Approach

With her passion, experience, and thorough approach, Common Ground Consulting provides trusted and quality services to community and government organizations so they can best fulfill their missions.

Environmental organizations, government agencies, and non-profits often face complex, multi-faceted decisions that benefit from an outside facilitator or project manager. Drawing on almost 20 years of experience, Larissa provides services that allow diverse groups to come together, find common ground, and make planning decisions together. In addition, public or stakeholder involvement can become a challenging aspect of project management that can challenge staff due to time or resources. Larissa works with sponsor organizations to develop effective and appropriate ways to engage the public and stakeholders to provide the best possible input for decision-makers. 

Larissa's approach is to:

(1)  assist participants in defining what the problem and planning needs truly are,

(2)  create a common vision of success for the project,

(3)  and help the team find solutions to challenging questions and achieve their planning goals. 

Larissa has a wide background managing multi-year planning processes that include diverse stakeholders, challenging problems, and complex solutions. Larissa works closely with the project sponsor to design the best possible approach for a client, while leaving room for adjustment as the project progresses. Larissa often works in areas of overlap between humans and their environment, but also has extensive experience in other sectors such as non-profit management, transportation, energy, visitor services, and cultural resources.