Mismatch

Good people. Good organizations.

And still, burnout happens, disengagement happens, attrition happens.

What if these workplace issues signal something fixable? Long term burnout research has a word for what's being signaled: mismatch.

Mismatch is the gap between what a person needs and what they're getting. It's the gap between what they're expecting and what they end up with. Mismatches are, Cait argues, the root cause of a surprising range of burnout signs and symptoms. And once you spot them, they show up everywhere: in a role, a team, a culture, a life.

This book is a guide for finding and fixing that gap, at the individual and organizational levels. Cait Donovan maps the six buckets where match and mismatch happen (Work, Family, Coping Styles, Health, Culture, and Environment) and hands you a practical framework for locating where the mismatch lives and closing it.

Written for leaders and team members alike, this book treats the responsibility for building healthy cultures as what it is: shared. It's not here to assign blame. It's here to help good people and good organizations find their way back to each other, match by bucket.

Cait Donovan created the Match Move, a framework organizations use to spot and close the mismatches that drive burnout. Host of FRIED: The Burnout Podcast (1M+ downloads) and founder of BurnBOLD, she has delivered 200+ keynotes helping good organizations build cultures where good people thrive.