Challenge
Turning Hypergrowth into Sustainable Structure
Wellness Together, a Sacramento-based nonprofit providing mental health services in schools, experienced exponential growth—doubling students served and school partners in consecutive years. But success came at a cost.
- Leadership lacked visibility and alignment.
- Employees felt overwhelmed and disconnected.
- Strategic initiatives were delayed, and trust in processes diminished.
- The HR department struggled to scale hiring effectively.
The rapid expansion, compounded by the pandemic, highlighted an urgent need: building internal clarity and structure without compromising their heart-led mission.
"With our talent and work effort, we were hitting a ceiling. We realized we can’t just work hard – we need guardrails." – Jeremiah Aja, Director of Partnerships, Wellness Together
The Solution: Building a Scalable System with OKRs
Radical Clarity for a Purpose-Driven Team
Wave Nine supported Wellness Together with a combination of virtual and on-site training to embed OKRs across the organization. The process included:
- A 4-hour virtual OKR training
- A 5-hour on-site workshop for leadership alignment
- OKR crafting sessions guided by expert coaches
Through a collaborative process, the leadership team developed a shared language, surfaced recurring pain points, and turned these into measurable Key Results.
This alignment led to:
- Increased employee retention and engagement
- Clearer decision-making frameworks
- Monthly director-level reporting on progress
- Doubling the number of free counseling sessions to over 22,000
"After working with Wave Nine to define our OKRs, we now know where the bus is headed and when it will be there." – Jeremiah Aja, Director of Partnerships
