Humans at Work

Change goes better when people get to shape it.

Designed sessions for teams in the middle of cuts, reorganizations, and new ways of working. People take part from the first minute and leave with something they can use on Monday.

Tell me what's going on

Workshop participants on their feet in a brick mill space, discussing sticky notes on flip charts

Too much change happens to people, not with them.

Budget cuts. Reorganizations. New tools. New leaders. Change is no longer an occasional event, and teams are often absorbing all of it at once. Managers are expected to help people navigate it, and most were never taught how.

The usual response is a talk about burnout or another training. People listen, nod, and go back to the way things were.

People can't self-care their way out of badly designed work.

These sessions don't ask individuals to carry the whole burden. They help teams look at the work, the relationships, and the conditions around them, then decide what can actually change.

A leadership team on their feet at a wall of sticky notes in a brick mill space, working through ideas together

What it feels like

You walk in and the room has already been rearranged.

Within ten minutes, people are doing something, not listening to me talk. They might be mapping what has changed, building a model, responding to a prompt, sorting priorities, or noticing patterns together.

By the end, the room looks different because the thinking is visible, and the team has made something together that it can actually use.

What teams leave with

Something you can use on Monday.

A shared picture of what’s really going on

Made visible on the wall, not just talked about.

Agreements the team actually owns

A few specific changes everyone has committed to try.

A clear line between what you can and can’t control

So energy goes where it can make a difference.

A next step with a date on it

An experiment, a decision, or a follow-up, so nothing stalls.

How it works

I love what happens when a room comes alive, when people stop sitting back, start seeing something differently, and realize they have a hand in what happens next.

Every session is designed for your team and your situation. A few things stay the same.

Designed for the real situation. Every session starts with the specific thing your team needs to work through.
Participation is built in. The structure gets people moving, talking, building, noticing, and contributing from the start.
All voices have a way in. Activities are designed to level the playing field, so participation isn’t determined by title, confidence, or who speaks first.
Emotions are useful information. Frustration, fatigue, worry, and energy all tell us something about how the work is landing and what may need attention.
The room stays constructive. Hard things can be named while the conversation stays thoughtful, forward-looking, and grounded in what the team can actually influence.
Something moves. People leave with a decision, agreement, experiment, artifact, or clearer next step.

Ways to work together

Start with one session, build skills across your managers, or design something for a moment that matters. When something is worth redesigning, I stay to build it with you.

For teams in the middle of change

Team Session: Working Through Change

For teams going through cuts, reorganizations, uncertainty, or a period when the old way of working no longer fits.

Your team works on the situation together and leaves with something concrete to carry forward. That might be a set of agreements, a clearer priority, an experiment, or simply a new way of seeing the situation.

$2,500 90 minutes

$4,500 Half day

For managers

Steady in the Storm

Leading people through uncertainty.

Most managers were never taught how to work with emotions, their own or their team's. Think of this three-session series as driver's ed for leading through rough weather: practice, not lectures, in reading the room, having hard conversations in uncertain times, working with their own reactions, and managing energy without pretending everything is fine.

Each manager leaves with practical tools they can use immediately and a simple session they can run with their own team.

From $7,500 for up to 15 managers

For moments that matter

Custom Experiences

For moments when a team or organization needs to think differently: retreats, leadership planning, large gatherings, mergers, strategic conversations, and work that has gotten stuck.

I design the experience around your actual situation, rather than pulling a workshop off the shelf.

Priced by scope

After the session

Design and build

Sometimes a session is all a team needs. Often it uncovers something worth redesigning: how meetings run, how new people are welcomed, how the team handles change. I stay to design it with you, test it with the people doing the work, and make it real.

Scoped and priced after the session. No ongoing commitment required.

Nonprofit pricing available.

What this looks like in practice

Higher education

Helping faculty imagine a new curriculum

A university curriculum team needed ideas from faculty and staff without old power dynamics taking over. I designed physical building blocks of the curriculum, models from other universities with the names removed, and a menu of interactive activities. I facilitated the first session, and the team led the rest on their own. Together, they produced 52 curriculum design proposals.

Banking

Helping a bank's leaders step into the future

For Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution, I designed a strategic planning process that combined employee interviews with immersive future scenarios. Leaders worked through possible futures for the bank and challenged their own assumptions. The result is a strategic plan the executive team and board use to guide their priorities.

Mergers

Helping two merging organizations become one team

Instead of a typical icebreaker, I designed an escape room. Teams solved clues drawn from both organizations' histories, practicing the same collaboration their real integration would require.

What people say

"They challenged us to look closely at where we are and where we need to go. Their thorough and collaborative process, including employee interviews, predictive methods, and scenario planning, was crucial in helping us focus beyond day-to-day operations. We now have a living, working strategic plan to guide us into the future."

Bill Kany
EVP & Chief Risk Officer, Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution

"Bringing together a group of people that have different opinions and priorities can be challenging, but you asked important questions, allowed time for discernment and discussion, where all voices and contributions were heard and validated."

Elizabeth Crampsey, Ed.D.
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Westbrook College of Health Professions, University of New England

"While framed as an 'icebreaker' it really was much more than that: team building, problem-solving, collaboration, strategizing, and fun! It was so effective that we would like to explore… building such a session into the standing agenda."

Dr. Jonathan Millen
Dean, College of Arts & Sciences, University of New England

"We are very excited to report that 52 proposals for curriculum design were generated in fun, interactive sessions. You were invaluable in making this idea a reality."

Caryn Husman
Director, Health, Wellness and Occupational Studies, University of New England, on behalf of the curriculum team

"Today thousands of people had the chance to participate in really thought-provoking, fun activities… Justine, you did an incredible job organizing all of this so quickly and so well."

Rebecca Bray
Chief, Experience Design, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

About Justine

Justine Bassett standing in front of a colorful painted mural beside a yellow stool

I'm Justine Bassett, an experience designer and strategist based in Maine. For 30 years, I've designed experiences that help people take part in something new.

At the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, I helped redesign how the education team created visitor activities, increasing visitor engagement 300% and cutting development time in half.

I later founded the Office of Innovation at the University of New England, where I designed programs, workshops, and experiences that helped people collaborate, experiment, and turn ideas into action.

My work with teams is also informed by Joy by Design, my approach to helping people understand and work more skillfully with emotions and energy.

Named a 2022 Mainer of the Year by Maine Magazine.

See more of my work →

What is your team carrying right now?

Tell me a little about your organization and what's changing. A 20-minute conversation is usually enough to know whether a session would help, and what kind.

Tell me what's going on