The training did not survive contact with Monday
The offsite was good. People nodded. Then quarter-end arrived, the old reflexes returned, and the language you paid for quietly disappeared from the building.
Consulting & Creative Holding Company
The work that makes leaders more human — and organizations more whole.
Dunbar Group & Associates builds leadership, transforms organizations, and creates the intellectual property that carries this work into the world — from executive teams to bedtime stories.
A 30-minute conversation. No pitch deck, no obligation.
300+
Organizations served
10,000+
Leaders trained
100
Countries
Figures reflect the leadership practice delivered through UpLevel Productions.
Original intellectual property
Lil’ Sass & Friends — the emotional wellness universe we write, illustrate, publish and now build software around.
The honest problem
You have already invested in leadership. So why does the room still feel the same?
Your best people are performing a certainty they do not have
Senior leaders carry pressure they cannot name out loud. Empathy narrows, decision quality slips, and the leader is usually the last person in the room to notice.
Culture became a slide instead of a practice
Values are on the wall. Engagement scores are tracked. And still nobody quite knows what to do differently in the meeting that is actually going badly.
None of this is a discipline problem. It is a capacity problem — and capacity is buildable.
The guide
We have spent two decades in the rooms where this actually gets decided.
Dunbar Group is led by practitioners, not packagers. Our principal has trained, coached and faculty-led leadership programs for nearly twenty years, including faculty and associate partner work with the Co-Active Training Institute — the oldest and largest coach training school in the world.
We bring four things to the table, and we bring them together.
Leadership
Executive coaching, coach training and the development of internal coaching cadres that outlast any single program.
Facilitation
Transformative experiences, workshops and events designed to move a real group through a real thing.
Design
Creative direction and product design for the brands, books and platforms we and our clients bring to market.
Consulting
Organizational transformation and culture strategy, held to the standard of what changes on the ground.
The plan
Three steps. No mystery.
As you move through these, the work stops being something we do to your organization and starts being something your organization does for itself.
01
Discovery
We listen before we prescribe. Interviews, observation and honest diagnosis of what is actually happening — including the parts nobody has said out loud yet.
02
Design
We design the engagement with you, not for you: the programs, the facilitation, the coaching structures and the measures that will tell you it is working.
03
Embed
We build internal capability — trained coaches, equipped leaders, shared language — so the change belongs to you long after the engagement closes.
Book a discovery conversation
30 minutes. We will tell you honestly if we are not the right fit.
What we do
Nine practices, one conviction: people deserve better than what most workplaces ask of them.
Leadership Development
Programs that build presence, judgement and range in the people your organization depends on most.
Coach Training & Internal Cadres
We train cadres of internal coaches so a coach-approach to leadership becomes native to your organization.
Organizational Transformation
Culture and change work grounded in what people actually do differently on Monday morning.
Executive & Team Coaching
One-to-one and team coaching for senior leaders carrying complexity they cannot set down.
Emotional Leadership & Resiliency
Developing emotional range as a leadership capacity — not a soft skill, a performance one.
End-of-Life & Grief at Work
Specialist practice for navigating loss and grief in workplace, family and community ecosystems.
Education & Schools
Coaching skills for teachers, students and school leaders — educational change from the inside.
Creative Direction & Design
Brand, narrative and product design for organizations building something that has to mean something.
IP Development & Stewardship
We create, publish and license original books, platforms and educational products.
The portfolio
We do not only advise. We build, publish and steward.
Dunbar Group develops and holds original brands, books, digital platforms and educational products. Here is what currently lives under our roof.
Leadership practice
UpLevel Productions
Our leadership transformation company. Coach training, executive programs, facilitation and the School of UpLevel — serving 300+ organizations across 100 countries.
uplevelproductions.com
Explore this venture
Publishing
The Adventures of Lil’ Sass
An emotional wellness children’s book series and accessories, on a mission to give kids and adults a healthier, more resilient relationship with their emotions.
lilsass.com
Explore this venture
Digital platform
Lil’ Sass: Adventures of Emotions
A privacy-first storytelling app that turns a child’s real feeling into an illustrated book where they are the hero — and teaches a physical move to process it.
lilsass.app
Explore this ventureRecognition
Independently recognised work.
