Earlier this year, we began working with Washington National Opera (WNO) through our partnership with RADAR Nonprofit Solutions. Getting to know the team behind WNO has been a reminder of what we love about starting fresh with a new client.
For us at At The Start, every new partnership starts the same way: learning how an organization actually runs before we change anything. In this edition of At The Starting Line, we share how that played out with WNO, and how it works for every client we take on.
HOW WE START
Whether you need fractional HR or internal communications, leadership enablement or coaching, or help building a strong workplace culture, we begin by understanding how your organization works, including its leadership style, culture, communication habits, and current people practices.
With clients ranging from small local museums to global agencies, we’ve learned that the size of the organization matters less than understanding how it runs.
OUR FOUR-STEP START
Every organization has different needs, and the details of each step shift depending on the kind of support you’re looking for. Here’s the general outline.
Step 1: Share access and documents.
We ask for as much access as you’re comfortable sharing, because that’s how we find the gaps quickly. Our goal is to immerse ourselves quickly. Depending on the engagement, that might include:
Fractional HR: your HRIS, employee files, benefits and payroll information, handbook and existing policies.
Internal communications: your current channels, recent announcements, and any employee feedback or survey results.
Leadership enablement and coaching: leadership team structure, current goals, and any past assessments or development plans.
Workplace culture: values statements, engagement survey results, and onboarding materials.
At WNO, we were set up inside their systems so we could operate as an extension of their team. We spent time learning WNO’s mission, vision and values, its goals, and the challenges and opportunities ahead, including what’s coming in the upcoming season.
Step 2: Audit and stakeholder meetings.
We take stock of what’s already in place, whether that’s your HR foundation, your communication channels, your leadership practices, or your culture. Then we meet with your key stakeholders so we know who we’re working with and can set expectations together.
At WNO, that meant meeting with department directors, program leaders and the People and Workforce Sub Committee of the WNO Board of Trustees.
Step 3: Set priorities and a timeline.
With the review and stakeholder input in hand, we organize projects by priority. Then we build a timeline together. If you’re building something from the ground up, like a first HR foundation or a new internal communications approach, it takes more time to get things in motion.
At WNO, our conversations with leaders shaped a priorities roadmap for the organization, which is in a unique position in that it has a long history and is well renowned, while also building its own HR infrastructure from scratch.
Step 4: Deliver, check in, and build.
Deliverables depend on the engagement and can include small steps like enhancing a handbook and some policies or building an internal communications plan for a major change. In either case, we stay in regular contact with your team to ensure we are focused on the most impactful priorities.
At WNO, that translates to weekly meetings and quarterly plan updates. Because we started midyear, we’re now getting into 2027 planning, which puts a full HR cycle in motion.
OUR GOAL
Our goal is to accomplish what we set out to do at the start, whether a resilient team, aligned leadership, strong culture, or clear communication. This work is never truly “done,” so many of our client relationships continue past the initial build into an ongoing role. Organizations grow, leaders change, and laws shift, creating opportunities and needs that our team is glad to take on.
OUR NEWEST CLIENT
Kathleen Dean, WNO’s chief operating officer, has been a valuable resource as we’ve familiarized ourselves with the opera. Here’s what she has to say about beginning work with us:
“We needed outside support to survive! I didn’t have the expertise, or time, to manage both the big picture and the small details of building and sustaining an HR function. What I felt most in those first few months of working with At The Start is relief. I could trust that total pros were on it, and I could rest easy knowing WNO’s people were well taken care of. Today, everything is different: we have well-developed systems in place, our strategy is informed by best practices, and employees get answers they need when they need them.”
Starting something new, or ready to rethink what you have? Reach out through atthestart.com.
See the original post from October 19, 2026 here.