Your people know what to do.
Their nervous system is why they don’t.
Aligned Co. delivers organizational transformation programs built on the RISE Method -
the missing link between knowledge and behaviour under pressure.
$340B+
spent globally on L&D annually
Josh Bersin
70%
of transformation initiatives still fail
McKinsey | Kotter
72%
of failed initiatives cite people behaviour as the #1 barrier McKinsey
“The gap between what leaders know and what they do under pressure is not a skills problem. It’s a nervous system problem. And until organizations address it at that level, the investment in training will keep underdelivering.”
Organizations are investing in the wrong layer of change.
Most learning & development and change management programs work at the cognitive level. Leaders learn what to think, what to say and what to do differently. And they work.
Until they don’t.
Under stress, under pressure, in a difficult conversation, in a restructuring - the knowledge escapes, the learned behaviour collapses, and the old pattern returns.
This isn’t a failure of training design. It’s a biological reality. A dysregulated nervous system cannot access the prefrontal cortex effectively.
Strategic thinking, empathic listening and regulated decision-making require a nervous system that feels safe enough to stay present when things get difficult.
That’s what is missing. And that’s what Aligned Co. creates.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Organizations where the human layer is the missing piece
HR + PEOPLE LEADERS
You already see it - you need the language and the proof
You see how nervous system regulation is the missing link in your leadership development work.
You’re redefining competency frameworks, building ways of working programs, introducing culture initiatives. Aligned Co. gives you the methodology, the evidence base and a program that helps your work land.
PEOPLE LEADERS + MANAGERS
Something is off - and you can’t quite name it.
Your team is technically capable. The strategy is clear.
But there’s a gap between what gets agreed to in the room and what actually happens. Between feedback given and the behaviour that shows up.
The RISE Method closes the “say-do” gap your team is experiencing.
THE RISE METHOD
Transformation for organizations.
The RISE Method is a four-phase organizational transformation framework that works at the nervous system level. It integrates neuroscience, behavioral science and proven change methodology and can be applied across a variety of use cases. Whether you’re trying to define a new strategic direction, build high-performing teams, introduce new leadership competencies or develop engagement programs, the RISE Method helps your organization evolve.
R
REGULATE
Build the nervous system foundation upon which true change becomes possible.
I
INQUIRE
Get brutally honest about where your company is, with leaders who are stable enough to hold the discomfort.
S
SHAPE
Design a behaviorally-grounded plan that bridges where your company is with the results you are trying to create.
E
EVOLVE
Embed the change in the company with new practices, rituals and rhythms. Leaders model behavior. Rewards recognize those who get aligned.
RISE Transformations
Teambuilding Experiences
This isn’t a communication problem. It’s a nervous system problem.
When stress spikes, the collaborative, creative, regulated version of your team disappears. That version that’s more than the sum of its parts? Gone. Instead, it’s replaced by a group of people who are combative, defensive and detract from each other’s performance. No amount of team bonding can fix what’s happening at the biological level.
Our team building experiences give your team the tools to recognize dysregulation in themselves and each other, and provide them with the shared language and tools to do something about it.
YOUR TEAM WALKS AWAY WITH:
Bottom-up and top-down regulation techniques they can use in the moment
A lived experience of how stress hijacks team members, and the chance to apply their nervous system regulation techniques in the moment
Ongoing practices, rituals and artifacts that keep the learning alive in the office
Teambuilding experiences can be delivered through lunch and learns, a 90-minute team experience, a half-day challenge or a full day deep dive.
Your teams knows how to work together. Under pressure, they can’t.
Leadership Development
Your leaders took the training. The behavior still isn’t changing.
That’s not a leadership failure. It’s a biology problem - and it’s fixable.
Skilled leaders don’t fall apart under pressure because they lack capability. They fall apart because a dysregulated nervous system doesn’t have the capacity to access the empathy, strategic thinking and emotional regulation their role demands.
Our leadership development programs build the nervous system foundation your L&D investment has been missing. When your leaders can regulate themselves in real time, the behaviors you’ve been training for, FINALLY stick.
