21st Century Leadership: Connection & Engagement
“A recent Gallup poll finds that nearly 80% of employees are not engaged—or are actively disengaged at work. Gallup estimates that anemic employee engagement costs the global economy a whopping $7.8 trillion in lost productivity. That’s a staggering 11% of global GDP.”
A bespoke learning program to help organizations design a culture of connection—built for measurable outcomes.
We’ve developed '21st Century Leadership: Connection & Engagement' to help organizations navigate / address / rise to the occasion of disconnection—while staying aligned to laser-focused outcomes and trackable metrics.
Best fit for: leaders and teams who want stronger connection, clearer decision-making, and healthier collaboration—so the way people work together supports what they’re building.
What this program is:
A culture of connection is a planned, living ecosystem of support and engagement. It doesn’t exist by chance. A healthy culture is designed to connect people to one another—and to collaborative work—whether remote or in-person.
And values can’t just live in printed collateral—they must be represented in actions, and evolve to keep pace with a changing social landscape.
How we deliver it:
Working within your team’s schedule—while maintaining momentum to deliver ongoing impact—we leverage the Make Meaningful Work platform to ensure “connection” is at the heart of our engagement, output, and outcomes.
Our team:
Justin Dauer (Anomali by Design), Dan Szuc, and Jo Wong (Make Meaningful Work) are internationally renowned design and research consultants who have shaped the way organizations connect, collaborate, and thrive for over 25 years.
Our approach:
- Understanding the problem through industry foresight, mega trends
Example outcome: Seeking unexpected perspectives and possibilities rather than prescribing - Connecting to values to balance stakeholders interests
Example outcome: Creating supportive environments, safe spaces for deeper conversations and healthy challenges - Challenging assumptions to shape the organization to adapt
Example outcome: Letting go of control, being vulnerable, and comfortable with uncertainty - Aligning on the bigger picture to drive effective collaboration
Example outcome: Broadening perspectives by encouraging open conversations using lenses
Engagement formats:
- Sprint (2–4 weeks): diagnose the system + pilot 1–2 rituals
- Program (6–12 weeks): workshops + coaching + operating system build
- Ongoing partnership leadership coaching, reinforcement, iteration, and measurement
Common deliverables:
- Leadership + team coaching (1:1 and group)
- Working agreements and team rituals (cadences that stick)
- Critique + feedback practices designed for safety and rigor
- Workshops for values-to-actions translation
- Decision-making frameworks to reduce friction and ambiguity
- A practical “team operating system” supported by Make Meaningful Work
Signals you’re in the right place:
- “We do good work, but we don’t work well together.”
- “Feedback is inconsistent, unsafe, or unproductive.”
- “We’re growing fast and our old ways don’t scale.”
- “We want craft and culture, but we need a real system.”
- “Remote / hybrid is working—but connection is thin.”
