Remote + Hybrid Leadership Lab
Lead with confidence whether your team is across the table, across town, or across time zones.
What’s at stake when remote or hybrid work isn’t working?
Imagine six months from now, you're in a leadership meeting explaining why:
Retention numbers are down (your best people left quietly when they felt invisible)
Projects are delayed (because everything runs through a few Slack channels, and *you* running interference via video calls)
New hires take 4 months to onboard and contribute (because documentation is scattered and there’s no system for integrating them into team dynamics through a screen)
Cross-functional teams duplicate work (because collaboration breaks down when everyone's spread out and siloed)
A critical error happened…again (because the right people weren't in the loop)
And the real gut punch? You saw it coming. You just didn't know how to fix it.
This is an invitation to remote and hybrid leaders who are figuring it out as they go. The truth is, none of us got handed the playbook for this. But what if you didn’t have to make it up anymore?
I know it's tough out there. And yet, with the right infrastructure, remote and hybrid models can work, and even work to your advantage.
I can help you lead from anywhere.
Inside the Program
The Remote + Hybrid Leadership Lab is a 7-session cohort program combining live instruction over Zoom, peer learning, and hands-on implementation. Cohort sessions take place weekly, and run for 1.5 hours. You'll gain diagnostics, frameworks, and practical tools while working alongside senior leaders facing the same distributed leadership challenges.
Each session includes:
Live instruction and frameworks – Actionable content to apply immediately
Diagnostic assessments – Clear view of where your systems aren’t serving you
Practical toolkits – Templates, playbooks, and ready-to-use resources
Peer learning – Insights and perspectives from other senior leaders
Implementation planning – Structured approach to building your change roadmap
You’ll also get:
Office hours – Dedicated time outside sessions to talk through what you're implementing
Cohort Slack community – Private Slack group to continue conversations and build lasting professional connections
Lifetime access – All recordings, materials, and resources to reference anytime
The goal isn't simply learning concepts, it's giving you the systems and infrastructure to make distributed work actually work, so your team experiences a cohesive culture no matter where they sit.
By the end, you'll have a complete 180-day implementation roadmap with concrete tools to execute it: culture-building frameworks, communication protocols, collaboration systems, documentation templates, recognition practices, and change management strategies, all tailored to your distributed team's reality.
Why a Cohort?
Real transformation doesn't happen in isolation. You'll get proven frameworks, diagnostic tools, and expert facilitation. But you need more than information. In this cohort, you're not just learning concepts, you're workshopping real problems with other senior leaders, getting feedback from people navigating the same challenges, and building a network you can call on long after the program ends. The frameworks guide you. The cohort ensures you actually use them.
Program Content
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Most distributed organizations are running office playbooks through a screen and wondering why retention is dropping and collaboration is breaking down. We'll diagnose what's not working in your current model and map what needs to change. You'll leave with a clear assessment of your gaps and priorities.
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Culture doesn't happen by accident in distributed teams, it has to be designed. We'll explore what drives connection and belonging across distance, and you'll identify 3 culture rituals you can implement immediately to strengthen cohesion on your team or organization at large.
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Why is your organization drowning in Slack but still missing critical information? We'll unpack the communications paradox and build the foundations of a strategy that ensures the right people get the right information at the right time, without overwhelming anyone.
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Silos aren't just frustrating—they're expensive. We'll examine what makes cross-functional collaboration break down in distributed teams and design systems that get your teams building together instead of duplicating work. You'll map where collaboration is failing and create a plan to fix it.
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When critical knowledge lives in people's heads, onboarding takes months, rework is constant, and you become the bottleneck. We'll tackle how to document what matters and build operational standards that reduce your personal bandwidth while keeping work flowing smoothly.
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Remote workers feeling invisible? In-office employees getting all the attention? We'll address proximity bias head-on and design systems that ensure every team member (regardless of location) feels recognized, valued, and seen for their contributions.
