Most people agree that everyone deserves a fair chance - to work hard, to contribute, and to see their efforts pay off. Yet in workplaces, schools, and communities across the country, the results tell a different story. Some groups of people consistently experience greater success, safety, and stability than others, even when they start from similar places.
Leaders who care about improving outcomes often look for solutions - new programs, policies, or training - only to find that progress doesn’t last or doesn’t reach everyone. The problem isn’t a lack of good intention or effort. It’s that most conversations about progress start and end with what to do… and jump over any diagnosis of why things are the way they are.
At the Groundwater Institute, we believe that diagnosis determines treatment. Without a shared understanding of the problem, even the best-intentioned actions can miss the mark.
This blog post explains how Groundwater’s Foundations Training helps organizations and leaders build the shared understanding they need to strengthen culture and performance. It offers a framework for seeing how policies, practices, and systems - within and beyond an organization - produce consistent patterns of results, and why those results persist.
Foundations Training is a concise, yet immersive introduction to the unseen structures that shape the outcomes we see every day. Grounded in research from management, psychology, history, and the social sciences, the session invites participants to explore how policies, processes, and culture interact to produce consistent patterns of results, both positive and negative. It offers organizations a practical way to conduct supported conversations about the complex dynamics of identity that shape our outcomes and lived experiences.
The course is designed for teams across sectors: from corporations to educators, public officials, and community organizers. Each session combines clear analysis, practical examples, and guided reflection.
Typically structured in 90-minute to three-hour sessions, participants examine real-world examples that reveal striking patterns across multiple systems. Foundations provides a language for meaningful conversation that can engage people across roles, backgrounds, and perspectives.
Participants leave with:
By uncovering how systems shape outcomes, Foundations Training helps leaders see ways in which a whole organization or community can be stronger when unseen and often unintentional barriers to advancement and collaboration are cleared away. When more people have what they need to contribute fully and have a shared language, understanding, and sense of team that allows them to do it together, organizations and communities function more effectively, creating better results for everyone.
And it’s just the beginning. Foundations Training lays the groundwork for the Groundwater Institute’s deeper learning experiences, which emphasize history, analysis, and the roots of systemic challenges. Often, for leadership teams, this is coupled with an activation session to put the learning into practice. In many contexts, Foundations is incorporated as part of deeper project-based consulting work.
Foundations Training introduces participants to what we call the Groundwater metaphor—a simple but powerful way to make sense of patterns we see all around us.
It goes like this: if you notice one fish floating belly-up in a lake, it makes sense to ask what’s wrong with that fish. But if half the fish in that lake are dying, you’ll wonder what’s wrong with the lake.
And if you find five lakes where the same thing is happening, you’ll wonder what’s wrong… with the groundwater.
The Groundwater metaphor reminds us that when we try to solve chronic problems, we often look in the wrong place. It’s easy to focus on what’s right in front of us - one employee’s performance, one school’s test scores, one family’s problems - without zooming out to see the broader conditions that shape those outcomes.
That’s what makes the metaphor so useful. It helps us recognize that differences in outcomes don’t always come from malice or intent. Often, it’s baked into the design: a set of systems and habits built long ago that continue to shape our experiences today. Once we start seeing those patterns, the question changes from “What’s wrong with the fish?” to “What’s in the water? And how can we do something about it together?”
The next step is getting a real look at the “water” itself - the patterns that jump out when we zoom out and see the bigger picture. Take this example: two drivers, “James” and “John.” Same town. Similar cars. Nearly identical driving records, age, race, education - you name it. And yet James pays half of what John pays for car insurance.
You might guess one is a safer driver. Nope. The real difference? Their neighborhoods.
James lives in an area that’s been on the “up-and-up” for the last century - steady public investment, better roads, stronger infrastructure, thriving businesses. All of that was in motion long before he ever lived there. John, meanwhile, lives in a neighborhood that was historically “redlined,” systematically denied the same investment.
And the ripple effects are huge. James’ neighborhood has better lighting and clearer signage - fewer accidents, lower risk, cheaper premiums. Dig a layer deeper and it keeps going: better sewer systems installed decades ago mean fewer leaks, less road corrosion, fewer potholes… fewer accidents… lower risk… and, again, lower premiums.
When we only look at the surface, none of this adds up. But once we look underneath, the picture becomes crystal clear.
This kind of hidden pattern shows up everywhere - in organizations, teams, and communities. We see inequity, dysfunction, or underperformance and assume it must come down to individual choices or effort. But the Groundwater approach helps us flip the script, revealing the deeper, often invisible forces that shape the outcomes we see. It opens the door to a fuller, more accurate, and far more productive understanding of what’s really going on - and helps create the cohesion and sense of belonging we need to make the change.
In synchronous sessions led by our program leaders, core content modules and activities are tailored to the particular needs of your organization. Sessions might focus on:
The time and format of sessions can be adjusted to fit the needs of your organization and your moment. For some clients, we deliver a “keynote” as part of larger event, for others, we craft a series of sessions for leaders in a particular business unit, for others, we co-design a “train-the-trainer” model that prepares client leaders to deliver a customized program as a cornerstone of a broader change initiative.
The bottom line: our experts connect our foundational content with your constituents’ lived experiences and your specific organizational needs. Together, we provide practical tools that drive understanding, connection, and motivation to act long after the session is over.
When we understand where other people are coming from, and are able to see both individual behavior and larger context, collaboration gets easier. Foundations creates that alignment, replacing fragmented understandings with data-driven insights into the ways culture, structure, and performance connect. It can stand alone, or be a gateway – connected to deeper work with GWI or other initiatives within your organization or ecosystem.
The learning experience is an invitation into conversation for organizations looking to:
Many participants describe the experience as clarifying: a moment when complex challenges suddenly make sense. It replaces fatigue and frustration with the motivation that comes from seeing a clear path forward.
At the Groundwater Institute, our goal is to create a workplace, a community, and a world where everyone, without exceptions, has equal opportunities for dignity, safety, and success—and where our teamwork can have the most significant impact.
If you’re ready to see how this work begins and how it changes the way you see the world, join an Open Session of the Groundwater Foundations Course or schedule a time with our team for a demo to learn how to bring it to your organization. Together, we can learn to recognize what’s in the water and start making improvements, one lake, one community, one system at a time.