In this final episode of season 2 of Change: The Conversation, we're back in this bonus episode with Stephanie J. Marshall, alignment coach, with a short, but unmissable episode. How can we bring a sense of ease, joy and curiosity to change instead of feelings of stress and overwhelm. Stephanie illustrates with with an illuminating client story that shows us how we can dig into change, manage through uncertainty and help us bring a sense of ease and fun to change.
More about Stephanie:
Stephanie is a Toronto-based alignment coach and mindset coach, speaker, and podcaster. She helps women who feel stuck get out of their own way so that they can figure out what they're capable of and start having real fun. She has coached people from all over the world, from artists to executives, and from all stages of life. As co-founder of Kickstartology Coaching she created the Alignment Coaching Framework and the Kickstartology Alignment Coaching Program, rooted in neuroscience, cognitive and behavioural psychology, and research in coaching as well as behavioural change. Her clients get phenomenal results. Stephanie started her career working in Media and has an MBA, but so do a lot of people. She dabbles in stand-up comedy and knows her dog is the best.
 
Follow Stephanie at:
Website  |  Instagram  |  LinkedIn

We're back for our third episode with Michael Schiel to talk about transformation leadership in the public and community sectors. We talk about the persistent changes we are seeing in organizations and how external changes impacting how and where we work are making change more difficult in organizations that are used to conducting all of their interactions in person. We talk about the importance of trust, and how leaders need to build their communications toolkit to include more diverse and varied communications tools and styles. Lastly, we talk about how belonging drives trust and the importance of teams building intentional interactions to cultivate these important factors for success in these environments. Michael talks about what is to come, and how the current environment of cost constraints will impact public sector organizations over the next 5 - 10 years. If you're a member of a community or public sector organization facing change, don't miss this conversation. This wraps up Season 2 of Change: The Conversation! be sure to check out both of our websites for current materials, resources and courses that can help you become a stronger change leader:
 
www.invictus.coach
www.connectedchange.com
 
More about Michael
Michael started Invictus because of his passion for improving the communities where we live and work.  He holds a deep interest in learning and applying lessons from Neuroscience, Positive Psychology, High Performance research, and Sports Psychology to help figure out the most effective ways to overcome life's myriad challenges and live a thriving, fulfilling life. 
 
Michael is certified and trained in High Performance Coaching, Applied Neuroscience of High Performance, Organizational Design, Behavioral Change Management, Lean Six Sigma, and Project Management. He brings all of those skills, approaches and frameworks together to help community organizations to find a compelling vision, address the challenges that keep them from getting there, and then creating transformation roadmaps to achieve their goals. 
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Based on 22+ years of experience and Neuroscience, High Performance, and Organizational Design research, he has created a High Performing Community Organization framework, a High Performing Community Team framework, and a framework to help senior management lead high performing community teams. He also coaches senior teams on how to most effectively plan and manage their transformations.
 
Michael helps individuals find their path to planning out and implementing their own high performance life by using neuroscience and high performance approaches, frameworks and tools to help them develop their vision of their ideal life, assess their challenges, create their mindset, find their motivation and implement the high performance habits and actions to achieve their goal. 
 
 
Follow Michael at:
Website  |  Linkedin | Twitter
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​We're back for a second conversation with Michael Schiel, and this conversation takes us back-- to the very first transformation projects that we both did! We often get calls from people who are managing transformation for the first time and don't know what to do! Michael has some incredible advice for people who are just starting a transformation and 3 things they can do to get started, if they don't know where to start! Then I add one of my favourite steps to help people get oriented. Michael introduces us to the concept of shared leadership and rallying support for change, and how building leadership skills today will prepare us for leading future transformations. Our message? You can do this!
 
More about Michael
Michael started Invictus because of his passion for improving the communities where we live and work.  He holds a deep interest in learning and applying lessons from Neuroscience, Positive Psychology, High Performance research, and Sports Psychology to help figure out the most effective ways to overcome life's myriad challenges and live a thriving, fulfilling life. 
 
Michael is certified and trained in High Performance Coaching, Applied Neuroscience of High Performance, Organizational Design, Behavioral Change Management, Lean Six Sigma, and Project Management. He brings all of those skills, approaches and frameworks together to help community organizations to find a compelling vision, address the challenges that keep them from getting there, and then creating transformation roadmaps to achieve their goals. 
​
Based on 22+ years of experience and Neuroscience, High Performance, and Organizational Design research, he has created a High Performing Community Organization framework, a High Performing Community Team framework, and a framework to help senior management lead high performing community teams. He also coaches senior teams on how to most effectively plan and manage their transformations.
 
Michael helps individuals find their path to planning out and implementing their own high performance life by using neuroscience and high performance approaches, frameworks and tools to help them develop their vision of their ideal life, assess their challenges, create their mindset, find their motivation and implement the high performance habits and actions to achieve their goal. 
 