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Throughout this cohort, you've been building your 180-day roadmap. This session is about making sure it doesn't gather dust. We'll tackle what makes transformations stick (or fail): building buy-in, navigating resistance, managing competing priorities, and maintaining momentum when obstacles arise.
This session equips you with change management essentials: how to sequence your rollout, communicate effectively, address resistance before it derails you, and sustain momentum through setbacks. You'll leave ready to lead this transformation with confidence, not just hope.
What’s Possible
You could be in that leadership meeting six months from now sharing results that reflect your strategy and ROI of your systems:
✅ Your retention numbers are up. Your best people aren't just staying, they're staying engaged. Remote and hybrid employees feel just as connected and valued as those in the office.
The ROI: Retaining just 2-3 employees can save $150K-$450K per year in turnover costs. (source)
✅ Projects are moving faster…and so are you. Your dispersed organization collaborates effectively without needing you to intervene at every turn. Your calendar has breathing room because you're no longer the connective tissue holding everything together.
The ROI: 15% of an organization's collective time is spent in meetings, with half of that time deemed unnecessary. Leaders who implement better systems reclaim 8-12 hours per week worth $40K-$90K in annual value per leader. (source / source)
✅ New hires are contributing in weeks, not months. People ramp quickly and feel like part of the team from day one, whether they're remote or in the office. You have documentation, clear processes, and integration rituals that work through a screen.
The ROI: For a $120K employee, gaining 8 weeks of productivity through intentional and structured team integration represents approximately $18K+ in value per hire. Across 10 new hires annually, that's $180K+ in recovered productivity.
✅ Cross-functional collaboration actually works. Teams aren't duplicating work or operating in silos. Information flows to the right people at the right time.
The ROI: Eliminating just 5 hours per week of duplicated effort across a 30-person team (at an average fully-loaded cost of $75/hour) represents approximately $585K in potential annual productivity gains.
✅ Critical information reaches the people who need it. You've built communication systems that ensure nothing slips through the cracks. The right stakeholders are looped in before problems become crises.
The ROI: Preventing even one critical error can save $50K-$500K+ depending on your context (delayed launch, compliance issue, customer loss).
And here's what that really means: You're not firefighting anymore. You're leading strategically. Your team has the infrastructure they need to do their best work, wherever they're working from.
These figures represent potential value based on industry-standard cost calculations and outcomes based on hypothetical scenarios. Your actual results will depend on your organization's context, your implementation, and multiple other factors.
Even capturing 10% of these potential outcomes represents significant time and cost savings to you and your organization.
This is what's possible when you build the right systems.
And those are the systems that we’re going to examine and strengthen together in this program.
Who Will Benefit from this Program Most
This cohort is for any leader who has ever thought:
🔹 "I wish I could bring back what I loved about our culture before we went remote, but I don't know what that looks like through a screen."
🔹 "It feels like we're just a collection of strangers who happen to work for the same company. The friction is palpable and the work is suffering. How do I help people work together when they're spread out?"
🔹 "Even though our Slack is noisy, no one's on the same page. I'm worried a critical decision will slip through the cracks, and it'll be my fault for not having systems in place."
🔹 "Our best people are quietly disengaging because they feel invisible and burnt out. I worry they're already job searching, but I don't know how to help them feel valued again."
You’re likely someone who:
Leads remote, hybrid, or distributed teams at a senior level
(C-Suite, VP, Director, Department Head or equivalent leadership role)Cares about operational excellence and measurable results
Is tired of being the bottleneck for every decision and question
Has the authority or ability to make operational changes
Wants to build systems, not just band-aid over symptoms
Is committed to implementing, not just learning
Your teams might be experiencing:
Culture drift as distributed work fragments your collective identity
Communication chaos despite (or because of) all your tools
Managers who escalate everything to you
New hires who take way too long to integrate
If that’s you, I hope you’ll consider joining the cohort!
The systems we’ve relied on no longer fit the world we live in. What we need now are people willing to reimagine what’s possible.
