It has been amazing to work with you on our strateg(ies) over many years. Your support, professionalism and insights were critical to a great strategy.
I really appreciated how our sessions enabled time to self-reflect on both behaviors and actions to support moving through the change curve.
Many of the culture team accomplishments this year (and last) were facilitated or carried out by you directly. Having your guidance and advice has been crucial.
Focus groups were delivered expertly and in a way that allowed for maximum contribution, measured with giving the participants enough time to think and give considered responses.
By having you as an external facilitator I was able to be fully engaged and participate in the change management discussions of our operating model rather than permanently switching between the roles of the business leader and the facilitator. Changing an operating model, which also impacts responsibilities and governance bodies quickly can have an emotional and political component. You as an external facilitator brought all the elements of good facilitation which created an atmosphere of openness, trust, involvement and commitment to find the best solution for the needs of the organisation. In addition, you helped us to think broad and applied the right moderation techniques, project plan milestones and timelines, which all helped us to progress quickly with good decision making.
Kathryn assisted our leadership team to describe and articulate the specific problem we were trying to solve. She delivered a simple and unencumbered process and used her deep expertise in asking thought provoking questions to drive the group towards their objectives. She was an ideal partner for me and a great fit for our organisation.
Our executive team was a mixture of recent additions, a new CEO as well as members who had been with the organization for almost 20 years. The decision to engage Kathryn turned out to be a watershed moment for the team. With her leadership, as the new CEO, I was able to fully engage with the process of exploring the vision driving the company’s future as part of the team without immediately succumbing to the inevitable dive into implementation. Kathryn’s ability to engage and persist helped us clarify a strategy aligned with our vision as an innovator in a field that had not seen much innovation in over 50 years. The strategic direction ultimately prepared us to respond in record time to produce a Covid vaccine candidate for the SARS CoV2 pandemic.
Kathryn creates a trusting environment which enables us to talk candidly and openly about our business issues. She brings her experience and expertise to bear and asks focused and hard driving questions in a sensitive and discreet manner. Her non-judgemental approach puts us at ease, and we don’t become defensive or stuck. Instead, we have strategized and developed practical actions that have helped our business move forward.
You helped us to significantly increase buy-in into our new structure by bringing an objective clear and transparent process. Your friendliness and project management skill combined with your ability to help us have valuable, forward moving discussions was appreciated by all our extended management team.
Using Kathryn’s skills in our reorganisation process to ascertain the best company structure was key to gaining employee buy-in. I can’t thank her enough for supporting DLRC through this important phase in our growth.
Kathryn’s gift is listening to everyone on the leadership team and bringing focus to the issues that enable us to work better together. Her attention to the detail and nuances of what we say and her neutral objectivity, enables her to pull together our ideas, reflect them back and in a non-threatening way challenge us to do more. She left a positive indelible mark on our organisation that will serve us well as we continue to grow.
Kathryn has provided the clarity we need to create and move our plans forward. She has a way of engaging team members so each of their voices is heard and so commit to action the priority issues we face. She enabled us to create the time to think about the big picture and ensure we are truly adding value to support the growing organisation. This is as good as it gets!
Kathryn’s extensive experience and deep insight into strategic planning was of great help to us at Atlantic Lottery. Her realistic and balanced perspective has increased the probability of successful change and her structured approach gave us effective tools that we have adopted in other parts of the organization. Her impact is being felt positively and is driving success outside of the initial boundaries of the project.
Kathryn assisted our association in developing a new strategic direction and a new set of values. By asking pertinent questions, Kathryn draws out relevant and crucial details, and facilitated setting both short and long term goals that are realistic and attainable. What appeared on the surface to be a daunting task, mired with varying opinions and a myriad of data, became manageable with her guidance. We could not have completed it without her.
One of my key learnings going through this process is that you really can’t do strategy any other way. It has to be tied to your business, come from the heart and developed by your leadership team.
Kathryn did a superb job on an extremely complex and dynamic project – I had complete confidence that the project would be well executed.
Kathryn is a true facilitator. She doesn’t impose herself or an agenda, but works with the leadership team to find what it really needs, then provides the structure, patience and flexibility to drive tangible results.
You can depend on Kathryn to have a clear view of the requirements. She knows how to create the space and set the direction to allow individuals and teams to make a strategic vision real and successful.
Kathryn provided the focus and tools to ensure our project was clearly defined and well managed. She was able to quickly access what needed to be done, provide thoughtful questions and insight to move the process forward and partnered with us to deliver the clarity we needed to complete.
Kathryn Simpson’s gift is to know how to take a team’s creative ideas for a good run and then skillfully corral them for strategic sessions that produce impressive results. As the strategic consultant brought in for the re-branding of Women in Food Industry Management, Kathryn customized a blueprint to guide the process from nascent ideation and cross-functional operations to a valuable score-card process post-launch. WFIM’s re-branding produced an increase of over 40 per cent in membership in only 30 days.
Kathryn provided great leadership in the design of our corporate process improvement program; was very sensitive to our specific corporate culture and highly regarded by the many directors with whom she consulted. Perhaps her most important contribution was routinely bringing me back to the Plan, when I got lost in the ‘trees’ during the implementation.
Kathryn has a proven track record of enabling organizations and teams to translate strategy into sustainable results. She has shown herself to be a high functioning, adaptable flexible professional with a diverse range of skills and competencies.
You have blown me away! What a piece of work! Thank you a thousand times.
Kathryn has worked with Anthem’s Canadian team since 2009. Her approach is both disciplined and nurturing. With her guidance, we have developed an approach to our strategic planning, as well as a process to embed the necessary activities in our day-to-day business to ensure results. Through her facilitation, our team has been able to uncover key issues and opportunities within the business, that we have leveraged into actions to support an enthusiastic and realistic future vision. Over the past 4 years, her guidance and facilitation has been key at critical points when we needed to make fundamental decisions to drive our business and energize our employees. Her contribution continues to support Anthem in driving sustained profitable growth!
There are a lot of consultants who can formulate strategy and do strategic planning, however the difficult part is in implementing these strategies. Kathryn excels at making strategy happen. She turns strategy into practical plans and actions and gets people on board so the strategy comes alive.
Kathryn is a change management professional. She brought the approach and tools to enable the successful implementation of this large project. Her senior experience and credibility mean that people listen to what she is saying – and change happens.
Kathryn is able to help a business leader create or clarify a direction and the strategies to make it happen. The true success comes from Kathryn’s great people skills and a relentless focus on the end results.
Kathryn’s true gift is her ability to combine incredible insight, knowledge and experience in implementing strategy with a warm, non-threatening, facilitative approach. Too often, large consulting firms descend on organizations, whip the Sr. Executives into a frenzy with tools and templates (and very large invoices!), leaving the employee base confused and panicked. Kathryn has a way of getting business owners to embrace their own piece of the pie while developing renewed confidence about their role in the organization.
Kathryn organized the strategic review for the Strategic Leadership Forum, Canada’s leading strategy organization. She pulled together a diverse team of volunteers who did comprehensive advance research. She demonstrated superb facilitation skills that enabled strong personalities to develop a new strategic plan within a short time frame. Thanks.
Book a Call with Kathryn
If you’re looking to support your leaders and teams through organisational change, Kathryn can help.
Book a free consultation to discuss how she can help your organisation thrive through changing times.
Receive your free copy of Leading for Change at the conclusion of your no-cost, no-obligation consultation.
