A half-day, highly interactive workshop that helps leaders redesign work so results and wellbeing reinforce each other
The Problem
Across many organizations, leaders are being asked to carry more than ever.
They’re expected to deliver strong results, keep people engaged, and retain talent in environments that feel increasingly complex and demanding. Engagement scores slip. Attrition rises. Innovation slows. Not because leaders don’t care or aren’t capable, but because the work itself is exhausting.
In response, organizations invest in leadership development. Leaders attend workshops, learn concepts, and leave with good intentions.
Then they return to work and hit the same constraints. The work hasn’t changed. The friction is still there. Leaders are still expected to figure it out on their own.
At that point, the issue isn’t motivation or mindset. It’s how work is designed.
A Different Way to Think About the Problem
Most leadership challenges show up as tension between the “results stuff” and the “people stuff.”
Push harder for delivery and people burn out. Focus on wellbeing and results feel at risk. Leaders end up in a constant tug of war.
Work Better By Design starts from a different premise.
Results and wellbeing aren’t actually at odds. When work is designed well, they fuel each other.
This happens when four pillars are activated together.
Deliver
People are equipped to do their best work. Expectations are clear. Work flows without unnecessary obstruction or inefficiency.
Develop
People grow through the work itself. They build skills, take on meaningful challenges, and experiment in ways that energize them and expand what the organization can do.
Connect
People feel part of a team with a shared purpose. They voice ideas, ask questions, and collaboration improves the quality of the work.
Thrive
Energy, boundaries, recognition, and recovery are designed into how work happens, so performance can be sustained.
When these four pillars support each other, work becomes regenerative. People feel better, and the work gets better at the same time.
The Workshop
Work Better By Design is a half-day, highly interactive workshop for groups of leaders across the organization.
It’s designed to help leaders understand the Work Design framework and, just as importantly, learn how to use it in real life.
This isn’t a lecture. Leaders work with their own reality in the room. Their teams. Their workflows. Their constraints.
The workshop can be delivered virtually or in person and is designed for groups of up to 20 leaders.
What Leaders Learn
During the workshop, leaders are introduced to the Work Design framework and the logic behind it.
They learn how Deliver, Develop, Connect, and Thrive show up in day-to-day work, and how improving one pillar does not have to come at the expense of the others.
They also learn the practical “how.”
Leaders are introduced to the ABOVE approach, a simple, structured way to begin redesigning work without needing authority, budget, or perfect answers.
They learn how to:
- Ask better, more directional questions that surface real insight from their teams
- Boil big requests and frustrations down into small, inside-the-paygrade actions
- Operationalize changes quickly instead of overengineering solutions
- Validate progress by watching for real signals in the work, not just metrics
- Expand what’s working by sharing wins and building momentum across teams
What Leaders Do in the Room
Leaders don’t just hear about this approach. They use it.
During the workshop, participants:
- Apply the Work Design framework to their own teams and work
- Identify where delivery, development, connection, or thriving are breaking down
- Practice asking questions that surface insight and ownership from their teams
- Work through real examples with peers
- Build a clear plan for how they’ll engage their teams after the workshop
By the end of the session, leaders know exactly what they will do next and how they’ll bring their teams into the process.
What Leaders Leave With
Leaders leave the workshop:
- Clear on how work design is affecting results and energy on their teams
- Equipped with tools they’ve already practiced, not ideas they have to figure out later
- Relieved of the pressure to have all the answers
- Confident they can make meaningful change within their own locus of control
Most importantly, they leave with simplicity. This work is not about doing more. It’s about designing better through small, intentional changes that compound over time.
What the Organization Gains
Organizations bring in Work Better By Design when they want leaders to stop carrying impossible loads and start changing the conditions that create them.
Common outcomes include:
- Leaders sharing a common language for talking about work
- Less reliance on heroic effort to get results
- Better collaboration and problem-solving across teams
- More sustainable performance without pushing people harder
- A practical foundation for improving engagement, retention, and results
This workshop often becomes a starting point. It gives leaders a shared way to think about work and a clear path for making it better.
What Participants Say
Hi. I’m Rachel Cooke.
I help organizations design work so people can deliver strong results without burning out.
After years in corporate HR, I saw leaders doing everything asked of them while the systems they worked in made their jobs harder. Burnout was treated as the cost of performance. I never believed that was necessary.
My work focuses on changing how work is designed so delivering, developing, connecting, and thriving can happen together. I’ve worked with leaders at American Express, Cisco, Splunk, Takeda, Scholastic, Wolters Kluwer, and AMC Networks. Inc. Magazine named me a Top 100 Leadership Speaker. My work has been featured in Fast Company, Business Insider, Bloomberg Quint, and HuffPost. I host Macmillan’s Modern Mentor podcast and hold a master’s in organizational psychology from Columbia and a bachelor’s in human development from Cornell.
Work Better By Design brings this work into the room with leaders in a way that’s practical, grounded, and immediately usable.
Next Step
If you’re looking for a practical way to equip leaders to redesign work so results and wellbeing support each other, the next step is a conversation.
We’ll talk through your goals, your context, and whether Work Better By Design is the right fit for your organization.