Let’s grow positive human influence every day, at every level.
Does any of this resonate with your organisation right now?
Your engagement scores are flat or falling. Your culture feels fragmented, and hybrid working has only widened the cracks. Your Gen Z talent is walking. Whilst some in your organisation may point the finger, deep down you know they’re not the problem.
You’ve invested in leadership development programmes, values workshops, off-site courses for new managers.
But despite all your hard work and commitment, nothing’s lifting. The message still isn’t turning your data into the good news story your board expects.
The way we’re working
...isn’t working.
When you're working hard and leaders inevitably can't be everywhere, data like this can be disheartening.
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Only 21% of employees worldwide are engaged at work (Gallup, 2025)
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Gen Z have the highest job‑switching rate, nearly 134% higher than Gen X and 52% higher than Millennials in their first year (LinkedIn 2024)
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70% of culture change efforts fail to achieve their goals (McKinsey, 2023)
The good news? There is a better way.
NZ employees who feel 'recognised' are 45% less likely to leave over two years. (1Team, 2025).
Enter
A fresh approach to co-creating culture through positive human influence.
RISE is a practical model of social influence designed for today’s workplaces.
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RISE is uniquely positioned to help leaders and teams develop and grow positive human influence as a strategic strength, overcoming some of today’s most significant workplace challenges to enable thriving cultures and business success.
Culture impacts performance
According to Gallup: Teams with high engagement achieve 23% higher profitability and 18% more productivity.
Trust is the foundation of retention
According to Great Place to Work: Employees who trust their leaders are 50% less likely to leave and are 2x as likely to go above and beyond in their roles.
Belonging boosts innovation & collaboration
Organisations with a strong sense of belonging see a 167% increase in employee willingness to recommend the company and a 75% increase in team innovation.
Access the Free Masterclass
What if natural human influence is the key to reigniting workplace engagement?
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Access Nicola's free video Masterclass or eBook. The same powerful insights, two easy formats. Choose the one that suits you best and we’ll send it straight to your inbox. Just drop your email below to get started.
An Introduction to RISE
Explore the different ways we can work together and find the path that best fits your needs.
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Get RISE Wise
A dynamic, half-day workshop designed to introduce the core concepts of the RISE Model of Influence and spark ideas, conversation and momentum within your team.
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You'll gain: a new way of thinking and talking about influence and how it's playing out in your organisation; insights into how to activate positive influence and deactivate negative influence; some practical next steps to take away.
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Influence Culture Check
An Influence Culture Check is a holistic assessment of your organisation's current influence culture - it's strengths, challenges and most significant opportunities for development and growth.
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You'll receive a detailed written report, with practical and achievable actions for growing positive human influence, grounded in the values, experiences, perspectives and recommendations of your employees at all levels.
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Growing Natural Human Influence
A bespoke partnership and plan designed to develop and embed positive human influence across your organisation through your people and influence ecosystem.
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You’ll gain the knowledge and tools to build the positive influencing capabilities of your people and ecosystem.
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This might include: developing positive influencing skills where they matter most; co-creating a RISE 'social contract' for your organisation, describing mutual responsibilities and expectations; adapting high impact elements of your influence ecosystem; and key measures, including your goals and milestones along the way.
Rising Together
If RISE has sparked an idea or if you'd like to explore how you could partner with Nicola and RISE in some other way, please reach out. Open conversations open doors!
Influence is a natural human behaviour
Influence is a natural human behaviour, gifted to help us survive and thrive. This makes natural human influence at work inevitable - positive and negative, intentional and unintentional, direct and indirect. And it shows up everywhere, at every level, in every interaction, every communication - spoken and unspoken.
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This means everyone at work is an influencer. We don't need permission, position or authority. The question is: at work, what kind of influencer do you want to be?
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Here's the truth: there's an ecosystem of influence constantly at play, and it's either working with you, or against you. Left unchecked, negative human influence erodes confidence and trust, belonging and engagement, retention and growth.
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RISE helps us see and understand the inevitable power of natural human influence. And once we do, we can take personal and collaborative action to activate the positive and deactivate the negative.
Meet the Founder: Nicola Woodward
Nicola has led multiple human-centred transformations in the for-purpose and public service sectors in the UK and Aotearoa New Zealand, bringing multi-level innovative solutions to embedded problems.
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She has influenced paradigm shifts, from frontline services to national policy, and was an early pioneer of human-centred design in the UK NHS. Following the Canterbury earthquakes, Nicola led the development of The Loft, a nationally unique ‘one-stop shop’ for vulnerable families in Christchurch whilst also CEO of Aviva. Though her roles have been varied - frontline to CEO, local to national - her contribution has always been defined by her core belief that personal, organisational and business success pivots on one thing – our collective appreciation of the power of natural human influence.
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As the founder of Be Company and creator of RISE, Nicola offers a passion for partnerships committed to superpowering positive human influence as a solution to today’s biggest workplace challenges.
"To grow belonging, we have to change the behaviours that quietly break it."
- Nicola Woodward