About
Words From Our Founder
Meet Nicole Young
Plan. Act. Learn. Grow. This is the mantra that led me to a job I love.
It all started 30+ years ago when I decided I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. The week after graduating from high school, I accepted my first job in the social services sector, working at a group home for children in the foster care system. Over the next 15 years, I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters in Social Work, and I immersed myself in the world of nonprofit and public organizations as a volunteer, line staff, administrator and Board member. I got satisfaction from knowing I was contributing to the common good, but often found myself wondering, “Does it really need to be this hard?”
In all of my years of work and school, I was surrounded by like-minded people who also wanted to make a difference. But I started noticing some patterns that, when left unaddressed, prevented people and organizations from being effective. The things I noticed were:
Change is hard.
Change is inevitable. And still hard.
People often resist change when they worry they will lose power, control, status, or money.
It’s easier to train someone to develop a new skill than it is to train someone to develop a new mindset.
Leaders aren’t really leaders if no one wants to follow them.
People and organizations stay stuck in crisis mode or the status quo unless there’s a shared commitment to create new ways of working and communicating.
These challenges are universal and timeless.
Being a solutions-oriented person by nature, I couldn’t pretend these things weren’t happening. So my response to challenging situations began to develop:
1
Plan
Analyze the situation to understand the causes and contributing factors. Then decide what to do about it.
2
Act
Take concrete steps to change the situation.
3
Learn
Enhance my own knowledge and skills so I could help others handle challenging situations.
4
Grow
Repeat this process until the incremental steps added up to significant results.
Over time, I started using this process when training new managers, facilitating meetings, supervising staff, developing new programs and building collaborative partnerships. I realized that I loved making a difference, not just for the clients we were serving, but also for the people who were serving those clients. Then one day, I asked myself what would happen if I took my knowledge and experience with planning, facilitation, training, supervision and management, and tried to help MORE organizations increase their effectiveness and achieve better results.
In 2003, I left my full-time salaried job and started my own management consulting firm. Now, as the founder and president of Optimal Solutions, I’ve turned my mantra of “Plan, Act, Learn, Grow” into a mission to increase the effectiveness and impact of nonprofit and public organizations.
I love what I do. I get to work with a wide variety of organizations that provide vital services and support people in the communities I care about. Helping them be more effective through the services I provide is my way of fulfilling my goal of making a difference in people’s lives.
Our Approach
First, we get to know you, in order to ensure your team’s resources—time, energy, and money—are put only to their best use. The real work of finding solutions begins only after we understand the real issue, the kind of results you’re hoping to achieve, and the resources you have available.
1
Next, we design a plan that fits. We’ll tailor our solutions to fit your organization’s culture, budget, and way of doing business. This includes giving you options about the scope of our role—you decide how much or how little you want us to do.
2
Then, together, we implement that plan. We’ll not only work side-by-side with you to deliver the solutions you’ve asked for, but we’ll provide tips, resources and coaching so that you can sustain your results long after our consulting engagement has ended.
3
Last but not least, you assess whether we met your needs and helped you achieve your goals. We hold ourselves to high standards of performance and service, and welcome your feedback about the quality of our work.