This work didn't start with a product or a framework.
It started with a pattern.

Across organizations of different sizes and sectors, we kept seeing the same thing: smart, well-intentioned leaders working incredibly hard, and still feeling stuck. Teams were overwhelmed. Managers were promoted without support. Decisions bottlenecked at the top. Good people disengaged or quietly left.

Not because anyone was doing something wrong, but because nobody had shown them where they were, where they could be, or the way between. Elevate Labs exists to close that gap: to show people and organizations where they stand compared to where they want to go, give them the roadmap, and stay with them while they travel it.

Every size. Every sector. Every stage of growth.

Our team has led culture and leadership work in organizations around the world: from libraries in Ukraine to hospitals in the United States; from early-stage tech startups to the world's largest hospitality company; from home repair businesses to youth peace organizations in Rwanda; from government ministries in Malaysia to women's rights organizations in Egypt. We've built leadership programs for more than 30,000 employees at Marriott International, designed performance systems for global nonprofits, coached startup founders and CEOs through periods of rapid growth, and created cohort learning experiences for everyone from Fortune 200 executives to frontline leaders. We've also designed and run employee engagement surveys at scale and, just as importantly, helped leaders make sense of the results and act on them.

Hi, I'm Katie.

I've spent my career building leadership development: at Teach For All, at IREX, and running global leadership development at Marriott International, where a 96-year-old culture had to work in more than 8,000 properties.

Part of that job was buying leadership assessments. I watched leaders argue with their scores instead of hearing anything. I ran engagement surveys that gave leadership a number and no idea what to do on Monday.

I know the scores trap personally, too. Every performance review used to take me back to getting my report card in high school: am I the highest? If not, what did I do wrong? What helped me break free was a different set of questions. What do I want? What do I value? What am I learning? Other people's views still matter. They show me where I am. They just don't rank me.

That's what Elevate Labs builds: Wayfinder for people and programs, and the Thrive Check for organizations.

Uncharted Leadership: Navigating Disruption Without a Map

Published July 2026. Three questions for leading when the plan breaks: What's really happening? Who needs to be part of this? What's the smallest meaningful step forward? Awareness, Alliance and Action are also the framework under everything Elevate builds.

There Is No Map

Katie's talk for teams and leadership programs: three questions for leading when the plan breaks, road-tested through a pandemic, cancer treatment and a layoff. Everyone leaves with the three questions and a way to use them on Monday.