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For years, one question drove Sarah Deane's research: what does it take for people to thrive? With Gallup reporting low employee engagement, record high stress and suffering workplace well-being, Sarah understands that human energy is one of the most valuable currencies we have — and is what unlocks organizational performance. She founded MEVolution to help leaders and organizations cultivate the behaviors that drive long-term, sustainable performance.
Sarah's writing blends her knowledge of behavioral science with a deep understanding of the intersection of humans and technology derived from her engineering background. This year she brought us leadership tips from the Dalai Lama and provided frameworks to understand where AI can help and where it will harm workplace productivity.
Below are just a few of the insights Sarah's 2025 columns introduced:
Vision Fails Without Structural Follow-Through
The gap between seeing and doing has grown wider as businesses try to balance ambitious plans for the future with the limited capacity of their workforce. Several of Sarah's articles argue that rather than layering on more initiatives, leaders should focus on where their efforts would be best spent. Both "From Wanting to Doing: Move Your Organization from Vision to Action" and "Why Your Leaders Are Reacting, Not Leading – and How to Fix It" explore how to close that gap.
Organizations can confuse activity with progress. We know that often people default to completing easier, time-sensitive tasks over more important but less urgent ones. It feels productive, but it doesn’t move the needle or bring us that much closer to the goal (compared to another task we could spend our effort on). This delicate dance requires intentionality to ensure that the most meaningful work remains the focus while necessary work is also completed.
AI Isn't Just an Efficiency Play
A clear divide is taking shape in generative AI adoption: between companies that introduce the tool as a pure efficiency play and those that adopt it to support and increase human capacity. Early results have shown that while the former may deliver short-term benefits, the latter approach provides long-term value and results. Sarah offered leaders a series of questions and frameworks to approach their AI adoption efforts in "5 Questions Every Leader Should Ask Before Building AI Solutions" and in "The 4 E's: The Human Capabilities Creating Strategic Advantage."
Think of AI as not replacing human value, but redefining it. The competitive edge is shifting from technical skill or knowledge alone to the ability to connect, adapt and think in ways machines can’t.
Employee Experience Efforts and Needs Are Misaligned
Companies have spent time, money and resources on employee experience initiatives that sound good on paper but fail to deliver results. The trap these organizations fall into is focusing on the structure of work and ignoring "how people feel within that structure." Delivering on one side while ignoring the other will never improve employee engagement, energy or enthusiasm.
Meaningful employee experience efforts align bold vision with realistic expectations, great tools with psychological safety, and strong employee policies with achievable timelines. "How to Build a Thriving Workforce in 2025" and "How to Break Free From the Employee Experience Trap" tackled the flip sides of this challenge.
The Employee Experience Trap occurs when companies prioritize surface-level perks like casual events, access to a gym and free snacks, while neglecting things such as meaningful work, growth opportunities and a supportive culture. This creates a disconnect where employees feel unfulfilled and leads to dissatisfaction and turnover.