Meet Your Facilitator:
Annie Michaels Liao
Annie has been building and leading remote and hybrid teams for over a decade; since before virtual collaboration was the norm.
She's built distributed work models across vastly different contexts including a beloved global dining brand, an agile tech startup breaking into international markets, and a mission-driven nonprofit. What this taught her: remote and hybrid work doesn't fail because of distance, these models fail when organizations try to retrofit old office standards onto distributed teams.
Her approach is to build sustainable, future-ready infrastructure designed for how modern teams actually operate (not how they used to).
Annie has led teams across operations, marketing, and training, as well as coordinated enterprise wide product and technology rollouts. This cross-functional experience helps her guide organizations toward solutions that work for everyone involved.
She's a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner with experience in GenAI adoption. And she is committed to helping organizations navigate the rapidly changing terrain of modern work challenges with empathy, clarity, and human-centered foresight.
Annie created the Remote + Hybrid Leadership Lab because she kept seeing the same pattern of talented leaders stuck retrofitting office-era playbooks onto modern work. This program is the infrastructure guide she wishes she'd had from day one.
What Others are Saying
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"Annie is one of the most gifted facilitators of meaningful online culture-building I’ve ever encountered. She is wise, resourceful, extremely knowledgeable and consistently brilliant when it comes to transforming the challenges of virtual collaboration into genuine connection, unexpected breakthroughs and group cohesion. She inspires and leads with grace. She is a skilled facilitator and a genius at helping groups build resilient relationships and exceptional results."
— Lauren W, Portland, OR
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"I used to be convinced that the only way to productively collaborate was in person. Because of this belief, I was closing myself off to a number of opportunities and people simply because it was not logistically possible for us to be in the same room together. Not only did Annie help me to realize that this is a myth, but in an astoundingly short amount of time I found myself having some of the most impactful and authentic collaborative sessions I have ever had - all 100% virtually! I'm never going back to my old way of thinking!"
Lauren F, Los Angeles, CA
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"I was incredibly skeptical that virtual connection could feel as vibrant as in-person meetings and discussions, but Annie quickly and irrevocably dispelled my fears. It takes intentionality and authenticity to put an online organization on a path to true connection, and Annie helped us build a warm and cohesive group out of total strangers within weeks. She demystified Zoom and Slack for even the most inexperienced members, and my organization is still thriving, three years on, which is a testament to her thoughtful guidance and endless enthusiasm for the process. She truly has the magic touch!"
Emily G., Seattle, WA
The Details
Cohort Begins January 8, 2026
As a member of the Remote + Hybrid Leadership Lab Cohort, you'll build leadership skills and gain tools tailored to your distributed context.
7 live Zoom sessions:
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM PT / 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM ET / 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM UTC
(1.5-hour sessions)Program Dates:
Thursdays from Jan 8 - Feb 19, 2026Capped at 12 participants
Pricing
Early Bird (Registration before November 30, 2025): $2,299 $1,499
Founder Rate (Registration before January 8, 2026): $2,299 $1,799
Need a payment plan? Happy to work with you! Just reach out!
This cohort is the culmination of years of experience building practices and resources that sustain remote and hybrid organizations and is being offered all in one program for the first time. It’s being offered at a discounted rate for the inaugural cohort. Future cohorts will run at the full $2,299 list price.
Secure Your Spot
I created this program because I kept seeing talented leaders struggle to make distributed work work. And it’s not because they're not great leaders, but because they've been trying to retrofit office-era playbooks onto teams that need something entirely different.
If you're ready to stop firefighting and start leading strategically, I'd love to have you in the January cohort.
Limited to 12 participants | Early bird pricing ends November 30, 2025.
What happens after you register:
You'll receive a welcome email within 24 hours with next steps and key program dates.
About a week before we begin, you'll be invited into our private Slack community to meet your cohort and get oriented.
You'll also receive a few pre-session reflection prompts to help you assess your current team rhythms and challenges. Just enough to ensure you hit the ground running.
