I help teams work through problems and change. I get close to the people doing the work, find what is getting in their way and help them work through it together. That might mean making a hard decision, testing an idea or changing how the work gets done.
01
Leadership teams.
Your leaders need to agree what matters, who owns what and how to move forward together. I design and run sessions that give them room to work through it and leave with clear decisions and commitments.
In practice: I helped leadership teams work on shared ownership, decision making and accountability. In one session, we used “Buy a Feature” with play money to make trade-offs visible, then turned the discussion into team commitments and individual actions. Later feedback reported that the language and frameworks were still being used in conversations about accountability and culture.
Read the leadership case study
02
Hackathons for everyone.
You want people with different skills and levels of experience to tackle real problems together. I help shape the event, find worthwhile challenges and give people a useful way to take part, whether they want to explore, build or stretch.
In practice: I led Vancouver’s local Hackathon campaigns, helping people work across teams, try unfamiliar tools and turn ideas into working projects. In 2025, eight projects involving Vancouver staff received recognition in challenges open across Microsoft and sponsored by senior leaders.
03
Helping people early in their careers.
People early in their careers often have more to offer than they realise. I help them see their strengths, learn from other people and take practical steps towards the work they want to do.
In practice: I built Career Builder from employee research into a programme of learning sessions, practical tools, a newsletter, a website and an AI agent for finding the content. By July 2025, more than a third of Microsoft Vancouver employees had taken part in different parts of the programme.
04
Putting AI to work.
You have access to AI, but where would it actually help? I work with the people doing the work to find a real problem, try an approach and judge whether it makes things better.
In practice: I designed and ran a customer workshop around an affordable home-buying challenge. Teams used AI to explore ideas and question assumptions, then developed proposals they could present. The session ended with concrete proposals for the customer to assess; their innovation lead requested the presentations for evaluation.
05
Speaking.
I spent 26 years at Microsoft, most recently leading the Garage in Vancouver, helping people experiment with new ideas, adopt emerging technologies and find better ways to work.
Now I speak about AI, innovation, leadership and the future of work, drawing on what I learned from doing the work inside a global technology company.
Available for 45-minute talks, represented by Spoken Artists. See my speaking profile and enquire.
