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62% of employees are not engaged at work. Another 17% are actively disengaged. (Gallup, 2025)
That means almost 8 out of 10 people are mentally checked out while we pour money into strategy decks, culture campaigns, and town halls.
Here’s the truth we don’t like to say out loud.
You don’t fix culture with bigger meetings. You fix it with smaller moments.
And most leaders are overlooked the small moments that matter most.
The Myth That Derailed Modern Leadership
For years we treated culture like a top-down initiative.
Roll out new values. Host a town hall. Launch a survey. Announce a new culture program.
And the numbers still didn’t move.
Because culture was never built that way.
Culture is shaped by what people feel in the everyday rhythm of work.
• Does my manager see me?
• Can I speak up without regret?
• Do my ideas matter?
• Do I feel valued or invisible?
• Do I trust the people I work with?
These answers form culture long before any strategy deck does.
How we bring humanity back to business
At Desa Global Leadership, we created Pebble Leadership (TM) because we kept seeing the same pattern:
Leaders want big impact. But they underestimate the small behaviors that create it.
Pebble Leadership gives them a simple, science-backed way to build connection and belonging throguh micro-moments that compound over time.
The idea sparks from Gentoo penguins in Antarctica. They start lifelong partnerships with a single pebble. One small gesture creates profound connection.
Human do this too. We just forget how powerful the small things are.
The Five Pebbles that Build Strong Teams
Pebble Leadership teaches leaders five small, consistent behaviors:
• Trust — Reduce guesswork. Make expectations clear. Follow through.
• Sponsorship — Say someone’s name when they’re not in the room.
• Belonging — Notice who is missing from conversations and bring them in.
• Growth — Recognize specific actions with specific impact.
• Appreciation — Offer small challenges that strengthen people forward.
These pebbles don’t require a budget. They require awareness, intention, and consistency.
What Pebbling looks like in real life
Here are a few scripts to trial to make Pebbling a consistent and game-changing habit in your team environment.
A project manager closes every meeting with: “What did we each head as the next step?” Confusion drops. Trust rises.
A team lead shaes a teammate’s win with a senior leader: “You should see how Jamal handled yesterday’s client fire.” That sentence opens doors.
A VP notices one voice missing and says: “Let’s bring someone from Customer Success into this.” Belonging grows.
A supervisor sends a one-line message to a stressed employee: “I see how hard you’re working. It matters- thank you.” Engagement shifts in seconds.
How to start pebbling today
Start with simple steps:
Set a Pebble Goal
Choose one micro-moment to practice each week.
Notice the Ripple
Watch how people respond when they feel seen.
At the end of each month, ask:
“What changed because of one small action?”
Why This matters right now
Loneliness is rampant. Burnout is accelerating. Disconnection is becoming the status quo.
But culture initiatives can’t do the heavy lifting alone. They need daily behaviors from leaders that make the culture real.
It’s the leaders who pebble. It’s teams who pebble. It’s organizations that understand connection is career fuel.
If you want teams to stay, grow, and thrive, start with one small action.
One pebble. One moment. One ripple.
Everything else grows from there.
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