Phoenix (STN) – Turning organizational values into everyday action was the focus as Keys to Change opened Season 5 of ‘The McQuaid Mission’ on ‘It Happens at STN,’ drawing lessons from an unlikely partner: the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Amy Schwabenlender, CEO of Keys to Change, said the organization recently refreshed its core values after years of relying on words that weren’t fully lived out or understood across the team.
“We weren’t onboarding employees into values,” Schwabenlender said. After gathering feedback from staff, board members, and partners at Key Campus, the organization landed on: human-centered, solutions-focused, data-driven, and collaborative.
“Internal and external for us are very blurred together,” she said, noting that Keys to Change serves roughly 1,200 people a day alongside a dozen partner organizations on its campus.
Why finding a way to say yes matters in crisis response
JT McCreary, senior director of guest services for the Arizona Diamondbacks, described the service philosophy that guides the team’s approach to fans on game day, known internally as FWTSY, or “Finding a Way To Say Yes.”
“It allows us the possibility of being able to not just be stuck with a no,” McCreary said, explaining that staff are trained to offer alternatives when a specific request isn’t possible rather than simply turning guests away.
Richard Crews, Keys to Change’s director of strategic impact, said the organization built a decision-making framework to help staff apply its new values consistently, asking what’s being asked, who’s impacted, who’s missing from the conversation, and what the data says before acting.
“It’s really looking through and understanding what pieces we’re really missing,” Crews said, adding that the shift has made staff conversations more thoughtful, even when it means moving more slowly.
Schwabenlender said the approach also has to flex for urgency. Staff is trained to distinguish between decisions that need an immediate yes or no and those that allow more time to work through with a client.
Crews closed the panel with a call to examine the foundation an organization stands on, even if that means breaking from old practices that no longer serve the people being helped.
Schwabenlender’s call to action was about connection. “No one organization can solve any issue that’s been talked about in here today,” she said. “We all have to work together.”
