THE DIPLOMAT CIRCLE · 6-MONTH COHORT
The Diplomat Circle - A trusted room of peers to help you walk through the hardest parts of your job.
A six-month cohort of senior communications leaders and chiefs of staff, plus standing time with me, so you stop making every hard call alone.
Tell me about your role and what you're carrying. I'll follow up within a week.
SELECT CLIENTS
AARP
CDC
Harvard University
American Cancer Society
Planned Parenthood
Obama for America
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
WBUR
AMAZE
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Heart Association
#GivingTuesday
Harvard University
Heifer International
Muscular Dystrophy Association
National Conference on Citizenship
Phillips Foundation
ZOE
AARP CDC Harvard University American Cancer Society Planned Parenthood Obama for America Children's Hospital of Philadelphia WBUR AMAZE American Academy of Pediatrics American Heart Association #GivingTuesday Harvard University Heifer International Muscular Dystrophy Association National Conference on Citizenship Phillips Foundation ZOE
What you walk away with.
01
A group of trusted colleagues who already understand your job, so you stop explaining the context before you can ask the question.
02
Two or three real decisions you handled differently because you stress-tested them first.
03
Direct time with me on your live work, not a group Q&A.
04
A high-trust circle that outlasts the six months.
When you can see it and can't move it
You're the one who notices the message is off. You've raised it more than once. The people above you don't see it the same way, partly because they sit at the center of everything and from there it looks fine.
Meanwhile the job keeps growing. Nobody hired you to run communications, and somehow you're the one holding it. There's nowhere to debrief what actually happened in that meeting. Nobody to pressure-test the email before it goes. And most professional development is built for a job that isn't this one.
The Diplomat Circle is a small, curated room of people carrying the same weight. I'm in it as a practitioner, not a facilitator.
At a glance
WHO IT’S FOR
Senior communications leaders, communications directors, and chiefs of staff inside mission-driven organizations. Not the CEO.
DURATION
6 months
ENTRY POINT
Inquiry or invitation. Fit is part of what makes the room work.
What this looks like in practice
EVERY MONTH
You think it through with people who get it
A 90-minute full-cohort working session.
Topics come from what members are actually navigating, not a curriculum.
The room already has the context, so you start at the real question.
EVERY MONTH
You practice before it's live
A 60-minute lab. Stress-test a real message, work a managing-up problem, plan a stakeholder conversation.
Feedback in real time from people doing the same job.
Applied, not theoretical.
ACROSS THE SIX MONTHS
Direct time on your work
90-minute 1:1 sessions with me.
Personalized input on a live situation, not open office hours.
BETWEEN SESSIONS
A pod of two or three members you run yourselves.
Async access to me on live work.
WHERE YOU LAND
You came in figuring out every hard call alone. You leave with a room to think in and a much shorter list of decisions you have to make by yourself.
THE SHIFT
What changes by the end of six months
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The room already knows what a board chair, a funder deadline, and an executive who won't move actually feel like.
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Not general skill-building. Specific calls you made better because you tested them in the lab first.
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Seeing the same pattern across eight organizations makes it a pattern instead of your personal failure.
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A network is who you know. This is a small group who watched you work through hard things. That doesn't dissolve in month seven.
Frequently asked questions
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Those two are organizational engagements, bought by the CEO or executive director, and they change how the organization communicates. The Diplomat Circle is individual. You join it for yourself, your organization doesn't have to be involved, and what changes is how you handle the hardest parts of your role.
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Senior communications leaders, communications directors, and chiefs of staff inside mission-driven organizations. Often the person who ended up holding communications without being hired to do it. It isn't built for CEOs or executive directors.
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By invitation and inquiry, curated for a useful mix. Fit matters more than credentials, because the value of the room depends entirely on who's in it.
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About two and a half hours a month in scheduled sessions, plus whatever time you and your pod decide to spend. The sessions are built for people who are already over-scheduled.
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No. Coaching works on you. This is applied work on live situations, led by someone who does the job, alongside peers who do it too.
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Yes. Most organizations fund this through professional development or training budgets, the same way they'd cover a conference or an outside facilitator. I can provide an invoice or scope for your finance team.
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The cohort term ends. The relationships do not. Members who want continued individual work can talk to me about it.
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Unlimited async access. Done-for-you communications work. Crisis PR. Open enrollment, since invitation and fit are required.
If you're the CEO, not the comms lead
The organizational work lives elsewhere.
The Diplomat Reset
A 90-day engagement to repair a communication breakdown
The Fractional Diplomat
Ongoing senior stewardship.
TESTIMONIALS
"Our entire staff agreed that working with [Christine] was the best thing to come out of a major initiative.”
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Organization
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Organization
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Let's Talk
If you're the one holding the full picture, let's talk about what changes when you're not holding it alone.
Book a free 30-minute call. Confidential and a candid read on whether this is the right fit.
Or email me: christine@christinekoh.com
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Holding the Room
A monthly thought letter on communications under pressure.