Our nature, people and planet-positive commitment.
September 2023
Our goal is simple: we move towards balance and harmony in all of our relationships and environments so that life flourishes within us and around us.
Our priorities
These five focus areas contribute to real and lasting change in the world around us.
1. responsible relationships
We believe coaches and facilitators must be treated with the utmost respect and have established practices that honor everyone on our team. We stand up to the current trend of the commoditization of coaches and coaching by some technology companies and coaching platforms.
We believe coaching that deeply honors each person’s human development journey and personal agency is what will transform the world. That’s why we do not provide advice in coaching sessions but rather add distinctions and practices that the coachee may or may not choose to accept.
Everything is offered by invitation. We trust that the coachee holds all the answers s/he needs and our main job is to be a compassionate, wise witness that asks genuine questions from a place of curiosity versus knowing.
And we walk the talk. Our coaches are on their own development paths, ever learning and growing and being coached themselves.
Our targets:
Maintain 100% of contracts that endorse this approach within organizations.
Maintain 100% Affiliate Coaches committed to Integral Coaching®, what we believe is one of the most dignified and therefore powerful coaching communities on the planet.
Achieve at least 75% of contracts that enable us to pay our coaches and facilitators on a retainer basis instead of per hour so that they are respected for holding space on their calendars for sessions and meetings.
Maintain our policy of not allowing evaluative feedback of coaches by the coachee (via post-session surveys, for instance) so that we don’t perpetuate our overly transaction-based world of ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes.’ This also ensures coaches aren’t incentivized to be performative and coachees aren’t incentivized to transfer their growth responsibilities onto the coach.
2. Diversity, equity, inclusion and Accessibility
We start at home by ensuring a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace. We believe in the power of a diverse community that includes people of different races/ethnicities, national origins, abilities, genders, ages, sexual orientations, religions academic backgrounds and life circumstances. We have established practices that will achieve equity in our business—so everyone feels a sense of belonging as their own, authentic selves.
At Evolve, we believe in the power and mind-body joy of a good coaching session. This fuels our passion for coaching and the organizations in which we work. The services we develop, the experiences we create and the partnerships we build should help make coaching as easy to understand as possible in accordance with the many ways people learn.
Our targets:
Achieve at least 50% women representation in all types of workers.
Achieve at least 50% BIPOC* representation in all types of workers.
Maintain 100% pay equity for all women and BIPOC workers.
Create our first Accessibility Plan.
*BIPOC refers to Black, Indigenous and People of Color
3. trustworthy partners and vendors
Our partners and vendors share our objectives to respect human dignity, promote employee voice and reduce environmental stress on the employees and contractors who work for them. We believe in local problem solving in local communities. Many of our partners and vendors support their local communities through their products and services or pro bono efforts.
We understand that now is the time for all of us to take climate action. We expect every partner and vendor to have a plan in place, and make steady progress towards implementing that plan. This is not always easy to determine but we are committed to staying vigilant and up to date on metrics.
Our targets:
Achieve 100% of vendor relationships where we are confident in the treatment of employees.
Achieve 50% of partners and vendors who are small businesses with homegrown solutions.
Achieve 100% of partners and vendors who have a sustainability plan with reported metrics.
4. mindful corporate communications
We are contemplative in all of our communications, doing our best to add wisdom, not noise, to our data and information cluttered world. We approach our communications with presence (grounding our awareness in the body), intention (cultivating an orientation to our elevated heart qualities) and attention (having a clear mind that can focus in specific areas of our experience to share deeper perspectives).
Our targets:
Maintain a culture of minimal, essential and nonviolent email and verbal communication so that the person reading has a pleasant, easeful and inspiring experience with us.
Send no more than one regular email newsletter a month that is highly focused on what is most relevant to our readers while trusting the process.
5. Community development
At Evolve, we are ever expanding in our ability to give and receive. We believe that the more grounded we are in our own values, the better we can attune to our needs and the needs around us. That’s why we have a balanced corporate giving strategy—one that helps the community while also serving our mission. We advance health and well-being in our communities and advocate for coaching for all.
Our targets:
Speak pro bono at up to five events per year in underserved communities.
Donate 1-5% of profit to community-based organizations per year.