Build lasting trust in Your Hometown
For Washington state’s city and school district leaders ready to stop chasing likes and start building trust
Achieving your most ambitious goals requires lasting mutual trust with your workforce and community.
Distrust not only drains critical resources…
…it drives the turnover and resistance that makes meaningful progress impossible.
Whether you lead a school district, city, or public agency, the cost of broken trust compounds every year you wait.
We can’t accept distrust and misinformation as “just the way it is.”
But the status quo of how to build trust — and the solutions you’re being sold — needs to change.
A new way of strategizing and communicating for local leaders
If your strategic plan is actually guiding daily decisions and your community and employee engagement is generating real trust — this isn’t for you.
But if you’re working hard, doing everything right on paper, and still wondering why trust feels like an uphill battle — you need a different approach. Not more effort. A new foundation.
Strategize + Plan + Communicate… Not “Do Strategic Planning”
The conventional playbook asks you to gather everyone’s input, build a co-created vision, and call it buy-in. Every 3-5 years, a new plan rolls out with the same promise. It won’t be different this time — it’s a losing game.
What if you played a different game? One where:
- Strategy isn’t a buzzword — it’s a real set of choices about what matters most
- Your top priorities are clear to everyone in the organization
- Your community understands where you’re headed and why
- Excellent communication isn’t a burden — it’s your organization’s culture
We’re here to help you build that. Set a real strategy. Build an actionable plan. Communicate both with purpose.
Change the Culture of Your Communication
Making excellent, trust-building communication synonymous with your organization’s culture. Not “strategic communications consulting.”
Approx. 60-90 day engagement
Looking for a more comprehensive strategy + planning design? Ask us about our Alliance offer.
What Leaders Are Saying
If you’ve ever led strategic planning in a public agency, you know how quickly it can turn messy. AJ brings order, calm, and clarity. He helped gather input, build a strong plan, and roll it out so employees and other stakeholders can rally behind the same goals.
Malia H. — Former School Board President
Working with Herringbone Strategies has been both energizing and effective. Their ability to quickly understand complex dynamics, facilitate thoughtful conversations, and bring stakeholders together is impressive. In a short time, they’ve demonstrated strong strategic thinking, purposeful facilitation, and a clear ability to build trust across community and leadership groups.
Rachel W. — Chief of Finance & Operations
Herringbone Strategies has a real gift for helping you see your organization in a completely new way. Through thoughtful strategy, smart facilitation, and genuine community-minded insight, they ask intentional questions that draw out ideas you didn’t even realize you had. Every conversation leaves you with clarity, confidence, and fresh ideas you can actually use — the kind that truly help you grow.
Alyssa S. — Exec. Director
AJ brings strong strategic judgment and expertise to his work, grounded in a deep understanding of the people and communities we serve. He consistently gets to the root of complex issues and focuses on what truly matters. By listening carefully and asking the right questions, he helps bring different perspectives together that lead to sound decision making. His leadership created a shared sense of purpose that strengthened trust and helped move our district forward.
Tracy K. — Retired Asst. Superintendent
Washington state Issues
Require Washington state Solutions
Herringbone is based in Washington, with all its wonderful weirdness. We bring in-state expertise and an understanding of Washington’s funding models, policy requirements, and culture. We know what makes our communities tick — because they’re ours too.
We believe In You.
The American Experiment is deeply dependent on mutual trust between the People and their public institutions.
Herringbone believes that building trust is possible. But we don’t expect that effort to start in D.C.
Rebuilding trust will start in our hometowns. It’ll be local servant leaders who set a vision, shape meaningful policy, and work hard to improve people’s lives — leaders who look their neighbors, friends, and colleagues in the eye and say, “I’ve got you.”
They’ll make good choices and public mistakes. But they’ll communicate with purpose and humility along the way. They’ll invite their communities in — not just to hear a story, but to be the heroes of that story.
We believe in your ability to be that leader. Go out and build lasting trust. We’ve got you.