2. All white staff and select coaches attending Intersectional Allyship for Racial Justice: A Workshop for White Allies
  3. Donating to Equal Justice Initiative
  4. Implementing strategies from The Financial Activist Playbook For Supporting Black Lives, including moving to a community bank
  5. Examining our individual and organizational roles in perpetuating racism 

We will continue to build on our DEIB work to date, our vision for doing more, and specific strategies for closing the gap. We value your feedback and input. Please let us know what we’re doing well on these issues and where we can improve. If you have resources beyond what we’ve listed above, please reach out and use our chat window to share ideas.