A framework
that simplifies human engagement
Three primary questions. Three primary relationships. The Six Box Model is an ongoing exercise in curiosity, growth, and choice—a path to giving grace for yourself and others.
What’s missing from most leadership tools
Personality profiles tell you who you are. Understanding ourselves becomes more valuable when in context with our relationships to our content and to our audience.
The Six Box Model™ is a portal we step through into a new practice. It grows with us and scales from personal development, to teams and functions, families and communities, and ultimately reveals a field of unlimited opportunity.
Three questions
We begin with the permission to notice how we show up under stress without judgement or correction.
How do I show up under stress?
What abilities do I lose under stress that I have an abundance of when I am relaxed? Does my audience know more about how I show up under stress than I do?
How do I want to show up under stress?
Practice with the first question leads us to the second. Will we let our stress choose how we show up or will we reclaim that choice?
What do I want to get better at?
If there is a gap between how I am showing up under stress and how I would choose to, what competencies do I want to get better at to close that gap?
Relationship to self
Internal dialogue. Nervous system. Self-talk. What's happening inside you while you're trying to connect with someone else. Managing your own anxiety while staying present.
Relationship to your content
How you hold your material. Whether you adapt or cling to the script. The difference between knowing your content and being owned by it. What happens when someone asks a question you didn't prepare for.
Relationship to your audience
Reading the room. Creating trust and followership. What happens when people feel seen versus when they don't. The energy between you and everyone else in the room.
Three relationships
Communication involves managing three relationships simultaneously. Chances are we are good at all three relationships. Managing them at the same time is easier than we think.
Where the questions meet
Each question reveals something on its own. Each relationship teaches you something different.
But apply them together and new insight emerges. How do I show up under stress... in my relationship to the audience? How do I want to show up... in my relationship to content?
The intersections are where the real work happens.
The question your anxiety won’t ask
What's the best thing that can happen?
Not the catastrophe you're bracing for. The actual best outcome if you show up the way you want to. Most people have never seriously considered that question. The framework makes you answer it.
Muscle memory, not self-knowledge
Your heart rate goes up. Your palms sweat.
And you practice showing up differently anyway. This isn't roleplay, it’s real stress, safely triggered. That’s why assessments produce binders and practice produces change.
Ready to practice the framework?
Questions we hear
Three questions applied to three relationships. Who's your audience, what are you asking for, what's the story? Applied to your relationship with yourself, your content, and your audience. That's nine combinations, but we call it six boxes because it sounds better. It's a structure for practicing under stress, not a diagnostic tool. You use it to notice where you're breaking down and practice something different.
Start by noticing. Before your next hard conversation or presentation, ask yourself: Who's my audience? What am I actually asking for? What's my story? Then notice where you get stuck. That's the box to focus on. The framework is free to use—download the overview and start experimenting. But fair warning: the real shifts happen when you practice with other people, not just in your head.
It's three questions applied to three relationships. Who's your audience, what are you asking for, what's your story? You apply those questions to your relationship with yourself, your content, and your audience. That creates nine combinations—we call it six boxes because it sounds better and people remember it. Each workshop module maps to one element of the model. It's not a diagnostic tool that tells you what's wrong with you. It's a structure for practicing under stress, noticing where you break down, and trying something different until it sticks. Learn more →
Assessments diagnose you and send you on your way with a label. DISC, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram—they tell you what type you are, maybe give you some insights about yourself, then it's over. We don't diagnose. We practice. You get reps under real stress conditions until new behaviors become automatic. Your MBTI results don't change anyone's behavior. Practice does.
Most leadership development programs spend all their time assessing you—personality tests, 360 reviews, frameworks that label what's wrong with you. Then they hand you a report and leave. You're smarter about the problem but no better at solving it. We skip the diagnosis entirely. You don't need another assessment. You need reps. Real scenarios, real feedback, real behavior change. We practice with you until the new behavior becomes automatic. That's the difference between knowing what you should do and actually doing it under stress.
Presentation training teaches technique—hand gestures, slide design, vocal variety, where to stand, how to make eye contact. We're teaching relationship. What happens when your audience feels seen versus when they don't. What you're actually asking for and why they might say no. Why your content isn't your biggest asset—your ability to connect is. Technique might make you smoother, but it won't make you more effective if you're solving the wrong problem.