An underperforming leader nobody has addressed. The same feedback appearing in exit interviews. Leadership time increasingly absorbed by people issues rather than strategy. A team performing well below the level you know it’s capable of.
We call this the Silence Tax: the cost carried by problems that are managed, worked around or left unresolved.
Project Thrive is a twelve-month, data-led leadership partnership that identifies what’s occurring within your organisation and develops the capability to change it.
Has organisational entropy begun?
Individually, each of these looks manageable:
- Turnover concentrated among your strongest people, with exit interviews naming the same issues each time
- Middle managers who are technically capable, but were never taught how to lead a team
- Performance conversations avoided until they become resignations
- Leaders spending more time managing conflict and team tension than running the business
- A sense that something is off, with no data to show where the pressure is coming from
Together, they’re a pattern. Your leaders may not have been given the insight, tools or support to lead effectively in the environment they’re operating in.
That's where Project Thrive starts.
Leaders and professionals trained across Australia
Industries trained
2025
Winner, Sunshine Coast Business Award for Education and Training
What’s the Silence Tax costing you?
Unresolved leadership and people issues seldom appear as a discrete line item.
Their cost is distributed across turnover, diminished productivity, decisions delayed beyond their usefulness, and conversations deferred until the moment for prevention has passed. Individually, each is containable, but in aggregate, they define an organisation's ceiling.
Project Thrive establishes where these costs originate, what sustains them, and where leadership capability will yield the greatest return.
The architecture of our partnership
Project Thrive begins with your organisation.
01. Understand
Your people and leaders complete the Workplace Performance and Wellbeing Index, generating data across performance, wellbeing, retention and culture.
02. Identify
We analyse the results to locate where pressure is building, what’s contributing to disengagement, and where leadership capability will have the greatest effect.
03. Build
Your results shape a roadmap around the priorities specific to your organisation.
04. Develop
Your leaders build capability through workshops, one-on-one coaching and the WPWI academy.
05. Embed
Across twelve months, this development becomes embedded leadership behaviour and enduring organisational systems.
The pace of embedded change
Project Thrive moves from insight to action, and from action to embedded capability.
Clarity established
The Index results provide a data-informed account of what is occurring across the organisation, informing a roadmap constructed around the priorities that matter most.
Behavioural change
Leaders begin applying new tools, engaging in more effective conversations, and responding differently to situations.
Capability embedded
The objective is leadership capability that endures beyond the program, supported by stronger systems, clearer expectations and more sustainable ways of working.
The method behind the partnership
The Index, three times over
Conducted at the outset, midpoint and conclusion of the program, providing an ongoing account rather than a single diagnosis, and enabling measurable tracking of what the investment delivers over time.
Quarterly leadership workshops and roundtables
Four face-to-face sessions in which leaders who have previously avoided difficult conversations begin initiating them.
HR and People and Culture advisory calls
Six calls providing direct visibility into workforce risk before it develops into resignation or formal complaint.
One-on-one mentoring
Six targeted sessions for the leaders with the greatest influence on culture, developing capability where it’s needed.
Twelve months of Academy access
Available to the entire organisation, extending the program’s thinking well beyond the leaders directly involved.
An end-of-year impact report
A documented account of what the investment has delivered, prepared for the subsequent planning cycle or board reporting.
A dedicated success manager
A consistent point of contact who understands the organisation throughout the program.
Direct access to the WPWI team
Ongoing accountability between sessions, ensuring momentum is sustained throughout the program.
Two seats at the National Workplace Wellbeing Conference
Full access for two attendees to Australia’s leading event on workplace leadership, retention and culture.
Determining organisational readiness
Project Thrive is for organisations that recognise their leadership capability could be stronger, whether that involves addressing an identified challenge or extending an existing strength.
Project Thrive is for organisations that It may be appropriate for your organisation where:
- Managers possess technical capability but have received limited leadership development
- The same people issues continue to resurface, despite prior attempts to resolve them
- HR or People and Culture carries a disproportionate share of responsibility for resolving leadership problems
- Leaders are spending considerable time managing people issues rather than leading strategically
- Signs of burnout, disengagement or unnecessary pressure are becoming apparent
- Performance is improving, but only by asking more of people already under pressure
- The organisation is already performing well, with an identified opportunity for further capability
Project Thrive is best suited to organisations of 50 to 500 employees, including CEOs, founders, HR and People and Culture leaders, and senior leaders responsible for organisational operations.
The relationship between wellbeing and performance
Workplace wellbeing is not separate from how an organisation performs.
The manner in which leaders communicate, manage pressure, set expectations and respond to problems shapes performance, retention and culture. For organisations managing psychosocial risk, leadership capability is a central component of that broader equation.
Project Thrive takes a sustained approach, combining organisational data, leadership development and ongoing support to address the factors affecting both wellbeing and performance, because meaningful change requires more than a single intervention.
Founded on lived experience
Lauren and Jason Marshall founded Workplace Performance and Wellbeing Institute following careers that shaped their understanding of leadership under pressure.
Jason spent over a decade in education, seeing capable individuals leave organisations because they lacked the tools or confidence to initiate the conversations that would have changed outcomes.
