Employee Experience Design: How to Co-Create Work Where People and Organizations Thrive
Dean E. Carter, Samantha Gadd, and Mark Levy
Wiley (January 2026)

“Vision without execution is hallucination.” Thomas Edison

Most of the companies annually ranked among those most highly admired and best to work for are also annually ranked among those most profitable, with the greatest cap value in their industry segment. That is emphatically NOT a coincidence.

It is noteworthy that when major research surveys asked employees what was of greatest importance to them, feeling appreciated was ranked either first or second by 40% of the respondents and among the “top ten” for most of the others.

Dean Carter, Samantha Gadd, and Mark Levy wrote Employee Experience Design (EXD) in order to help leaders in as many companies as possible  — whatever their size and nature may be — to co-create a workplace culture within which personal growth and professional development are most likely to thrive.

Co-creation is essential to the success of the given initiatives. Years ago, Southwest Airlines’ then chairman and CEO, Herb Kelleher, was asked to explain how his airline had greater profits and cap value than all of its nine competitors did…COMBINED. His reply? “We take great care of our people, they take great care of our customers, and our customers take great care of our shareholders.”

These are among the strategic objectives on which Carter, Gadd, and Levy focus. Each is prefaced by HOW TO:

o See value that others overlook
o Be guided and informed by the EXD guiding principle
o Maximize the positive impact of trust, humanity, and moral courage
o Develop the seven mindsets that effective EXD requires
o Develop collective empathy and feedback that become cultural “anchors”

o Understand/apply three frameworks that can help to achieve meaningful design
o Understand/apply the “Double Diamond'” method for multidimensional design
o Sustain effective communication, cooperation, and (especially) collaboration at all levels and within all areas of your workplace culture
o Formulate and apply “metrics that matter”
o Co-create an EXD that is most appropriate for your workplace culture

Obviously, no brief commentary such as mine can do full justice to the value of the information, insights, and counsel that Dean Carter, Samantha Gadd, and Mark Levy provide in abundance. In fact, it would be a fool’s errand to attempt to adopt and adapt all of the suggestions they pose for your thoughtful consideration.

Ultimately, the value of the material will be determined almost entirely by how carefully it is selected and how effectively it is applied.

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Here are two suggestions while you are reading Employee Experience Design: First, highlight key passages. Also,  perhaps in a lined notebook kept near-at-hand,  record your comments, questions, and action steps (preferably with deadlines). Pay special attention to the conversations with Beth Grous, Kirsty Lloyd, Melanie Rosenwasser, Greg Pryor, and Michadel Bonfilio, as well as the remarks that conclude each of the fifteen chapters.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.