 
Follow Michael at:
Website  |  Linkedin | Twitter
 

In this 3-part series of conversations, I'm speaking with Michael Schiel who is a high-performance coach and transformation consultant. Michael and I both have a background in big firm consulting and both of us have taken this experience into our work with public sector and community organizations. The challenges inside community-sector and public organizations are different than for private sector or corporate organizations. When you're asked to do more with less, and decisions require multiple layers of accountability, implementing change is hard! The political environment and power/influence dynamics play a huge role in managing change in this sector, and can lead to collaboration, but also competition. If you've had a transformation program land on your desk and you're not quite sure what to do... This conversation will start you off on the right track.


More about Michael
Michael started Invictus because of his passion for improving the communities where we live and work.  He holds a deep interest in learning and applying lessons from Neuroscience, Positive Psychology, High Performance research, and Sports Psychology to help figure out the most effective ways to overcome life's myriad challenges and live a thriving, fulfilling life. 
 
Michael is certified and trained in High Performance Coaching, Applied Neuroscience of High Performance, Organizational Design, Behavioral Change Management, Lean Six Sigma, and Project Management. He brings all of those skills, approaches and frameworks together to help community organizations to find a compelling vision, address the challenges that keep them from getting there, and then creating transformation roadmaps to achieve their goals. 
​
Based on 22+ years of experience and Neuroscience, High Performance, and Organizational Design research, he has created a High Performing Community Organization framework, a High Performing Community Team framework, and a framework to help senior management lead high performing community teams. He also coaches senior teams on how to most effectively plan and manage their transformations.
 
Michael helps individuals find their path to planning out and implementing their own high performance life by using neuroscience and high performance approaches, frameworks and tools to help them develop their vision of their ideal life, assess their challenges, create their mindset, find their motivation and implement the high performance habits and actions to achieve their goal. 
 
 
Follow Michael at:
Website  |  Linkedin | Twitter

​We're back with Dipal Damani for our second conversation on the topic of her important work in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) organizational evaluation and audit. Dipal gets to the heart of why organizations need to be doing this work, and how leaders can prepare. Emotions run high during the DEIB audit process, and Dipal gets real about where this fear comes from. When we can separate ourselves from what we need to do as an organization this is where real change happens. We get into how power dynamics play a huge role in understanding organizational dynamics and how a DEIB audit is an incredible tool to help leadership understand that the organization they see, can be different from what others see and experience, and how to create the kind of organization and culture they desire. There are amazing insights here about how to position yourself for success and bring value and positive change to your organization.
 
More about Dipal
Dipal is the Founder and President of D&D Inclusion Consulting and is a racialized equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) consultant. She has extensive knowledge and experience in EDI, having delivered results in this area for the past 15 years. As someone who represents multiple identities that are historically marginalized and oppressed, Dipal has a deep understanding of the impact and intersection of marginalization, oppression, exclusion and power imbalance, and is able to speak to these issues from lived and professional experience. 
Prior to founding the company, Dipal worked with provincial and regional governments to implement inclusion policies, conduct EDI organizational audits, and launch multi-stakeholder EDI initiatives. In 2015, she founded D&D Inclusion Consulting to leverage her experience, knowledge, and expertise to work directly with organizations in creating more inclusive workplaces and communities.  
Dipal blends her social science research background with her practical experience to design strategies, tools, and training that help organizations move forward on their EDI goals. She takes organizations from understanding the benefits of EDI through to developing a plan, implementation, and evaluation.  In her work, she uses an evidence-based, data driven-approach, and also leverages her strong research, strategic planning, and evaluation background. She has extensive knowledge, skills and expertise in conducting EDI evaluations with a focus on anti-oppression, anti-racism and anti-colonialism. She brings to this work a strong understanding of differential impacts of historical inequities and racism faced by Black and Indigenous communities in Canada. 
Dipal holds a Master’s in Public Policy and Governance with a Certificate in Ethnic, Immigration, and Pluralism Studies from the University of Toronto. She is truly passionate about her work and loves finding innovative approaches and practices that benefit her clients.
 
 
D&D Inclusion Consulting:  
D&D Inclusion consulting is an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) consulting firm that provides assessment, training and advisory services. The firm uses a proven methodology that has delivered results for clients. We use an appreciative inquiry lens, which is a strength-based approach that affirms strengths of the organization and the potential for growth in equity and inclusion - it is a methodology rooted in building organizational capacity. We have found using this approach with management teams, staff and boards allow for a safe space for rich dialogue and, more importantly, buy-in on moving the organization forward.  
We conduct EDI organizational audits to improve workplace culture and engagement. The audits are based on a data-driven, evidence-based approach, and draw upon leading research and promising practices in the field. We draw from the Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Benchmarks (GDEIB) from the Centre for Global Inclusion. We also root our analysis in global research from leading sources as well as promising practices. 
We are known for our engagement skills in our facilitation work. A strong focus is placed on ensuring the psychological safety of participants, creating safe spaces for open and honest dialogue, and managing expectations.
 
