Agile, Embedded Expertise for Organizations in Transition
In times of transition, organizations often face challenges decisions. The need to reinvent yourself or part of your program, the decision to radically change something you do or the process needed to bring an idea into form. The Partner Studio-in-Residence offers organizations big and small a flexible, embedded partnership with L+D, providing strategic support, leadership development, and design guidance tailored to each client’s unique context.
What is a Design Studio in Residence?
At the heart of the Partner Studio-in-Residence is a deep commitment to embedded, collaborative partnership. Our team works alongside your organization’s leadership—not as external consultants, but as trusted design partners—offering hands-on support in strategic implementation, idea-building, and design development.
Each Studio engagement is fully customized. Whether we’re working together for several months or over the span of several years, we tailor the experience to meet your school’s unique goals, rhythms, and challenges. No two studio residencies are the same—because no two organizations are the same.
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all service. It’s a responsive, relationship-based approach designed to support organizations as they move through complexity with clarity and intention.
When we set up a design studio in your organization you get the benefits of process and final product while at the same building the capacity of your team to thrive in uncertain times.
How it Works?
Designers often set up studios to explore complex design problems, test their ideas and bring those ideas into implementation.
Assessment: We begin with a thorough understanding of your organization’s current challenges and aspirations.
Design: Collaboratively, we design a residency plan that aligns with your strategic and design objectives.
Implementation: Our team integrates into your community, working closely with stakeholders to drive meaningful change.
Reflection: We conclude with a comprehensive review, ensuring sustainable practices are in place for continued growth.
Benefits
The Partner Studio-in-Residence is designed to help organizations navigate moments of uncertainty with strategic clarity—ensuring that even during transition, your next steps are focused, cohesive, and mission-aligned.
You’ll receive dedicated leadership support, whether through coaching, facilitation, or interim leadership provided by experienced professionals who understand the complexities of school communities.
Our approach to design studios is to build a long term relationship with you and your organization. While we can execute short term design projects, our goal is to become embedded in your organization, building relationships, deeper insights and capacity at all levels. Some clients embed an L+D Design partner for multiple years, ensuring that the change will last.
And most importantly, the Studio is built for sustainable growth. Our goal isn’t just to help you get through a tough moment—it’s to help your school build the capacity, solutions, systems, and relationships that will carry it forward well beyond our partnership.
Studio Snapshots
K-8 Montessori School: Our design studio is focused on designing for culture. The school has identified a need to reshape and reimagine their organizational culture and our studio is tasked with observing, identifying, clarifying and communicating a new cultural norm for the school
9-PG Boarding School: A recently adopted strategic plan calls for the creating of mini-terms abroad, experiences where students can learn outside the walls of the campus. The school has engaged L+D to create a design team to engage the faculty in the creation of this new program.
K-8 Day School: The division leader in this school has identified a need to redesign their arts programs in the middle school. Our L+D Design Studio will bring all the arts faculty and key leaders together to use design thinking as process towards reinventing and launching a new arts experience for students.
Non-profit Organization: After identifying a need to update their program offerings, this nonprofit client established a design studio with key members of their team to design a new approach to delivering on their mission.