Laura Putnam

Building a Workplace Where People — and Performance — Thrive

Burnout is at an all-time high. Engagement is at an all-time low. Despite a $7 trillion wellness industry, people are less well, and that’s costing every bottom line.

What if the problem isn't the people — It's the water they’re swimming in?

In her flagship keynote, Laura Putnam introduces the Fix the Water framework — a new way of understanding why systems, not individual behaviors, drive sustainable performance. Using the metaphor of fish who don't know what water is, she shows how organizations can move from solving the wrong problem to the right one.

Drawing on nearly two decades of work with 500+ organizations and 50,000+ leaders — and a personal story of living in a Ghanaian village where wellbeing was simply woven into daily life — she names the forces that are shaping the water against human flourishing and makes the case that changing it is both possible and urgent.

Audiences leave with a new question — not “why aren’t people well?” but “what kind of water are we creating?”

Audiences will walk away with:

See the Water. A new mental model — the water, not the fish — that shows why culture, not individual behavior, is the real driver of wellbeing and performance.

Study the Currents. Assess the day-to-day experiences shaping the culture before they turn up as turnover, absenteeism, or crisis.

Shape the Water. Apply three organizational levers — environment, policy, and job design — that change the culture with asking people to try harder.

Start the Ripple. Leave knowing the single most powerful action you can take, given your role within the organization.

Proof That It Works. Real-world case study demonstrating that by changing the conditions, you can elevate performance & wellbeing across an entire state.

Why the Person in the Middle Matters Most

The manager alone accounts for 70% of team engagement. They have more impact on employee wellbeing and mental health than doctors or therapists.

The most powerful lever in your organization isn’t strategy, technology, or benefits. It’s your managers.

A pioneer in building manager-driven movements of wellbeing, Laura Putnam makes the case that the manager isn't just part of the system. For their team, they are the system. In an interactive and evidence-based keynote that provides actionable steps, she introduces her proprietary Multiplier Method™ — backed by third-party research cited by the Mayo Clinic.

As a result of this talk, managers discover how much they matter — and exactly how to act on it. Senior leaders recognize their role in supporting these managers. And everyone in the room leaves with a new understanding: wellbeing isn't just an HR initiative. It's foundational to how every manager needs to lead.

Audiences will walk away with:

Own the Effect. A new understanding of why the manager isn't just part of the system — for their team, they are the system. Feel the Stakes. A visceral sense of what's at stake — not just for organizations, but for the people on every team and the families depending on them.

Master the Multiplier Method™. Three specific, immediately applicable practices — Do, Speak, Create — that turn any team leader into a force for wellbeing and performance.

Reframe the Role. Clarity on why wellbeing and mental health are not just up to HR, but are foundational to how every manager needs to lead.

The Case for Managers. A clear business case for why investing in managers is the highest-leverage decision an organization can make.

The Human Answer to an AI World

AI is automating cognitive work; remote work is deepening isolation; and the average office worker is sitting more than 10 hours a day. What if the antidote isn't another app or another wellness program? What if it’s about leadership?

The most human thing a leader can do might also be the simplest: move.

We are born to move and yet it has been systematically engineered out. Laura Putnam reframes movement as a cognitive performance strategy, a gateway to belonging, and a vital pathway toward being human at work. But she doesn’t just talk about it. Within the first ten minutes, audiences move, feeling a shift within themselves and experiencing firsthand how motion enhances focus, creativity, and connection.

Drawing on science, storytelling, and audience participation, Laura paints a vision for the future of work —including the cost of not designing for movement and overall wellbeing. Audiences walk away with three ways of building motion into the workplace to improve energy, thinking, and performance.

Audiences will walk away with:

Feel the Shift. A direct, in-room experience of how movement changes focus, energy, creativity and connection.

Understand the Mismatch. An awakening to how being in motion is foundational to what it means to be human — and how the modern workplace has systematically engineered it out.

Make the Case. The case for movement as a cognitive performance strategy — and the sedentary workplace as a design flaw worth fixing.

See It in Action. Real-world examples of leaders who have integrated movement into the daily flow of work — and the results that followed.

Apply the Levers. Three steps — Design, Organize, Manage — to immediately build motion into the team and across the larger organization.

How Leaders Ensure That No One Is Left Out or Left Behind

Organizations measure performance and assess mental health risks through participation rates, survey scores, and app downloads. But the people most at risk are often the ones who never show up in those numbers at all.

What’s hiding in plain sight in your organization?

This keynote unpacks two leadership challenges that rarely get the attention they deserve. The first is Wellness Privilege — the unexamined systems and assumptions that make thriving accessible for some and nearly impossible for others. The second is the mental health gap, which now is leaving too many behind. Today, a construction project manager is 5X more likely to lose a worker by suicide than by accident on the job.

This isn’t just an equity or a mental health problem. It’s a performance problem — one that shows up as reduced productivity, diminished quality of work, and increased safety risks. By unpacking the research and sharing real-world stories — she makes visible what most organizations never see: who the water is working for, and who it isn’t.

Audiences will walk away with:

Name the Gaps. A clear understanding of the access gap (who’s being left out) and the mental health gap (who’s being left behind) — and why the solution to both isn’t more resources for the individual. It’s better leadership.

See the Invisible. The 50 Ways You Might Have Wellness Privilege at Work assessment — a tool to make the invisible visible.

Build the Blueprint. The Leading Mental Wellbeing Toolkit — a guide for organization-wide, conditions-based solutions, tested out by 200 companies.

Bridge the Gap. Foster psychological safety, awaken compassion and elevate every voice within every team.

Drive Performance. A clear understanding of why closing the access and mental health gaps isn’t “soft.” it’s the highest-leverage performance move available to any leader.

Managers on the Move (Manager Workshop)

How to Become a Multiplier of Wellbeing, Engagement, and Performance

Empower managers to spark a “middle-out” movement. Applying The Multiplier Method™, participants learn how to model, talk about, and embed wellbeing into the team culture to elevate engagement and performance.

From Starfish to Systems (Executive Workshop)

How to Elevate Mental Health — Upstream, Midstream and Downstream

By leveraging an upstream–midstream–downstream framework, senior leaders discover how they can tackle mental health head-on, creating a culture of sustainability and emotional wellbeing.

Workplace Wellness That Works (Practitioner Workshop)

10 Steps to Infuse Wellbeing & Vitality into Any Organization

HR and wellbeing leaders are given the tools to reinvigorate their wellbeing and performance strategies in 10 actionable steps — energizing their people, strengthening teams, and driving results.

Me At My Best® (Employee Workshop)

A Practical Guide to Navigating an Imperfect Culture

This session inspires employees to imagine what’s possible, educates them on a science- backed framework for thriving built around six dimensions of wellbeing, and gives them practical strategies for sustaining energy and focus in an imperfect culture.