The Doctor, The Coach and The CEO.
Our Mission
The Friendship Institute exists to help rebuild the social fabric that makes people and organizations healthy, resilient, and high-performing. We are on a mission to help ten million people cultivate deeper, life-giving friendships by translating social science into practical, repeatable workplace practices.
We work with leaders who know that connection is not a “nice to have.” It is a measurable driver of trust, collaboration, retention, and change capacity. Most connection and wellbeing efforts fail for predictable reasons. They are episodic rather than embedded, inspirational rather than operational, or disconnected from how real organizations change. We were built to address those gaps.
What we do (and how we do it)
- Build prosocial capability at work: the everyday skills and norms people need to relate, collaborate, repair, and support one another in real conditions, not ideal ones.
- Deliver practical change architecture, not culture theater: designed to create internal ownership, pace adoption, and keep progress moving after a pilot ends.
- Combine skills with application: training paired with structured, real-world practice that turns knowledge into habits and norms.
- Create internal capacity: developing Connection Coaches who can sustain the work from within, reducing dependence on external experts.
- Set clear boundaries that increase credibility: using shared language and guardrails (including the Civility Index) so connection can grow without forcing intimacy or blurring roles.
- Measure credibly, without false promises: focusing on activation, participation, and leading indicators tied to belonging, trust, and collaboration, aligned to existing engagement and pulse data.
- Integrate rather than compete: strengthening the connective tissue across wellbeing, DEIB, talent, and leadership initiatives so culture and strategy reinforce each other.
The result
Stronger relationships, clearer norms, and healthier teams, with a grounded approach leaders can stand behind. Not a program that fades, but a capability that scales.
Boost your cognitive function and enhance leadership decisions.
Amplify team performance by 30% and significantly increase employee engagement and retention.
Expand your influence, creating lasting networks that enhance both your career and personal growth.
Reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, promoting emotional resilience and overall psychological wellbeing.
Promote better cardiovascular health, a stronger immune system, and increased longevity.
Create a sense of belonging, purpose, and fulfillment, leading to increased happiness and satisfaction with life overall.
Meet the Founders
Donna Brighton
The Friendship Coach
Russell Greenfield, MD
The Doctor
Lisa T. Grimes
The CEO
Lisa is a seasoned CEO and mentor who’s led companies to new heights. She believes meaningful friendships are essential to strong leadership, fueling creativity, resilience, and growth in every area of life.
The Friendship Institute: Our Origin Story
In 2023, two experienced leaders, Lisa Grimes and Donna Brighton, noticed a troubling pattern no one was talking about. Behind professional success and packed schedules, many high-performing individuals – especially women – were quietly, deeply lonely.
In coaching sessions and leadership circles, they saw it firsthand. Milestones were reached in isolation. Pressure piled up without the friendships that make us feel seen, supported, and whole. Despite outer achievement, inner connection was missing.
So they acted. Lisa and Donna launched Lead Wholly™, a peer group for women in leadership. When women were given a safe, structured space to connect, not just network, professional growth accelerated. Resilience returned. Confidence deepened. Connection was the catalyst.
One truth kept surfacing: friendship isn’t just nice to have, it’s vital for our health, longevity, and success.
Around that same time, Dr. Russell Greenfield, a longtime friend of Lisa’s and a respected integrative physician, reached out, completely unprompted. He had been seeing a different side of the same problem. In his medical practice, loneliness was showing up as inflammation, anxiety, burnout, and declining resilience.
The timing was uncanny. While Lisa and Donna were naming the hidden costs of disconnection in leadership, Russ was witnessing its physical impact. Their conversations led to a shared conclusion: friendship is not just emotionally important. It’s biologically as essential as sleep, nutrition, and movement.
Neuroscience, psychology, and medicine all backed it up. Strong relationships reduce stress, improve immunity, build resilience, and even extend lifespan. Friendship doesn’t just help us feel better; it helps us live better.
That realization led to action. Together, Lisa, Donna, and Russ founded the Friendship Institute to address the modern loneliness crisis with science, strategy, and heart.
We turn research into practical tools that help people and organizations build, strengthen, and sustain high-quality relationships. From Friendship Intelligence (FIQ) to actionable practices, we help people learn the skills of connection that no one ever taught them, but everyone needs.
Because in today’s fast-paced world, good intentions aren’t enough. We need a roadmap for real connection.
The Friendship Institute exists to bridge the gap between knowing friendship matters and actually living it.
We empower people to build the relationships that power well-being, belonging, and brilliance, at work and in life.
Friendship isn’t soft. It’s strong. It changes everything.
Build Better Friendships, One Simple Step at a Time
