Life and work, but better.
If you’ve ever rolled your eyes during HR training, felt cringy during a team workshop, or wanted to explode at work … we know the feeling. We also know how to make learning, development, change, and coaching not suck worth the investment.
The 984.Collective creates practical and compelling opportunities to improve yourself, your team, or your organization. We’re at intersection of science and the real world. Where experts in leadership and team development work for you.
Because what you’ve learned from HBR [or TikTok] hasn’t worked.
Thomas Payne
Founder, Executive Director
I started the 984.Collective with one goal in mind: help make more leaders and teams like the best.
Over the last 11 years I’ve seen what works inside the worlds best place to work, and what doesn’t (I won’t mention names). At Cisco, I led a research team that leveraged machine learning to understand life at work for 75,000 employees, and delivered over 150 team workshops on resilience during the pandemic. At Amazon, I worked with colleagues across the globe to build a first-of-its-kind global executive development program inside Amazon’s fulfillment centers.
While learning from the real world, I also completed a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. The 984.Collective represents a promise to continue the work started by some of my professors. In 1999, on the shores of Akumal, Mexico, then President of the American Psychological Association, Marty Seligman, brought the best researchers together to formalize and accelerate the study of well-being, and psychological health. We know more about high-performing leaders and teams than ever. The 984.Collective distills that research into simple and relevant insights that help our clients succeed.
The “984” is the geographic area code of Akumal, the origin of positive psychology. The 984 is also the area code for Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel-Hill, North Carolina — where so much of my life began to flourish. “The Collective” represents your expertise and ability, and our expertise in coaching complex systems and environments, working together in the real world to improve how we think, work, and live.
We are leaders, experts, and coaches trained to cut through the noise and simplify the answers that make life and work better.
*This is science, not opinion! Research from Forbes identifies Cisco as the “Best Place to Work” in the world, three-years running!
