Get to Know the La Piana Team: An Interview with Christine Chen, Senior Consultant

This blog post is part of our series getting to know the La Piana team. This week we spoke with Christine Chen, Senior Consultant, who joined the firm in 2022. She is based in New York.

What are three words you would use to describe your role with La Piana Consulting?

• Stimulating, rewarding, unpredictable

What attracts you to working with nonprofits, foundations, and/or the consultants who serve them?

• The people! Everyone who works in this sector comes with a passion for (and often a personal connection to) solving something that matters. It is energizing to learn about the different approaches each organization takes, and be able, as a consultant, to share learnings and connect some dots across the ecosystem.
• Because we work closely with both nonprofits and foundations, I also enjoy providing a critical bridge between these two entities – providing anonymized context and transparency (“I’m hearing…”) to support decision-making on both sides for mutual benefit. It’s often difficult — because of power dynamics and competing priorities and motivations — for these groups to be completely honest with each other, so we can play a critical role in building understanding between them.
• This connective and networked role across the sector feels incredibly vital right now as solidarity and coalition building can create resiliency, build power, and increase impact for the causes, organizations, and individuals experiencing threat and harm.

What skills or lessons from your past experience do you draw from the most in your role? And/or what stands out as a career highlight for you to date?

• I love that my role requires so many different skills because I am able to incorporate and braid together my varied experiences to adapt to the needs of our diverse clients. At the moment, I most lean on my past Executive Director experiences, especially supporting leadership as they navigate through crises and change. But I’m also constantly drawing on my experiences in other nonprofit roles (from board to line staff) because it reminds me to listen carefully, watch closely, and empathetically uplift perspectives from around the table. When it comes to facilitating, I draw on my teaching and classroom management skills (a rowdy boardroom and a rowdy school yard have a lot of similarities!). And when it comes to planning and project management, I draw on my choreography and producing background – I love being able to prep and execute a solid run-of-show for a meeting or a retreat.
• Regarding my career highlight. I’m often asked if I “miss” my performing career. While I don’t miss it, per se (I was very ready to retire when I did), it will always remain a life highlight to have toured the world doing something I loved, with people I trusted with my life, bringing joy, delight, and surprise to so many different audiences.

What are your favorite types of challenges/projects/opportunities?

• I like “knotty” projects where I can simultaneously apply my experience and learn something new about the world. I appreciate when clients are up for a journey – when they are curious and open to change and willing to trust the process to get at the best result.

What do you most enjoy doing when you’re not working?

• Flying trapeze for the thrill and community, and yoga for the physical and spiritual grounding and compassion. Pictured, Christine on a human hamster wheel in her previous performing life with STREB.

What is your favorite place/sight/sound in the world?

• Floating in a salty sea with the warm sun on my face.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

• I’m not sure it’s the best advice, but it’s advice that came from a mentor who recently passed away, so I’ve thought about it again recently. At the time, I was choosing between two different jobs and, rather than express what he thought (I know he had a horse in the game), or help me weigh the pros and cons of the two, he simply said, “Well, you’re just choosing between different kinds of clay for you to mold. Whatever you do, just make sure you continue to create value.” I’ve interpreted this advice in different ways over the years, pulling whatever meaning I needed to hear at the time – but right now, I’ve been thinking about how he de-centered his views as he gave me this advice, and it reminds me of the power of sometimes staying out of the way of someone else’s decision when it’s one they need to own for themselves.