YOUR LEADERS WALK AWAY WITH:
Practical regulation tools they can use before, during and after difficult conversations, high-stakes decisions or challenging moments with their teams
A clearer picture of how their dysregulation is showing up - and how it’s impacting the people around them
A plan and tools to lead differently, grounded in biology, not willpower
Clear thinking and aligned behaviors so you help you can unleash your team’s performance, not constrain it.
Leadership development training is delivered through lunch and learns, leader challenges, 1:1 coaching and group coaching.
Engagement Strategy
You can’t fix engagement in an environment that can’t hold space for problems.
You asked people what’s wrong. The harder question is whether your leaders are regulated enough to hear it.
Engagement surveys are, at their core, a list of problems delivered to leaders who were never trained to sit with discomfort, tolerate dissent, or resist the urge to explain away what they’re hearing.
So, the results get reviewed, a few initiatives get launched and twelve months later the scores haven’t moved. Not because you didn’t care, but because the environment that created the disengagement is the same environment that is being asked to fix it.
At it’s core, designing engagement strategies requires nervous systems that can handle discomfort and navigate complexity and ambiguity with grace. Working through the RISE Method, we build nervous system capacity, and then design strategies that address the root causes of disengagement, ultimately leading to an engaged and high-performing organization.
OUR ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES DELIVER:
An honest diagnosis of what’s actually behind disengagement in your organization
Leaders who are regulated enough to receive hard feedback and respond without defensiveness
A RISE informed engagement strategy grounded in nervous system and behavioral science
Engagement Strategy programs are customized. Get in touch to explore what this could look like for your organization.
Strategic Planning
You can’t build a resilient strategy in a fragile room.
Strategy is only as strong as the environment in which it was created.
Most planning processes assume the people in the room are operating at their best - thinking clearly, speaking honestly, challenging norms and leaning into the discomfort that real strategic conversations require. They’re not.
When nervous systems aren’t regulated, people avoid hard truths, defer to the loudest voice and default to safe answers. The result is a strategy that looks solid on paper, but wasn’t truly tested before being signed off on and presented to the Board.
Working with the RISE Method, we create the conditions where candour is actually possible. Your leaders think more clearly, challenge each other more honestly and leave with a plan everyone can get behind because their voices were heard and considered in the process of creating it.
OUR STRATEGIC PLANNING SESSIONS DELIVER:
A regulated environment where leaders have the nervous system capacity to think clearly and speak candidly
A rigorous strategic planning process that surfaces the real obstacles and calls out the uncomfortable realities people are normally afraid to name
A plan grounded in where your organization actually is, not where people were too guarded to admit it wasn’t
A plan grounded in where your organization actually is and alignment that holds after the room clears, because it was built on honest foundations.
Strategic Planning programs are scoped to your organization’s size and context. Get in touch to start the conversation.
YOUR TRANSFORMATION PARTNER
SARAH LERNER, CFA, MBA
The change expert who
bridges both worlds
Most organizational consultants bring strategic frameworks. Most wellbeing practitioners bring holistic tools. Sarah Lerner is one of the only practitioners in North America who brings both - at the same level of depth and credibility.
Through her 15 years of business experience, Sarah has excelled in roles ranging from finance to strategy, communication, culture and inclusion. She has experienced and contributed to many transformation efforts along the way, working with her own teams and executives to influence and contribute to successful change efforts, including multi-billion dollar acquisitions and divestitures at one of North America’s largest energy companies.
When she got burned out in 2020, she rebuilt herself using yoga, sound healing and Chinese Energetic Medicine, tools her professional world had always dismissed, and discovered they were exactly what her former world was missing.
The RISE Method is the framework she built that exists at the intersection of the realities of business and biology. It is the only organizational transformation methodology she knows of that addresses change at the nervous system level - not just the cognitive one.
CFA | MBA | Certified Coach | 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training | Sound Therapy Teacher | Masters of Medical Qigong (Candidate) | Change Leadership | Strategy and Business Design
Let’s Talk
Tell us about your organization and what you’re navigating. We’ll be in touch within 48 hours to explore whether a RISE Transformation is the right fit for you.
