The What Works Story

Who are we?

What Works Consultants is a management consulting firm with a different kind of philosophy. We play for the long haul, not the short engagement. Because we believe business problems should never be faced alone, we help executives conduct the research they need to make important business decisions. But we don’t stop there. We take a people approach to business by helping organizations with empathetic change management, creating the process, internal communications, and people operations strategies they need to succeed long-term. Our core projects include OKR/KPI, success metrics, performance enablement, employee engagement, and internal communications projects to drive organizational transformation. We are smart consultants who love people and the ripple effect our work has on the world.

What do we do?

WWC helps leaders understand their stakeholders and communicate to them in a strategic, empathetic, and meaningful way to drive performance enablement and continuous improvement. We do this through research, process improvement, internal communication, and people operation. We are process-driven as well as personalized in our approach. As a research and outcome-focused firm, we look at what is possible versus what is impossible in difficult-to-navigate situations and work with your leadership and teams to help achieve it.

What Works Consultants, Inc is the only firm in the nation to coach and consult using Diane Dye Hansen’s Critical Opportunity Theory, a proprietary process that defines the symptoms of organizational decline and trains organizations how to question those symptoms to systematically create opportunities from problem situations. The company is located in Carson City, Nevada and has consultants in every U.S. time zone.

IN 2011, WHAT WORKS COACHING WAS BORN. IN 2018, IT GREW UP INTO WHAT WORKS CONSULTANTS.

You know when it’s time to launch a kid? School is done. Social skills have been learned. It’s off to the big world for that kid to make a difference. That’s sort of how I feel about this company. It started in 2009, as Hansen Marketing Communications. I was freelance writing to make ends meet after the worst economy in centuries and a series of layoffs. The sun did come out, but not where I expected. Life had thrown me to Carson City, at the base of beautiful Lake Tahoe. It was there I got involved in personal development and discovered the coaching profession. I fell into it naturally, with 20 years of experience helping organizations communicate, I started to help organizations communicate with themselves. Over time, it evolved. I got a contract with the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health as a Communication Consultant. Life evolved. It did its thing. I got laid off four months into my Master’s program. When told by an unemployment officer that I needed to quit grad school, I marched down to the Secretary of State and restarted my firm, What Works Coaching. After graduating from USC with a Master of Communication Management, I decided it was time to put on bigger britches and start using our expertise in communication to transform organizations in a unique way. I am not saying this has been easy. It’s challenged every part of my mind, body, heart, soul, and spirit. Yet here it is, ironically born Independence Day week 2016, What Works Consultants. My hope is for Critical Opportunity Theory, which defines how to turn crisis and challenge into opportunity, to reach so many more people than I would ever dream of alone. It’s truly our challenges that make us what we are. Even if we have to hide a bit to regroup, we emerge ready to connect, question, and come into full awareness and realization of our future. Today, we are proud to have clients in every U.S. time zone and consultants there too. We have been honored to serve Denny’s, Inc and other service-focused companies that are people-centric in their cultures, hearts, and minds. As I pursue my Doctorate of Education in Organizational Change and Leadership, also from USC, I expand my knowledge, the knowledge of the firm, and deepen service to our clients.