Inherited Institutional Systems™ (IIS) is a framework for examining the patterns organizations inherit, reward, and repeat. It looks at where an organization’s stated mission and its people’s lived experience differ, and at the values, culture, and structures behind the difference, through the lenses of race, gender, poverty, and power.

IIS grew from more than 20 years of my work advancing racial, gender, and socioeconomic equity with mission-driven organizations in government, education, theater arts and the nonprofit sector.

Across those years, I witnessed a recurring gap: people deeply committed to systemic change working within institutional practices that preserve the inequities they want to address.

We cannot create systemic change while continuing to protect the patterns that cause harm.

That gap becomes visible when organizations encourage people to speak truth to power but provide no support when they do. Often, those speaking up have the least positional power—and face the greatest consequences regardless of income or title. It can happen to anyone with someone to answer to.

Policies can become tools for protecting leaders’ agendas, roles, and reputations. Grace is extended unevenly. People with authority receive understanding, while people with less power face scrutiny or punishment. Without meaningful accountability, organizations can reproduce the very oppression their missions promise to address.

Naming equity is not enough. People need to experience it in decisions, relationships, policies, and responses to harm.

This is where my work lives.

Through IIS and Crane Clan Consulting, I help leaders and teams examine inherited institutional patterns, take responsibility for their impact, and build practical ways to navigate conflict, disagree, address retaliation, and hold power accountable.

Together, we turn mission and values into everyday practices—so people can raise concerns, challenge decisions, and contribute to change with meaningful support behind them.