By the time we kick off on January 8, you'll already know your fellow leaders and be ready to dive in.
Want to Bring This Program to Your Organization?
The Remote + Hybrid Leadership Lab is available as a private cohort for companies wanting to develop multiple leaders simultaneously with shared frameworks and language. Get in touch via the link below to discuss options for your organization.
Wondering if This is Right for You? Let’s Chat!
Schedule a free 20-minute clarity call if you have questions.
Choosing a program like this is a real investment of time, money, and energy. I want you to feel confident it's right for you.
If you're wondering:
Is this actually relevant to my situation?
Will I have time for this?
What if I can't attend every session?
How to request accommodations?
...or anything else you have a question about, let's connect!
No pressure to join, just seeing if this is a good fit.
Or submit a question below:
FAQs
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The program is designed for senior leaders (Think C-Suite, VP, Director, Department Head) across any function or industry. If you're leading distributed teams and facing the challenges outlined above, what we discuss in the cohort will be relevant.
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7 live sessions (1.5 hours each). Plus, the integration of what you’re learning into your own context happens at your pace. We recommend 1-2 hours per week, but you control the timeline based on your bandwidth.
All sessions are recorded with lifetime access. If you miss a live session, you won't fall behind.
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Yes! If your company provides professional development expenses, I'm happy to provide supporting materials for your L&D, HR, or finance team.
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All sessions are recorded and you'll have lifetime access to materials. However, the peer learning and live interaction are valuable, so we encourage attending live when possible.
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We want everyone in this cohort to have what they need to fully participate and thrive. If you need any accommodations, whether related to accessibility, learning, or anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out.
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If by Session 3 you're not seeing value, we'll refund your investment minus a $50 processing fee—no questions asked. But here's what we've built into the program to ensure you DO get value: office hours for personalized support, lifetime access to all materials so you can revisit anytime, and a peer community that continues beyond the 7 weeks.
And if your company situation changes (layoff, role change, major reorganization), reach out immediately. We'll work with you on options including: pausing and joining the next cohort, partial refund based on sessions attended, or continued access to recordings and materials so you can benefit when timing is better.
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Yes! The Remote + Hybrid Leadership Lab is available as a private cohort for organizations wanting to develop leadership capability across multiple team members simultaneously.
Private cohorts allow your leaders to build shared frameworks and language while working through challenges specific to your organizational context. Get in touch to discuss options for your organization’s needs.
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Here’s what to expect: Once you register, you’re in! You’ll get a welcome email with next steps and key dates within the next 24 hours.
About a week before we start: You’ll be invited into our private Slack space so you can meet your cohort and get familiar with the flow.
A few light pre-session prompts will help you reflect on your current team rhythms and challenges. (Nothing heavy, just a thoughtful warm-up to make sure you get the most out of our time together.)
Then, when we kick off, you’ll already have faces you recognize and a head-start on getting the most out of our time together.
Want a preview before committing? Schedule a 20-minute call where we can discuss your specific challenges. You'll get a taste of my approach and see if it's a fit, with zero obligation to enroll.
Timing Not Quite Right?
If the dates don’t work this round, you can still stay in the loop. Join the waitlist to get a heads-up when future cohorts open!
Ready to Imagine What’s Possible?
Join the Remote & Hybrid Leadership Lab and walk away with a clear roadmap, peer-supported momentum, and tools you can use from week one. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Follow for more!
Annie’s Newsletter for Remote & Hybrid Leaders
Results Disclaimer
Outcomes from the Remote + Hybrid Leadership Lab depend on multiple factors including participant engagement, organizational context, implementation effort, and existing infrastructure. The financial projections and metrics provided are illustrative examples based on industry-standard calculations and represent potential value. They are not guarantees of specific results. Individual results will vary. The cohort program provides frameworks, tools, and peer learning; actual business outcomes depend on how participants apply these learnings within their specific organizational contexts.