The Unmute Founding 100: Who It's For

The Unmute Founding 100 is for people who want workplaces where colleagues actually talk to each other: founders, HR and people leaders, team managers, CSR leads and individual professionals who are ready to help shape Unmute from its first days. It suits those who will take part, not those who only want to watch.

Whether your office is in Dubai Marina, Dubai, or your team works remotely across the region, the Founding 100 is designed so you can take part fully.

What Unmute is about, in one paragraph

Unmute is my work on emotional connection inside teams. Most offices I walk into in Dubai are full of capable, polite, busy people who are on mute with each other. They share calendars and dashboards, but not what is really going on in their day. Unmute exists to bring honest, respectful conversation back into working life, through corporate wellness and staff-focused CSR that people genuinely want to attend. I work with teams in person in Dubai, and teams elsewhere in the GCC join me online.

A founding group is how that work begins. As the name says, it is a first circle of one hundred. I am keeping this post to one question only: who belongs in it. For the current details of what joining involves, the Unmute page is the place to look, because I would prefer you read it there than rely on a summary here.

Who the Unmute Founding 100 is for

When I picture the people in this first circle, I see five kinds of reader. You may recognise yourself in more than one.

Founders and business owners

You built the company and you can feel the distance growing as it grows. The early days, when everyone ate lunch together and knew each other's families, have given way to departments and reporting lines. You want to keep the warmth without losing the structure, and you are willing to go first.

HR and people leaders

You have run the engagement survey, read the comments, and you know the scores do not tell the whole story. You are looking for something more human than another policy or another app, and you want a say in how it is shaped for workplaces like yours.

Team managers

You lead six, ten or twenty people. You notice who has gone quiet in meetings. You would like a simple, respectful way to open conversation without turning your team room into a counselling room, which is not your job and not what Unmute asks of you.

CSR and culture leads

You are responsible for initiatives that are meant to matter to staff. You have seen how quickly a one-day event fades. You want CSR that starts inside the building, with the people who work there, before it reaches outward.

Individual professionals

You may not have a title that gives you authority over culture. You are simply the person colleagues come to when they need to talk. You would like company, language and a community for the role you already play informally.

The qualities that matter more than the job title

A founding group works when its members bring the same few qualities. I look for these far more than seniority or company size.

• Willingness to speak first. Connection in a team usually starts when one person says something true and ordinary. Founding members are comfortable being that person.
• Respect for boundaries. Unmuting is not oversharing. It is knowing what is useful to say at work and what belongs elsewhere.
• Listening without fixing. Most colleagues do not want solutions. They want to be heard for two minutes without interruption.
• Consistency. A small habit kept every week changes a team more than one large event a year.
• Honest feedback. Early members help shape what comes next. That only works if you tell me what landed and what did not.

Who should probably wait

I would sooner be clear now than disappoint anyone later. The Founding 100 is not the right fit for everyone, and there is no shame in that.

• If you are looking for a finished, polished programme with every detail fixed, a founding stage will feel too open for you. A later stage may suit you better.
• If you want a quick badge for a company report without real staff involvement, this will not give you what you are after.
• If you are seeking personal support for something serious in your own life, please speak with a qualified professional. Unmute is about workplace connection and wellbeing, and it is not a substitute for advice from your doctor.
• If your leadership is firmly against open conversation, start by finding one ally before you join anything.

Why a founding group at all

I could have built Unmute quietly and announced it when it was complete. I chose not to, for a simple reason. A programme about people speaking up should be shaped by people speaking up.

Workplaces in the UAE are unusually mixed. In one team you may find eight nationalities, four first languages and very different ideas about what is appropriate to say to a manager. What feels like friendly openness to one colleague feels intrusive to another. No single person can design for that from a desk. It has to be worked out together, in real rooms, with real teams.

The first hundred are the people who help work it out. That is a responsibility as much as an invitation, and I want founding members to feel both.

Five questions to ask yourself before you join

Take ten minutes with a notebook. If you can answer most of these with a clear yes, you are likely the person I have in mind.

1. Can I name one specific situation at work where people stayed silent and it cost the team something?
2. Am I prepared to try a small new habit with my own team, not only recommend it to others?
3. Do I have, or can I find, at least one colleague who will support me in this?
4. Am I comfortable giving direct feedback on something that is still being shaped?
5. Is this about the people I work with, and not only about how it looks from outside?

If you answered yes to four or five, I would be glad to have you in the room. If you answered yes to two or fewer, keep reading and watching for now. The door does not close on the conversation.

What I ask of founding members

I ask for three things, and none of them is complicated. Show up. Be kind and be honest in the same breath. And take one idea back to your own team each time, however small: a two-minute check-in at the start of a meeting, a question that is not about deadlines, a pause before replying.

That is how a culture shifts. Not through a campaign, but through a hundred people each doing one small thing with steady attention.

Your next step

I work with teams in person in Dubai Marina, Dubai, and online across the UAE, the GCC and worldwide.

If you recognised yourself in this post, the next step is simple. Read the current details and see how to join the Unmute Founding 100 for yourself or your team. Come as you are, bring one honest question about your workplace, and let us begin from there.