About
Activating lasting change for a better world
by helping organizations
chart their course.
Team Quest partners with leaders, teams, and organizations to unearth the core of the issue so that we can imagine possibilities and cocreate a path forward.
We work with mission-driven organizations grappling with difficulties linked to change and growth by unlocking the full potential of your team members to create and refine the structures, processes, and decision-making systems that create a sustainable and effective work environment.
Using our 5D approach, we will navigate each phase together to implement everlasting solutions that boost collaboration, effectiveness, inclusion, and productivity.
praise from those we've supported
Transform avoided conversations
into opportunities for growth
Let’s work together to unlock the full potential of your team through inclusive, honest dialogue and sustainable work management systems.
Boosting Engagement
We ensure every voice is heard, fostering a culture of inclusivity.
Open Communication
Establishing open communication channels to break down hierarchy constraints.
Psychological Safety
Creating environments where trust, clarity, and dialogue are welcomed.
Two-Way Feedback
Implementing formalized feedback systems to eliminate the fear of retribution.
Collaborative Connections
Streamlining hybrid arrangements for better connection and collaboration.
Our TEAM
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Maheen Shafiabady
Founder & Principal Consultant
I help Teams and Leaders grappling with difficulties linked to change and growth to harvest the experience and insights of everyone involved to find the structure, processes, information, decision-making, and rewards systems that best support your strategic objectives.
The reality is: most organizations are filled with exceptionally talented people, but your employees may not be sharing their full talent for any number of reasons (shifting & disconnected goals; low engagement levels; hierarchy constraints; etc).
Together, we will unlock the full potential of your team to create a sustainable, efficient, and effective work environment.
I am passionate about two facets of organizational effectiveness:
1) I help team members evolve into an engaged and satisfied community, committed to excellence and collaboration. My multi-cultural business experience allows me to reach across common divides to foster durable motivation, better teamwork, richer communication, and greater cross-functional collaboration.
2) I facilitate converting strategy into the required structure, operating and decision-making processes, information systems, and reward systems. I assist organizations in achieving sustainable competitive advantages through well-designed leadership, team building, and cross-functional work management training.
Fostering collaborative work environments with a holistic approach, I am comfortable with rolling up my sleeves, and I work effectively at all organizational levels with a results-driven focus.
Portfolio, Recent Projects
- Organizational Culture Shift & Creation after a Merger: formed a team of middle managers, front line staff, and team leaders focused on integrating, managing, and protecting organizational culture and values.
- Enhanced Meeting Productivity: elevated meeting facilitation skills of individual contributors and managers, focusing on hybrid formats, inclusion, and productivity.
- Embedded Collaborative Wellness for Burnt-Out Staff: fostered peer support and workplace wellness by creating a bespoke program focused on small, incremental, habit-forming practices.
- Leadership Transition for a General Manager: Assisted a new General Manager at a family-run business in understanding team dynamics and aligning with board members, facilitating a smooth leadership transition.
- Vision and Empowerment for a Founder: Helped a President and Founder clarify their visionary role and delegate daily operations, empowering their team and enhancing organizational efficiency.
Credentials & Certifications
M.S., Organization Development – University of San Francisco
B.S., Communications and Education – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Positive Psychology Master Coach – advanced training in the principles of positive psychology to enhance coaching effectiveness
Hogan Personality Assessments: Surfacing intrapersonal and interpersonal focus areas by providing deep personal and team insights.
The 5 Behaviors of a Cohesive Team: Improving team performance through Pat Lencioni’s framework.
Consultant & Coach
With over two decades of experience supporting and amplifying efforts that advance equity and social change in communities across the US, T.J. Jourian supports organizations, changemakers, leaders, and individual contributors align with their purpose and courageously move towards equity. Through consulting, training, coaching, and research and assessment services, he helps build and actualize a DEI-centered strategy that drives individual, team, and structural progress. Thinking beyond formulaic “best practices,” T.J. partners with clients to co-design a process that centers connection, learning, balance, and adaptability.
T.J.’s lived and professional experiences, as well as deep study and research, have honed his ability to approach any situation from a multiplistic perspective, to get creative and find new and divergent pathways forward, and do so hold relationships and humanity at the center. He is a champion of change makers and binary breakers and his super power is in seeing connections across seemingly disparate ideas, work, communities, and priorities.
Portfolio, Recent Projects
- Strategic visioning and planning: facilitated a strategic planning process with staff, board, volunteers, and past and current participants of a local chapter of a nationally-renowned arts-based organization
- Equity assessment and playbook: developed an equity-based playbook focused on supporting trans and nonbinary citizens and guests for a large, metropolitan city in the South through assessment and recommendations of policy, programmatic, and initiative-based strategy
- Inclusion curriculum development: designed three 90-minute modules deliverable in-person or virtual, accompanying workbooks, and asynchronous training-of-trainers to advance organizational inclusion through employee training
- In-residence trainer and consultant: oversaw the planning of and facilitated day-long programming sessions at four conferences for a college-to-career professional association spanning four different industries, served as on-time consultant, and compiled recommendations for future iterations
- Career crossroads group coaching: developed and facilitated a 3-month coaching program for LGBTQ professionals of color at a career crossroads within and beyond their industries
Credentials & Certifications
Ph.D., Higher Education – Loyola University Chicago
M.A., Student Affairs Administration – Michigan State University
B.A., General Management – Michigan State University
Certified Professional Coach (CPC), iPEC Coaching – demonstrated knowledge and proficiency using iPEC’s proprietary method of Core Energy Coaching™ and in core competencies outlined by the International Coaching Federation
Certified Life Coach | COR.E Transitions Dynamics Specialist (CTDS), iPEC Coaching – trained to coach with a specialized focus applying the principles of Energy Leadership™ to support clients during any type of transition.
Energy Leadership™ Index Master Practitioner (ELI-MP), iPEC Coaching – trained to coach and debrief clients using the researched and proprietary ELI Assessment to uncover opportunities for deeper awareness, optimal performance, and growth.