Organizations

Learning Design & Facilitation

Designing the conditions for people to grow — and for communities to emerge.

Organizations don't always bring people together simply to build individual skills. Sometimes the goal is a stronger community — leaders who see one another differently, build trust, and create something larger than any one person could alone. TMatsu designs leadership programs, fellowships, and learning experiences with both possibilities in mind.

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Selected work

Range and nature of the work

A curated set of engagements, shared here to show the range and nature of the work rather than as a client portfolio. Details are anonymized to protect confidentiality.

Leadership program01

Redesigning a Global Fellowship Learning Journey

A year-long fellowship for social entrepreneurs, changemakers, business leaders, and policymakers working to address global poverty across three geographic regions.

Done while I was at Acumen · for the Acumen Fellowship

Social impactFellowship programEnglish

How I contributed +

I helped shift the program from a collection of expert-led workshops toward a more connected hybrid learning journey — with clearer learning objectives, stronger connections between modules, structured reflection and application between immersive sessions, and opportunities for Fellows to remain connected between gatherings. The design recognized that the fellowship was not only about individual leadership development. The relationships among Fellows were themselves part of the program's potential value: creating a community of people who could learn from one another, collaborate across contexts, and contribute collectively to a broader social-impact mission. I also developed facilitation resources and reusable structures to make the model more transferable across geographies.

Learning architecture · Fellowship design · Community · Hybrid learning · Global context · English

Leadership program02

Personalized Leadership Development for Entrepreneurs & Investors

A three-month leadership-development program for entrepreneurial leaders and investors, designed as the flagship product of a Japanese leadership-development company and delivered one-to-one. It strengthens communication, relationships, team development, and the capacity to support others.

Done while I was at CoachEd

Entrepreneurs & investorsB2B product, delivered 1:1Japanese

How I contributed +

I designed the core curriculum and learning architecture, combining instruction, reflection, application, and individual coaching. The curriculum provided a consistent structure while the participant experience was highly personalized around individual developmental needs. I also helped build delivery capacity by developing newer team members to facilitate a product they had not originally designed.

Leadership development · Coaching · Personalized learning · Scalability · Japanese

Leadership program03

Cross-Cultural Women's Leadership Fellowship

An eight-day immersive leadership experience for 10 Japanese university women participating in a fully funded fellowship focused on women's leadership and Japan–US exchange.

A collaboration with EOKA NYC, for a USJC project

Women's leadershipFellowship programEnglish / Japanese

How I contributed +

I began by clarifying the learning objectives and aligning stakeholders, then designed the in-person learning journey together with a Slack-supported experience that extended connection and reflection beyond the physical program. The experience was designed not only around individual development, but around creating the conditions for participants to build relationships, learn from one another, and carry those connections beyond the formal program.

Immersive learning · Women's leadership · Japan–US context · Community · English / Japanese

Cohort-based training04

High-Potential Leadership Development

A two-year leadership-development program for approximately 20 high-potential employees in their 30s and 40s at a major Japanese company, bringing together participants from across functions.

Done while I was at GLOBIS · arts-based workshop in collaboration with Whiteship

CorporateIn personJapanese

How I contributed +

As designer and consultant, I worked with the client and facilitation team to translate organizational goals into a coherent developmental experience. I proposed and integrated an arts-based workshop, provided in collaboration with Whiteship, into the broader program, defining its learning purpose and aligning stakeholders around how it contributed to the leadership journey.

Leadership development · Experiential learning · Japanese corporate context · Japanese

Cohort-based training05

Leadership Development for School Leaders

A leadership-development program for 25 principals and 25 vice principals from elementary and junior high schools in the City of Kamakura, Japan. Three sessions across seven months, combining one-to-one coaching with cohort-based training sessions.

For the City of Kamakura, Japan · done while I was at CoachEd

EducationVirtual, 7 monthsJapanese

How I contributed +

The program focused on developing greater self-awareness, strengthening leaders' commitment to supporting others, and expanding their capacity to serve as leaders through a coaching mindset and stronger communication skills.

Leadership development · Coaching mindset · Communication · Japanese

Cohort-based training06

Applied Systems Thinking for Corporate Leaders

A current engagement designing a five-module applied systems-thinking program, two hours per module, for an organization delivering leadership development to Japanese corporate audiences on its own online learning platform.

In progress now

CorporateVirtual, online platformJapanese

How I contributed +

The engagement includes learning architecture, session design, online pre-learning, and facilitation guides — bringing together content, platform, pedagogy, and delivery into a cohesive learning experience.

Systems thinking · Learning architecture · Online learning · Japanese corporate context · Japanese

Online course07

Online Courses with Content Partners

Online courses developed with content partners and delivered on platforms such as NovoEd, Thinkific, Teachable, and Udemy, some group-based and some self-paced. Includes early courses for a global social-impact learning platform.

Early courses were built as part of my work at Acumen

Content partnersGroup and self-paced

How I contributed +

I worked with content partners to shape and deliver the courses. Where it made sense, I designed and ran office-hour sessions with the course instructor, so learners had a live place to bring questions and make sense of the material.

Online learning · Course design · Self-paced and group-based · Content partnerships

Retreat08

Culture-Shift Retreat for an Early-Stage Tech Startup

A two-day staff retreat for an early-stage tech startup, designed to support a shift in corporate culture and behaviors.

StartupTwo days

How I contributed +

I partnered with the C-suite to understand their strategic objectives and how they saw the organization's challenges. I then ran listening conversations with key stakeholders, including engineers, and turned what I heard into a design proposal for the retreat and into support for carrying it forward afterward.

Retreat design · Organizational culture · User research · Startup

Retreat09

Staff Retreat for a Globally Distributed Nonprofit

A two-day staff retreat balancing strategic objectives with team bonding and a sense of shared social purpose.

Done while I was at Acumen

Global nonprofitTwo days

How I contributed +

I partnered with the HR team and external facilitation professionals, engaged key stakeholders, prepared the session hosts, and co-delivered on the day so the key objectives were met.

Retreat design · Team connection · Co-facilitation · Global nonprofit

How I work

Six things I keep in mind

What goes into designing a learning experience or a community, in no fixed order.

Begin with the purpose

What should this make possible?

Before choosing a format, I clarify what the experience is meant to make possible.

Understand the people

Who is it for?

Who they are, what they are navigating, and what will help them engage.

Design the journey, not just the session

Before, during and after

What happens before, during, and after, including the space between sessions.

Design for what happens between people

Who is in the room together

Who is in the room, and how they meet, can be much of the learning.

Balance structure with emergence

Room for what no one planned

Enough structure to share an experience, enough room for what no one planned.

Build capability that lasts

What stays when I leave

Guides and structures that let your team carry the work forward.

Not a sequence. Each shapes the others, and I move between them as a program takes shape.

Explore the thinking behind how I work →

Delivered directly, or built alongside your team

In person, hybrid, or virtual, in the format that suits the purpose

In English and 日本語, with the cultural context carried across

What needs to change — and what conditions would make that change possible?

Sometimes the answer is a new capability within an individual. Sometimes it is a new way of relating. Sometimes it is a community that did not exist before. TMatsu brings together learning design, facilitation, coaching, cross-cultural experience, and a human-centered approach to help organizations design for all three.

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Available in English & 日本語