Headquarters: Gainesville, Georgia, USA

Founded: 2007

CAGE Code: 8CE57

DUNS/UEI: 013750347

Empowering Global Impact through Collaborative Design, Communication, Facilitation, & Production

Uniting diverse stakeholders to co-create solutions that navigate complexity and drive meaningful impact to address the world's most pressing challenges.

NAICS Codes

Core Capabilities

Bespoke Solutions for Transforming Vision into Impact

AI-Augmented Solution Design

Transforming solution design from linear steps to light-speed learning loops, instantly revealing consensus, conflict, and untapped 'white space' for breakthrough results.

AI-Enabled Decision-Making

Cutting through complexity to solve for clarity with intelligent technology enabling previously unthinkable speed and scale.

Strategic Facilitation

Leading groups through complex, high-stakes conversations to unlock collective intelligence, forge clear future direction, and build unified commitment to achieving critical goals.

Human-Centered Design

Crafting solutions that prioritize the needs and experiences of end-users.

Systems Thinking

Intervening in complex systems to shift them towards more sustainable outcomes involving understanding feedback loops, leverage points, and unintended consequences.

Open Innovation Management

Guiding organizations through the development and implementation of innovative crowdsourcing strategies and implementations.

Immersive Experience Design & Facilitation

Engaging participants in a crafted environment, narrative, or simulation to more deeply learn, understand, and care about a topic and activate diverse communities to achieve a mission.

Creative Communication Assets & Strategies

Developing brands, narratives, graphics, infographics, journey maps, videos, playbooks, presentations, educational materials, and documentation that resonate across organizations, sectors, and cultures.

Experience Summary

Case Studies

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Key Members of the Team

Tom Kehner

Co-founder & CEO

Tom is an internationally recognized designer and facilitator. He co-founded theDifference and is known for designing mission-critical engagements that align people, purpose, and performance. With a foundation in mechanical engineering and decades of advisory experience across corporate, government, and philanthropic sectors, he helps organizations unlock potential through data-driven, AI-enabled design.

Kim Delaney

Partner & Creative Lead

Kim is an experience designer, writer, and inspirer of creative assets and messaging. She leads a team of storytellers, artists, and animators who craft compelling visual communications for leading global organizations—from healthcare and defense to technology and business innovation. Her team’s work has earned industry recognition, including a Telly Award and a commissioned piece that premiered at the New Yorker Festival.

Elise Hufano

Partner & Convening Lead

Elise is a designer, facilitator, and coach who creates inclusive, collaborative environments that bring diverse voices together to solve complex social and organizational challenges. With a background in creative communications and a deep commitment to transformation in healthcare and beyond, she also advises CXO-level leaders on the human dynamics of strategy and decision-making.

Tessa Manahan

Solution Designer & Facilitator

Tessa is a people-centered designer at theDifference who uses collaborative, human-centered design to navigate complexity and help leaders make impactful decisions. Driven by a passion for understanding human behavior and a commitment to a wide array of commercial and social challenges, she brings diverse perspectives to the forefront of problem-solving.