About Charity Adams
I didn’t set out to be a facilitator.
A purple sticky wall changed everything.
Fifteen minutes into my first ToP® Facilitation course, I knew it was exactly what my community needed. Twenty minutes in, I wanted to teach everyone about it.
The Origin Story
From CRM databases to sticky walls — a story about what actually moves people.
I spent ten years behind a computer — designing CRMs, building online training systems, working with freelancers on projects I managed but rarely touched. I was efficient. Productive. And honestly, pretty isolated from the human side of work.
When I sold that business, I threw myself into my community. Became the executive director of my town’s foundation. Took on community and economic development. I was good at getting things done — I left every meeting with a list of action items and the drive to execute them.
But I got frustrated. I was reporting out, not drawing in. I wasn’t growing capacity. I wasn’t getting real input. People nodded along and then nothing changed. I could feel the gap between what meetings were and what they could be — I just didn’t have the language for it yet.
Then I walked into a well-facilitated meeting. There was a purple sticky wall. Loud voices and quiet voices were both heard. Everyone participated in some form. And when we walked out, we had a result that everyone actually owned — and actually did something about.
I signed up for my first ToP® Facilitation course the next chance I got. Fifteen minutes in, I knew it was exactly what my community meetings needed. Twenty minutes in, I wanted to teach everyone about this amazing thing. That course changed the trajectory of everything.
Photo of Charity coming soon
Credentials
- Certified ToP® Facilitator
- ToP® Mentor Trainer
- Lumina Practitioner
- Co-owner, Great Plains ToP
- Facilitated in 6 states
- Local nonprofits to major universities
The Work
From community meetings to conference rooms across the country.
After that first course I got serious. I dug into human dynamics, added Lumina to understand how people show up differently, and started integrating team coaching into my practice. Then COVID hit.
I’d already spent ten years working remotely in my first business — so while a lot of facilitators scrambled to figure out virtual meetings, I dove in. I helped facilitators take their work online, and my own practice expanded faster than it ever had in person.
Since then I’ve facilitated in six states. I’ve worked with small but mighty local organizations and supported strategic planning for major universities. Nonprofit or for-profit, the issues are the same — teams need space to talk, leaders need skills to lead productive conversations, and people need to understand each other before they can truly collaborate.
When a job calls for more than one facilitator, I work through Great Plains ToP — a group of dedicated facilitators I co-own who share ToP methods and work with groups across the nation.
What Makes the Difference
Grounded, adaptable, and genuinely unshakable.
I farm with my husband. We work with unpredictable weather, unpredictable markets, and some pretty heavy machinery. You learn quickly that you can plan everything and nature will do what it wants — and your job is to adapt, stay steady, and keep moving.
I bring that same groundedness into every conference room. What sets me apart isn’t a methodology — it’s the way I listen. I don’t come in with a one-size-fits-all approach. I come in curious. I learn what you’re actually facing, then design a process that moves you from where you are to where you want to be.
Teams are unpredictable too. People are. But when you create the right conditions — when people feel genuinely heard and respected — something shifts. The hard conversations happen. The decisions stick. The plan actually gets executed.
That’s what I’m here for.
“Fifteen minutes in, I knew it was exactly what my community needed.
Twenty minutes in, I wanted to teach everyone about it.”
— Charity Adams, Founder
How I Work
ToP® and Lumina — two practices, one holistic approach.
Both certifications didn’t happen by accident. They address two different but inseparable parts of the same challenge.
Technology of Participation® (ToP®)
ToP® is a set of facilitation methods developed over 50 years that help groups think together, plan together, and act together. It’s not a meeting agenda — it’s a process architecture that ensures every voice is heard, diverse perspectives are woven together, and groups reach conclusions they actually own.
As both a certified facilitator and a mentor trainer, I use ToP® to lead sessions and to teach others how to lead them.
Lumina Learning
Even the best process falls short if people don’t understand themselves and each other. Lumina is a psychometric tool that helps leaders and teams understand their own communication style, recognize how others experience them, and build the self-awareness needed to collaborate without the friction that derails most groups.
Together with ToP®, Lumina completes the picture — process and people, structure and self-awareness.
Ready to Work Together?
Let’s talk about what’s happening in your group.
No sales pitch. Just a real conversation about where you are and where you want to be.