A favorite project from the past year is the What Matters video, produced with our partners at Saint Louis University as part of their work around age-friendly care and the 4Ms framework. At its heart, What Matters is an invitation to pause, listen, and understand what truly matters to the person in front of you—not just what’s been requested, documented, or assumed.

That mindset feels deeply familiar to us. Every client engagement teaches us something new: a sharper way to frame a challenge, a smarter approach to prioritizing resources, a more human way to align teams. Over time, we realized many of those lessons echo the 4Ms—not as a formula, but as a way of thinking about meaningful work.

What Matters
Good work starts with listening. Not just for deliverables, but for intent. When we understand the real goal beneath the ask, the work becomes more focused—and the insight gained often carries forward to future projects.

Money (Stewardship, Not Spend)
Every budget teaches us something. Constraints clarify priorities, sharpen decision-making, and help us better understand what “value” truly means to different organizations. Being a good steward of resources isn’t limiting—it’s instructive.

Mentation (Alignment & Clarity)
In healthcare, mentation refers to cognitive health. In our work, it’s about alignment. Strategy, story, and systems only work when expectations are shared and reality is acknowledged. Each project refines how we help teams close those gaps—and those lessons rarely stay siloed.

Momentum
The most rewarding part of this process is watching learning compound. Insights from one engagement quietly improve the next. Ideas move. Teams gain clarity faster. The work keeps working.

We love frameworks—but we love learning from people even more. Every client leaves us better than we started, and that’s a momentum worth protecting.