Lauren’s experience within the paramedic industry gave her a firsthand view of what unmanaged pressure does to people under sustained strain.
Their work was recognised with the 2025 Sunshine Coast Business Award for Education and Training. Together, Lauren and Jason have worked with more than 1,500 leaders across 43-plus industries, a combination of lived experience, behavioural science and organisational data that informs every Project Thrive partnership.
Outcomes across organisations
Across the organisations we've worked with, 96% of participants report increased leadership skills and reduced stress levels.
SB Group
The challenge: High stress and real burnout risk across the team. Communication breakdowns, constant distraction and double-handling driving more of the pressure than the workload itself.
What we implemented: Practical tools and frameworks around prioritisation, communication and protecting focus time, embedded through the program’s coaching and advisory sessions.
What changed: A clearer headspace and greater efficiency, alongside additional time within the working week, achieved through reduced reactivity and fewer daily distractions.
GenPhysio
The challenge: Diminished team resilience, with people issues regularly escalating directly to HR following prior generic training that failed to account for their specific workplace context.
What we implemented: A tailored coaching and mentoring approach addressing the specific gaps identified by the Index, delivered through ongoing sessions.
What changed: Greater resilience across the team, increased confidence in difficult conversations, and a shift toward staff resolving their own challenges.
Jones Retail Group
The challenge: No prior experience with this form of training, with budget approval far from assured, compounded by high stress and burnout risk linked to communication gaps, limited recovery time and difficulty disengaging from work.
What we implemented: Practical tools and frameworks for structured communication and recovery, applied through workshops and ongoing advisory support.
What changed: The introduction of daily team huddles and a more deliberate approach to meetings and difficult conversations, accompanied by a measurable shift in communication and stress levels.
The case for recommending Project Thrive internally
Recommending a twelve-month leadership program to a CEO or board carries inherent responsibility. There is the risk of budget allocated to learning and development without measurable outcomes, and accountability ultimately rests with the person who put it forward.
Project Thrive is structured to remove that ambiguity. The Index is conducted three times across the program, providing an ongoing measure of change rather than a single point-in-time assessment.
Every recommendation is informed by the organisation’s own data, developed specifically for that organisation. A dedicated success manager supports the partnership throughout, and an end-of-year impact report provides a documented account of outcomes, prepared specifically for reporting to a CEO or board.
Preparing to make this case internally? Download a one-page summary prepared for that purpose.
Indicators warranting a conversation
The following are common indicators:
- Exit interviews identifying the same issues repeatedly, without resolution
- Managers promoted for technical capability, now leading teams without corresponding leadership development
- HR carrying a disproportionate share of responsibility for culture and retention issues that leadership should address
- An already strong leadership team seeking the next level of capability, rather than a solution to an existing problem
- Pressure building across the organisation without clear data as to its source
Where any of the above is familiar, Project Thrive is worth discussing.
Project Thrive is deliberately limited to five organisations at a time. Each organisation receives a dedicated success manager and direct access to the WPWI team throughout the twelve months, a level of support that cannot be sustained at greater scale.
Project Thrive is a high-touch approach by design.
Apply for Project Thrive
The problem doesn’t need to be fully defined to begin. Tell us what you are observing within your organisation. Every application is reviewed personally, and where a genuine fit is identified, we will arrange a conversation to discuss what the partnership could look like.
Frequently asked questions
What happens after I apply?
Every application is reviewed personally. Where Project Thrive represents a genuine fit, we will arrange a conversation to understand your organisation and discuss the appropriate next step.
How is Project Thrive different from a workshop or training day, and why would it succeed where something similar has not?
Project Thrive is a twelve-month partnership built entirely on your organisation’s own data, which is what allows it to address the causes of a problem rather than manage its symptoms over time.
What if our organisation is not in crisis?
Project Thrive is designed for organisations that recognise a stronger level of leadership capability is available to them, whether that involves addressing a specific challenge or extending an existing strength.
How much time will this require from our leaders?
The partnership is delivered through workshops, coaching and online learning across twelve months, structured to complement existing operations. Organisations frequently find this returns time to their leaders, as reduced reactivity and clearer priorities free up hours previously spent managing avoidable people issues.
What if budget is a constraint at present?
Project Thrive is a tailored twelve-month partnership, and the investment reflects that: it’s built around your organisation specifically, and is best weighed against the ongoing cost of an issue left unaddressed. Applications proceed to a conversation in which specifics can be discussed directly.
How is progress measured?
The Index is conducted three times across the program: at the outset, midpoint and conclusion, providing a measured account of what has shifted. Progress is tracked through changes in leadership behaviour, team dynamics and the priorities identified throughout the partnership, supported by an end-of-year impact report prepared for your subsequent planning cycle.
What happens if an application is not accepted?
We work with a limited number of organisations at any one time in order to protect the quality of the work delivered. Where Project Thrive is not the appropriate fit, applicants will be advised accordingly.
How do we determine whether Project Thrive is appropriate for our organisation?
Recurring people issues, pressure on leadership, disengagement, burnout risk, or a gap between your team’s potential and its current performance are all reasonable grounds to begin a conversation. A precise diagnosis is not a prerequisite for applying. That is the purpose the data is intended to serve.