Hi and Happy New Year! It’s currently so cold in Chicago, there is frost on the inside of my windows. Wherever you are, I hope you’re warm and healthy.

Today, we’re launching Ei’s 11th year with our "State of the Union.” This is an annual tradition and one of the small ways we invite you into our studio as we celebrate and plan for what's ahead.

Jump in below, and if anything stands out, reply anytime. We feel fortunate and grateful to be in your corner for another year — especially this Leap Year!

2023 Highlights

Sharing Insights: We kicked off 2023 with the release of our Insights Report, an honest and creative look at the lessons we gleaned from the field. We followed that report by reflecting regularly across Wednesday Words, Linkedin, and a private monthly letter just to People Leaders. Those practices have continued to be an anchor of our work. And we ended last year by hosting 50 interviews in 50 days to better understand leaders and teams as they grow. More on that soon!

Pivoting & Focusing: After years of working across both higher education and workplace learning, we decided to wind down our large projects with universities. I’ll still continue leading the course at Stanford (which just flipped into a core class within the new Design Degree)! But everything else will revolve around working with leaders and teams. We’ve already seen the fruits of that pivot with better teamwork, better client work, and a bit more space in our lives.

Doubling Down on Our Magic: In the sea of learning and development offerings, we decided to lean into our unique point of view: Leaps. We don’t just want to be a learning company, we want to be the place where teams and leaders try new things and do their best work. We’re the place where learning sticks, stories are told, relationships happen, and great things are created. That’s the power of Leaps.

Internal Growth: We welcomed Amelia Rosenman, whose expertise and passion for facilitation have been such a boost to this work. We also just returned from our first team offsite of the year in LA. It was awesome for the crew (I had to dial in…yay COVID).

What’s Next?

Leap Year 2024: This year, we're excited to introduce Leap Year 2024 — a series of initiatives and programs designed to encourage bold steps in you or your team’s learning and growth. We’ll be hosting gatherings on February 29th (Leap Day), meetups throughout the year, presenting at SXSW, and taking some of our own personal leaps too. If you’re interested in joining the community of people who are hosting small Leap gatherings in offices and homes on 2/29, just add your name here. It’ll be a light lift and a special experience for all.

Expanding Company Programs: We continue to deepen our engagement with companies, offering tailored programs that address the most pressing needs in the workplace. We use our Leap philosophy to help managers learn to lead, teams learn to innovate, people learn to tell stories, and entire companies to reignite purpose and motivation as they grow. These programs foster growth and adaptability in the ever-evolving landscape of work.

Bring Teams Together (in-person): Ever since the pandemic, teams have been struggling with when and how to work together in-person. One underutilized tool is “offsites” (or on-sites for those trying to spark reconvening in the office). So, we’ll be continuing to support teams by designing retreats, offsites, and in-person workshops. The goal is to continue kindling relationships, foster greater trust and collaboration, and practice frameworks that shift people work solo and together.

Thank you!

Our team and I continue to be energized by this work — the people, the experiences, the growth, and the life-change. It’s not just what we’re doing, it’s how we’re doing it and who’s along for the ride.

We can't wait to see what this Leap Year might include for you. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next week.

Here we go!