On the misalignment

The standards that shape your organization are real even when no one writes them down.

Leaders talk about culture, alignment, and values. What gets discussed less is the gap between those words and how the organization actually operates — who advances, who belongs, and who quietly gets sorted out. I work with leaders who are ready to see that gap clearly and close it deliberately.

Jovanny A. Suriel, Ed.D.
Doctorate
Ed.D. — USC
Research on professional standards and embedded bias
Higher Education
Senior Leadership
Roles building programs and developing people across institutions
Workforce Development
Founding Role
New York City initiative for people historically underrepresented in professional spaces
Practice
Applied Researcher
Leadership development, organizational culture, professional standards
What I do

Four ways to work together.

Each engagement is built around a single question: where is the gap between what your organization says and what it does, and what does the leadership team need to close it? The answer comes back as a brief, a diagnostic, a workshop, or a months-long advisory engagement, depending on what the organization needs.

01 / Brief
Executive Briefing

Executive Brief on the Unstated Standards in Your Organization

A one-to-two-hour briefing for senior leadership on how unstated professional standards shape who advances, who belongs, and who gets quietly sorted out. Customized to your context and your data.

1–2 hours From $3,500
02 / Diagnose
Cultural Diagnostic

Leadership & Culture Diagnostic

A four-to-six-week structured assessment of the gap between what your organization states it values and how it actually operates. Closes with a 90-minute leadership briefing and a written report.

4–6 weeks From $7,500
03 / Facilitate
Leadership Workshop

Workshop on Closing the Misalignment Gap

Half-day, full-day, or ten-week pilot workshop for senior leaders, grounded in doctoral research on professionalism, bias, and organizational culture. Scenario-based. Built to fit the room.

Half / Full / 10-wk From $5,000
04 / Advise
Fractional Advisory

Fractional Leadership & Culture Advisor

A standing advisory relationship for organizations that need senior thinking on leadership development and organizational culture without funding a full-time hire. Three-to-six-month engagements.

3–6 months $4,000–6,000/mo
Read the full service descriptions
Some of the most powerful rules in any organization are the ones nobody writes down.
— From the working framework
Who this is for

Leaders inside organizations that say they value culture and want to act on it.

The buyers I serve sit one or two steps inside organizations doing real work with limited time. Provosts, deans, learning leaders, foundation program officers, workforce-system staff, and senior leadership teams at organizations that take culture seriously and want explicit language for what their teams are operating under.

Higher Education Leaders

Provosts, deans, department chairs, and student affairs leadership responsible for institutional culture, faculty development, and student belonging.

Workforce Development Organizations

Workforce boards, sector partnerships, and training initiatives serving populations historically underrepresented in professional spaces.

Corporate L&D and DEI Practitioners

Learning leaders and equity practitioners working on leadership development inside mid-size and enterprise organizations.

Foundations & Philanthropy

Program officers funding leadership development, equity work, and capacity-building in higher education and the social sector.

Jovanny A. Suriel, Ed.D.
About

Career-built programs. Doctoral-grade research. Real organizations.

I have spent my career building programs that did not exist and developing people who were not sure they belonged. My work spans senior leadership roles in higher education and a founding role leading a workforce development initiative in New York City, where I designed curriculum, built partnerships, and created pathways for people historically underrepresented in professional spaces.

My doctoral research at USC examined how standards of professionalism can carry embedded bias. That work does not stay in a drawer. It shapes how I think about leadership development, organizational culture, and the distance between what institutions say they value and how they actually operate.

On The Unstated, I write for leaders, practitioners, and organizational thinkers who are ready to look honestly at that gap.

Work with me
Writing & research

The work that backs the practice.

Every engagement draws on doctoral research, working frameworks, and a weekly editorial practice. The thinking is in the open. The proof artifacts are linked below.

Substack

The Unstated

Weekly essays on the rules organizations enforce but never name. What gets expected, who gets sorted, and the gap between stated values and lived practice. Grounded in research. Written for people doing real work in real organizations.

Weekly · 2026– Read
Doctoral Research

Professional Standards and Embedded Bias

Qualitative dissertation examining how the language of professionalism functions in workplace evaluation. USC, completed 2024. Methodology and findings underpin the practice; selected scenes appear in essays and workshop case studies.

Dissertation · 2024 Details
Forthcoming

Co-Authored Essay with Jerry W. Washington, Ed.D.

"The Word That Sorts Without Saying" pairs scenes from the dissertation with a four-phase framework on meaning under pressure. Launching as the debut essay on this publication, with a cross-post on What Time Binds.

June 2, 2026 Preview
Speaking

Talks that name what organizations already know.

Three keynotes drawn from doctoral research on professional standards, organizational culture, and the gap between stated values and lived practice. Each runs 60 minutes. Audiences leave with a shared language for patterns they already recognize.

Keynote · HR · L&D · Higher Ed

What Do We Mean by Professional

How unstated standards shape who advances, who belongs, and who gets quietly filtered out.

Drawn from doctoral research on bias, professional identity, and organizational culture, this keynote names the mechanisms most organizations leave unexamined. Audiences leave with a new language for patterns they already recognize.

60 minutes Book
Keynote · Senior Leaders · Workforce

The Alignment Gap

When values and culture don’t match: why leadership intentions and organizational outcomes keep diverging, and what it takes to close the distance.

Built for leaders ready to look honestly at their own institutions. The session moves from diagnosis to direction, giving teams a shared framework for naming the gap and taking the first steps toward closing it.

60 minutes Book
Keynote · L&D · Workforce · Higher Ed

The Unstated Curriculum

What your organization teaches without knowing it.

Every organization runs a hidden curriculum of expectations, norms, and standards nobody voted on. This session names it and gives leaders a framework for rewriting it intentionally. Accessible, research-grounded, and immediately applicable for anyone responsible for culture, onboarding, or leadership development.

60 minutes Book
Start here

A 30-minute call. No charge. No pressure.

If you have a leadership or culture question your team is sitting on, walk me through it. I will tell you what I see, what I would do first, and whether the work fits any of the engagement formats. If it does not, I will tell you that too.

Book a call