We would rather show you verifiable recognition than borrowed superlatives. These are the marks our work has actually earned.
- Amazon Best Selling Author
- Readers’ Favorite Five Star Review
- #4 Best Workplace Mental Health Podcast — Feedspot
- Top 10 Best Coaching Culture Podcasts — Feedspot
Leadership
Christie Mann, MA, CPCC, PCC
Principal of Dunbar Group & Associates. Co-founder and CEO of UpLevel Productions. Faculty, associate partner and executive coach with the Co-Active Training Institute. Author of The Adventures of Lil’ Sass. Host of The UpLevel Podcast.
“Conscious leaders create conscious cultures.”
Insights
Deeper reading on the work and the ventures.
UpLevel Productions
Building coaching cultures that outlast the workshop
How UpLevel Productions trains internal coaching cadres — and why capability beats content every time.
Read moreLil’ Sass Books
Why an emotional wellness book series belongs in every home
The thinking behind The Adventures of Lil’ Sass, and what changes when a child gets language for a feeling.
Read moreLil’ Sass App
What a privacy-first storytelling app actually looks like
Inside Lil’ Sass: Adventures of Emotions — personalised books, screened conversations, and names that never reach the model.
Read moreThe UpLevel Podcast
Conscious leaders create conscious cultures
The UpLevel Podcast, its rankings, and the case for putting human wellbeing on the business agenda.
Read moreFAQ
Questions, answered
Still unsure whether this is the right fit? Tell us what you are facing and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it.
We do two things under one roof. On the consulting side we provide leadership, design, facilitation and advisory services to organizations. On the creative side we develop and steward original intellectual property — brands, books, digital platforms and educational products — that carry the same ideas into homes, classrooms and app stores.
The two halves feed each other. What we learn in executive rooms shapes the stories we write for children. What we learn about emotional development in children sharpens how we coach adults.
Executive teams, people leaders, internal coaching cadres and learning functions inside organizations that have decided culture is a real priority rather than a slide. We also work with schools and educators, and we license our intellectual property to institutions.
Through UpLevel Productions, our leadership practice has served more than 300 organizations and trained over 10,000 leaders across 100 countries.
Most programs transfer information. Information alone rarely changes behaviour under pressure.
Our work is built around capacity — the ability to stay present, regulated and honest when the stakes are high. That is developed through practice, facilitation and coaching relationships, not through a deck. We train internal coaches so the capability stays in the building after we leave.
Both, and we do not treat them as separate subjects. Emotional range is a leadership capacity. A leader who cannot sit with uncertainty, discomfort or grief will manage around them — and the organization pays for it.
We have specialist practices in emotional leadership and resiliency, and in navigating end-of-life and grief in workplace, family and community ecosystems.
The Adventures of Lil’ Sass is an emotional wellness children’s book series, and Lil’ Sass: Adventures of Emotions is the storytelling app built on it. Both are original intellectual property developed and stewarded by Dunbar Group.
It is there for the same reason the leadership work is: people of every age deserve a healthier relationship with their emotions. Adults get facilitation and coaching. Children get a story where the feeling gets felt all the way through.
With a conversation, not a proposal. We want to understand what is actually happening before we suggest anything — and we will tell you plainly if we are not the right people for it.
If there is a fit, we scope a discovery phase, design the work with you, and then build the internal capability to sustain it.
Yes. Books, digital platforms and educational products are available for institutional and organizational licensing, including schools, healthcare settings and employee wellbeing programs. Tell us what you have in mind and we will walk you through the options.
Dunbar Group & Associates LLC is based in California, and our practice is global — delivered in person and virtually across 100 countries to date.
Field notes
Leadership worth thinking about, once a month
Essays on conscious leadership, emotional wellness and the craft of building cultures that hold up under pressure. No pitch, no filler. Unsubscribe in one click.
Next step
There is a version of your organization where people do their best work without leaving their humanity at the door.
It is closer than it looks. Start with a conversation — we will listen first, and tell you plainly whether we are the right people for what you are carrying.
We reply to every enquiry within two business days.