In a world obsessed with metrics and processes, Janet M. Harvey is making a radical proposition: the most enduring asset a company has is the whole, thriving human being. As the CEO of inviteCHANGE, she has built a global coaching movement on this premise, teaching the world’s top leaders how to transform workplace tension into trust, innovation, and unprecedented growth.
There is a vast, untapped reservoir of potential sitting in offices, boardrooms, and remote workspaces around the world. It’s the latent creative energy of the 79% of employees who, according to Gallup, are not fully engaged in their work. Most leaders see this as a problem to be solved with new tactics or tighter processes. Janet M. Harvey sees it as a profound invitation. For over a quarter of a century, she has been a guide for leaders willing to accept that invitation, to look beyond the transactional and into the transformational.
As the founder and CEO of inviteCHANGE, a global coaching and human development firm headquartered in Freeland, Washington, Harvey brings transformative insight to corporate leadership. With the credentials of a Master Certified Coach from the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and over 12,000 hours of practice, she has a deep understanding of the mechanics of business. Her true gift lies in her ability to see the human being within the employee, the possibility within the problem. The inviteCHANGE signature philosophy, Generative Wholeness™, is a framework for a more human, and ultimately more profitable, way of being.
Meeting Harvey is to encounter a blend of “bold curiosity and grounded empathy.” She speaks of business challenges as “powerful growth opportunities” and self-doubt as an “invitation to deepen practice.” Her work with senior leaders at titans of industry, such as Amazon, Boeing, and Microsoft, isn’t about providing easy answers. It is about coaching them to ask better questions: “Who am I being?”, “What future are we creating?” It is through this generative inquiry that she has built a legacy, not just of business success, as evidenced by a staggering 97% client renewal rate over 27 years, but also of profound human connection.
The Spark in the Machine
Janet’s journey began in the heart of the corporate machine. Armed with a BA in Economics and an MA in Organizational Development, she assumed an executive role at a Fortune 500 company, leading change initiatives and observing leadership in its natural environment. She saw firsthand how leaders grappled with complexity, how they thrived, and how they struggled.
“I realized that transactional solutions defined by processes, metrics, and tactics could be enriched by meeting people where they are and nurturing their whole selves,” Janet recalls. It was a critical insight. The prevailing business wisdom focused on optimizing what and how, often at the expense of who. The spark was ignited. In 1997, guided by this new understanding, she founded inviteCHANGE, a company dedicated to a more holistic approach to business and leadership. Her journey to becoming an ICF Professional Certified Coach in 2003 and a Master Certified Coach in 2008 was a formal recognition of the path she had already forged.
The Generative Proposition
The mission of inviteCHANGE is to “catalyze human development so leaders, teams, and organizations thrive together.” This is powered by a core mindset that perceives every person as “Whole, Resourceful, Capable, and Creative.” This is a strategic starting point that fundamentally alters the dynamic between a leader and their team.
To move beyond the tyranny of ‘either/or’ thinking that plagues so many organizations, leaders, and teams who practice Generative Wholeness™ methods, embrace a ‘both/and’ approach. Generative Wholeness™ principles value transactional competence (the metrics and processes) alongside relational competence (the trust and empathy), while also honoring individual autonomy (the sovereignty of choice) alongside interdependence (collective accountability).
Generative coaching focuses on unlocking potential that builds on strengths versus fixing weaknesses or compensating for something perceived as missing. Leaders are guided to explore profound questions that shift their focus from managing tasks to stewarding a future by scaling performance deeper in the organization as the fuel for profitable growth. “Through this, leaders inspire trust, foster innovation, and elevate productivity because people access latent potential to innovate when they feel seen, heard, and empowered,” Janet explains.
The Alchemist of Culture
The modern workplace is rich with opportunities: with employee engagement at just 21% and 76% of employees reporting incivility—13% experiencing it daily, costing U.S. companies an estimated $2.0 trillion in lost productivity—inviteCHANGE partners with clients to transform disengagement and misaligned cultures into vibrant, agile ecosystems. The process is both diagnostic and constructive by building a generative future state that sustains excellence. It begins with system-level diagnostics that reveal hidden strengths and friction points in operating norms and communication flows, followed by generative coaching circles where teams practice sovereign choice aligned to a shared purpose. The most critical component is the leadership pivot, where executives model curiosity rather than control, asking questions instead of issuing directives while listening to learn versus dominate and correct.
The impact is measurable and profound. Clients typically experience a 15–30% lift in engagement scores. However, the quantitative data only tells part of the story. The qualitative feedback reveals a real transformation: frontline managers shifting from micromanagement to empowering their teams, revenue per employee increasing, and innovation milestones being reached more quickly. This is the ripple effect of a culture where people feel valued.
A Leader Who Listens
Janet’s own leadership style is a living embodiment of the principles she espouses. She describes it as a dynamic partnership, one that involves “stewarding strategy while honoring the full humanity of people in its pursuit.” She leads with a “quiet authority,” guiding her team and her clients without prescribing solutions. Her approach is to “coach from a stance of ‘we’re discovering together,’” which fosters genuine ownership and inspired growth.
This philosophy has been honed through Janet’s own challenges. She speaks of moments of self-doubt not as failures, but as invitations to go deeper into her own practice. She recalls “painting murals of vision on blank conference-room walls” in the early days, a powerful metaphor for her belief in creating possibility where none seems to exist. “I anchored myself in generative inquiry rather than perfectionism,” Janet says, a lesson she now imparts to the more than 1,000 senior leaders she has personally coached.
Her legacy is one of remarkable impact. Janet has accredited over 2,700 coaches through inviteCHANGE’s ICF-accredited programs, spreading the principles of Generative Wholeness™ across six continents. She is the award-winning author of two Amazon bestselling books, Invite Change: Lessons from 2020 and From Tension to Transformation (2024), which is already in its second print run.
The Regenerative Future
Looking ahead, Janet is fascinated by the immense complexity and rapid pace of evolution in the modern world. She sees the current tensions not as a source of despair, but as “seeds of transformation.” Her next project is a third book, co-written with a colleague in Rome, that will explore how to create a regenerative cycle for humanity on the planet. “The planet will survive without the human race,” Janet says with sobering clarity. “I’m invested in us being here for the long term.”
Janet is also focused on harnessing the anxiety around technology and AI, channeling it into a co-creative force. A major initiative at inviteCHANGE is to translate their 700+ hours of live curriculum into self-managed digital learning, making their transformative tools accessible to a global audience.
When she steps away from her role as CEO, Janet practices what she preaches. Her mornings begin with physical movement—stretches, Pilates, weights—followed by the stillness of meditation. She finds joy in all forms of alchemy: cooking, gardening, writing, singing, and community volunteering. “These passions ground me,” she says, “reminding me that authentic presence fuels inspired leadership.”
Her message to the business world is a clear and powerful invitation. She urges leaders to embrace coaching and mentorship with humility, to trust that their people hold the keys to their own breakthroughs. “My invitation,” she concludes, “embrace Generative Wholeness™ as your transformative advantage, because sovereign and empowered people are your most enduring asset.” It is a profound, and profoundly optimistic, vision for the future of work.
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