We help leaders people virtual groups executives organizations teams companies work better together
We are a small but mighty agency, specializing in helping people work better together.
Who we are
We exist to make collaboration more productive and enjoyable — elevating people, projects, and programs to create lasting impact.
Since 2013, we have built a business that we are truly proud of – doing work we love with inspiring client partners.
We have years of experience across industries, markets, and challenges.
![View Kim Massey full bio]()
Kim Massey, Co-founder
Helps individuals and organizations realize potential
Kim has over 20 years of professional experience. Prior to Rise, she was at WhatIf Innovation as Culture and Capability Lead and before that led employee development as a Senior Vice President at Clear Channel Media.
Much of Kim’s experience lies in team effectiveness and executive development — all with a focus on sustainable impact. Balancing wisdom with warmth, Kim inspires action, always pushing the work to be the best it can be.
Kim is a proud Southerner now living in NYC. Her passions include climbing mountains, adventures with her niece and nephews, and stretching (literally and figuratively) through yoga.
Kim holds an MBA with a specialization in leadership and is a certified StrengthsFinder coach.
Why I love collaborating with Gareth:
“Gareth makes things happen! He’s a natural problem solver. His quick—and sometimes quirky—ideas stretch thinking and kick things into action. Every challenge, big or small, can use a dose of Vitamin G.”
— Kim Massey
![View Gareth Miles full bio]()
Gareth Miles, Co-founder
Inspires results through creativity
Prior to Rise, Gareth was a Director at WhatIf Innovation specializing in innovation, training, and action-learning. Before that, he worked as both a planner and an art director at some of London’s most (and least) glamorous advertising agencies.
These days, Gareth brings his creative magic to people and cultural challenges, designing and delivering high impact projects. With over two decades of experience, Gareth has a way of making hard work feel fun and energizing.
Gareth’s creativity spills out to his personal life. When not having ideas for clients, Gareth is experimenting in the kitchen — his young family benefits greatly from his home-cooking and animal pancake creations.
Why I love collaborating with Kim:
“When it comes to crossing paths with Kim, there’s a real before and after. She is a multiplier - making every situation better. She believes in you more than you ever will and gives you the courage to do amazing things.”
— Gareth Miles
![View Kim Massey full bio]()
Kim Massey, Co-founder
Helps individuals and organizations realize potential
Kim has over 20 years of professional experience. Prior to Rise, she was at WhatIf Innovation as Culture and Capability Lead and before that led employee development as a Senior Vice President at Clear Channel Media.
Much of Kim’s experience lies in team effectiveness and executive development — all with a focus on sustainable impact. Balancing wisdom with warmth, Kim inspires action, always pushing the work to be the best it can be.
Kim is a proud Southerner now living in NYC. Her passions include climbing mountains, adventures with her niece and nephews, and stretching (literally and figuratively) through yoga.
Kim holds an MBA with a specialization in leadership and is a certified StrengthsFinder coach.
Why I love collaborating with Gareth:
“Gareth makes things happen! He’s a natural problem solver. His quick—and sometimes quirky—ideas stretch thinking and kick things into action. Every challenge, big or small, can use a dose of Vitamin G.”
— Kim Massey
How we help
We help our clients work better together in two ways – collaboration moments and movements
Moments
We design and facilitate meetings, off-sites, and events that deliver tangible results.
These high-stakes interactions help our clients:
- Solve tough challenges
- Generate creative ideas
- Align around an issue
- Learn new skills
- Plot the future
- Commit and take action
Movements
We deliver large-scale culture programs that engage employees and create business impact.
This work always starts with a question…
- How can we protect our culture as we scale?
- How can we turn our culture into a strategic asset?
- How can we stop some of the bad habits we’ve fallen into?
- How do we help our people connect to our culture while working from home?
- How do we make our current values work harder for us?
- We’ve got our strategy in place – how do we inspire our people to deliver it?
- How can we build high-performing teams?
Our values
We believe that our impact comes not only from what we do, but how we do it. Our values are the compass that guides our work.
We are on a quest to find adventure in the everyday. We consciously work hard to keep things exciting and fresh.
We focus on continuous improvement. We love to learn and believe there is always opportunity to grow.
We own our energy and impact - aiming to be a force for good in the world.
We consistently deliver exceptional experiences. We are good stewards of time and talent - yours and ours.
Client case studies
Treehouse
We partnered with the newly appointed CEO and his leadership team to rewrite the company values — positioning the culture for a pivot to growth.
As part of this project, we collaborated with a cohort of employee Culture Champions. These Champions provided valuable context and contributed to the content of the work - helping with the change management needed to transform the organization.
Illumina
We helped the CEO of Illumina answer the question: How can we protect and scale our strong and healthy culture as we grow at a rapid pace?
We helped sharpen their existing core values and then created a behavioral guardrails tool to underpin and activate those values. We trained the top 600 leaders in the tool and supported integration into existing Human Resource processes.
Open Table
We collaborated with the Executive Leadership Team to articulate OpenTable’s vision, mission and values — ultimately labeled ‘The Why the What and the Way’.
This cultural compass included a simple strategic framework that could be easily understood and was relevant for every employee, marrying the strategic direction of the company with an inspiring vision for OpenTable’s culture.
Pfizer
Over the past decade, we’ve designed and delivered numerous meetings and off-sites.
As part of our long collaboration with Pfizer, we’ve helped leaders redesign clinical trials, have disruptive ideas, create culture plans, and strengthen leadership teams.
MongoDB
We partnered with MongoDb’s CEO and team to identify and articulate company values and mission statement.
We conducted an internal review to identify the cultural barriers to success and develop the ‘people plan’. As part of this work, we designed and delivered their inaugural learning and development program for Managers with a focus on leading the culture.
Weight Watchers
We worked with the Human Resources team at Weight Watchers to translate their new strategy — known as Our Impact Manifesto— into tangible behaviors to align and engage the global workforce.
In addition to creating Our Impact Behaviors, we designed the global launch and a training experience to help build awareness and capabilities around the new behaviors.