When people feel like they matter, everything else follows.
As work becomes more automated and less human, I help leaders bring connection back. I partner with CEOs and program leaders to get more from the culture, engagement, and leadership programs they’ve already built — sharpening them through the lens of mattering, so people feel their work is seen, valued, and makes a real difference. Two decades inside real companies, from Head of Culture at Zappos to Fortune 500 boardrooms, now grounded in Harvard Org Psychology research.
- →Do better work
- →Stay longer
- →Collaborate more
- →Build healthier, happier organizations
You don’t need to start over. You need a sharper lens on what’s already there.
Sophisticated organizations already invest in culture, engagement, and leadership. But programs plateau, run parallel to one another, or quietly stop landing the way they used to.
The fix is rarely a teardown — it’s the missing lens. When people genuinely feel they matter, the programs you already have start to perform: better work, stronger retention, more referrals, real collaboration.
what disengagement costs the global economy every year.
how much more likely people are to stay when they genuinely feel they matter at work.
employees who feel a strong sense of connection to the people they work with.
We spent a decade helping people belong. The next step is helping them matter.
Belonging gets people in the room. Mattering is what makes them lean in once they’re there — the perception that their work adds value, gets recognized, and produces visible, meaningful impact.
“Do I fit in here?”
“Does my work add value here — and does anyone see it?”
When people feel that they matter, it changes everything downstream —the quality of the work, who stays, who they bring with them,and how a whole organization feels to be part of.
I meet you where you are — then build from there.
I’ll just say it: there’s no one-size-fits-all culture, and no fixed recipe for building one. So I start with what you’ve already built and where it’s working, and every recommendation strengthens that investment instead of replacing it. My process is simple — listen and collect the data, understand what’s working and where there’s room to improve, then design and roll out enhanced programs together.
A few ways this usually begins.
Every organization is in a different place, so the work takes a few shapes. Most often, it starts in one of these.
Inside your organization
I work alongside CEOs and the people running your culture, engagement, and leadership programs — listening, finding what's working, and strengthening it with the Mattering Method. No teardown; we build on what you've already created.
Alongside founders
For early-stage teams, I advise on culture and product from the start — org design, founder coaching, and the community psychology that makes people stay — so it's built on purpose rather than repaired later.
On a stage, or behind closed doors
Sometimes the fastest way to move a culture is to get everyone seeing the same thing at once. I give keynotes and closed-door talks — Beyond Belonging, Culture as a Public-Health Intervention, the Tuesday Practice — for conferences, offsites, and leadership teams.
Culture isn’t built in the big moments. It’s built in the Tuesdays.
Tuesday is where the actual living happens — the meeting before the meeting, the text you almost sent, the coffee that turned into a conversation.
Here’s the honest version of why I place so much importance on Tuesdays. I’ve become a little obsessed with the loneliness epidemic. The World Health Organization estimates one in six people worldwide feels lonely — and that loneliness is linked to around 100 deaths every hour, close to 871,000 lives a year.
Then a fact reframed it for me: most of those lonely people are employed, spending nearly 40% of their waking hours at work — and still feel lonely. For far too many, the workplace isn’t helping.
So my question is this: could a culture of mattering change that?
Because if we can help people feel a little more seen at work — a little less alone on an ordinary Tuesday — it ripples outward, to their families, their friends, their own lives.
That question became The Tuesday Project — a global movement and weekly ritual reminder to invite someone in, say hello, and do a small thing that builds big interpersonal connection. Even on a boring ol’ Tuesday.
Not just a consultant who’s read about culture, but someone who’s built it.
I’m an organizational psychology practitioner, culture strategist, and executive advisor. I was Head of Culture at Zappos during the most-studied period of workplace culture innovation in modern business, and a founding leader at Delivering Happiness, where we translated research on meaning and belonging into the operating systems of companies on five continents.
Today I bring twenty years of pattern recognition, grounded in Harvard Org Psychology research — and an instinct for the highest-value place to start. I’ll give you an honest read and a clear path to elevate what you’ve already built.
Most companies optimize for productivity and hope connection follows. The order is backwards. When people feel they matter, they work more productively, take more ownership, and feel better about what they’re putting into the world.
Wherever your programs are today, there’s room to make them better.
Tell me what stage you’re in and what you’ve already built — I’ll show you where I can help. One conversation is a good place to start.