Unweave First. Then Build What Matters.
Keynotes and workshops for organizations exhausted by initiatives that don’t hold. Kathy Coffey Solberg — author of Reweaving What Matters, TEDx speaker, and systems change practitioner — helps people see what’s really there, and find their own way to rebuild what works without losing what matters.
Ways to Work Together
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Workshops
Hands-on working sessions where teams stop circling and start moving.
Kathy facilitates the conversation your group has been avoiding — or hasn't known how to start — and turns it into decisions, shared language, and next steps everyone can name. People leave with a method they'll use the next morning, not a binder they'll never reopen.
Built for business, nonprofit, and government teams — and community groups doing the same hard work.
Format: 90 minutes to a half day · working session, not a lecture
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Keynotes
45–90 minutes, tailored to your event and audience. In person or virtual.
Every keynote is grounded in the book and shaped by conversation with you before the event — because you cannot help people change anything until you have heard them.
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Podcasts & Media
Kathy speaks with podcasts, publications, and groups of every kind — from national shows to book clubs.
Interview topics, story bank, bios, and images are ready to go in the media kit.
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The Community Loom
A signature hands-on experience unlike anything else at your event. Participants weave together on a physical loom, experiencing the book's central metaphor with their own hands. Available as an addition to any keynote or workshop, or as a standalone installation for multi-day gatherings.
Keynotes
Reweaving What Matters
Why most change fails before it starts - and what to do instead.
The signature interactive keynote, built from the book. It opens where change actually breaks: people try to fix what they’ve never truly seen.
Kathy starts with Unweaving — the work of noticing what’s really happening — and moves the room into Reweaving: rebuilding how people work, decide, and belong around what they find.
This isn’t a talk delivered at an audience. Using a live weaving element, the room participates in the very practice the book teaches, so people leave having done the work.
For: conferences, leadership summits, all-staff gatherings, association keynotes — any room ready to be moved, not lectured.
Format: 90 min interactive (default) · 60 min when the agenda requires · scales to 200+ · physical weaving element integral
The Penelope Principle: Why Your Initiatives Fail
The step every initiative skips — and the cost of skipping it.
Every organization has launched initiatives that promised transformation and delivered more of the same. The problem isn’t commitment — it’s sequence. We keep building on structures we’ve never examined, addressing the visible threads while ignoring the loom itself.
Drawing from the ancient story of Penelope — who understood that sometimes you must unweave before you can create something new — Kathy makes the structural case: change fails at the start, not the end, because organizations act before they see. She names what gets missed, why it’s expensive, and what disciplined noticing changes about everything downstream.
Tailored to your context: inclusion & diversity, employee engagement, restructuring, strategic planning, culture change.
For: technical and operational audiences, executive teams, and conferences that respect evidence over enthusiasm.
Format: 60–90 min · interactive elements optional
Beyond Belonging: Places Where People Matter
Mattering goes beyond belonging.
It asks something harder.
Does each person’s presence actually change what’s possible here?
People can tell the difference — and they’ve been telling us, through exhaustion, resignation letters, and quiet checking out.
This keynote gives HR and people leaders a framework for moving past engagement scores toward workplaces where contribution is real, dignity is structural, and people stay because their presence matters. Practical, warm, and grounded in the daily craft of how work actually gets done.
For: HR conferences, people & culture teams, and leaders responsible for retention, engagement, and wellbeing.
Format: 45–90 min · tailored to your event
Train the Weaver
Ready to lead this and work inside your own organization? For organizations ready to go beyond a keynote: Train the Weaver is a certification program that trains individuals to lead the full Unweaving and Reweaving process inside their own organization. The first cohort opens Fall of 2026
What People Are Saying
Mattering
"Noticing - at first, I thought was a buzz word, but it's so much more. So crucial and impactful to make other feel valued, understood and included"
— High-structure professional, engineering and finance background
Effective
"Kathy makes small and large groups understand how to work effectively together - and not just coexist, but thrive - amidst difference."
— Hospitality CEO, Community Leader and Marketer
Compelling
"Kathy is one of the most intellectual and motivated individuals I have ever come across. What fascinates me the most is her analytical and storytelling abilities."
— Organizational Sociologist and Global Innovator, Columbia University
Let’s Work Together
It all begins with an idea. Tell me a little about your workplace, organization, or community and I’ll be in touch within two business days.