 
Follow Dipal at:
Website  |  Linkedin
 

​This week I'm joined for the first of two conversations with Dipal Damani, a leader in the field of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. Dipal started her consulting firm, D & D Inclusion Consulting, specifically, to help organizations understand how to change, by working through DEIB audits with various clients. Dipal talks about how organizations and the people in them realise that they want to change, that this can still be a scary process for leaders to go through. We talk about how emotions and emotional responses are a big part of this work and Dipal talks about how organizations and their people can prepare for this process. Dipal identifies the process for how leaders can prepare themselves for an audit so that they can approach the findings with a spirit of openness and growth. This is an important conversation on this subject and one that talks about the real steps that organizations and leaders can take to become more diverse, equitable, inclusive and belonging-centered going forward.
 
More about Dipal
Dipal is the Founder and President of D&D Inclusion Consulting and is a racialized equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) consultant. She has extensive knowledge and experience in EDI, having delivered results in this area for the past 15 years. As someone who represents multiple identities that are historically marginalized and oppressed, Dipal has a deep understanding of the impact and intersection of marginalization, oppression, exclusion and power imbalance, and is able to speak to these issues from lived and professional experience. 
Prior to founding the company, Dipal worked with provincial and regional governments to implement inclusion policies, conduct EDI organizational audits, and launch multi-stakeholder EDI initiatives. In 2015, she founded D&D Inclusion Consulting to leverage her experience, knowledge, and expertise to work directly with organizations in creating more inclusive workplaces and communities.  
Dipal blends her social science research background with her practical experience to design strategies, tools, and training that help organizations move forward on their EDI goals. She takes organizations from understanding the benefits of EDI through to developing a plan, implementation, and evaluation.  In her work, she uses an evidence-based, data driven-approach, and also leverages her strong research, strategic planning, and evaluation background. She has extensive knowledge, skills and expertise in conducting EDI evaluations with a focus on anti-oppression, anti-racism and anti-colonialism. She brings to this work a strong understanding of differential impacts of historical inequities and racism faced by Black and Indigenous communities in Canada. 
Dipal holds a Master’s in Public Policy and Governance with a Certificate in Ethnic, Immigration, and Pluralism Studies from the University of Toronto. She is truly passionate about her work and loves finding innovative approaches and practices that benefit her clients.
 
 
D&D Inclusion Consulting:  
D&D Inclusion consulting is an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) consulting firm that provides assessment, training and advisory services. The firm uses a proven methodology that has delivered results for clients. We use an appreciative inquiry lens, which is a strength-based approach that affirms strengths of the organization and the potential for growth in equity and inclusion - it is a methodology rooted in building organizational capacity. We have found using this approach with management teams, staff and boards allow for a safe space for rich dialogue and, more importantly, buy-in on moving the organization forward.  
We conduct EDI organizational audits to improve workplace culture and engagement. The audits are based on a data-driven, evidence-based approach, and draw upon leading research and promising practices in the field. We draw from the Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Benchmarks (GDEIB) from the Centre for Global Inclusion. We also root our analysis in global research from leading sources as well as promising practices. 
We are known for our engagement skills in our facilitation work. A strong focus is placed on ensuring the psychological safety of participants, creating safe spaces for open and honest dialogue, and managing expectations.
 
 
Follow Dipal at:
Website  |  Linkedin
 

We're back for our third conversation with Nadine Araksi, and we are talking about when you want to build a new future, the stories that you create are incredibly powerful. Nadine is an expert at crafting story to create shared vision and making the future real. We talk about context, intent and the building blocks that you need to build a strong story for change. We cover what to do if you need to adjust or change the story mid-flight-- how context and new information can impact us, and how getting it right (vs. being right) focuses us on the process vs. the end result. This conversation is for anyone looking to spark change in others and themselves, in a positive way.
Links to resources mentioned in the episode:

The Pilgrimage  Paulo Coelho

Maya Angelou – Know Better Do Better
 
More about Nadine:
Story coach, writer and marketer, Nadine Araksi (formerly Silverthorne) has spent over two decades creating click-worthy content, publishing personal essays and writing researched service journalism for some of Canada’s biggest brands. As a story coach, Nadine is obsessed with examining the stories we tell ourselves, the ones that keep us stuck, the ones that oppress us and her passion is in rewriting those stories to empower women and marginalized groups. 
Nadine’s current focus is on mental and physical well-being and helping women avoid burnout through mind-body connection and story exploration. Nadine hopes to share her personal experiences of moving from darkness to light with courage, kindness, and gratitude with those who are ready to listen and use them as a catapult for their own journeys.

Follow Nadine at:
​
Website  |  Instagram  |  Instagram (story coach)

Nadine and I are back with another conversation on the power of story, and in this one, we get deep into how to use story to bring about change. How to the stories we tell about ourselves, our own thoughts and internal stories help us understand and manage our experiences. Nadine breaks down one of the ways that she coaches people through discovering their own stories, how they can identify resistance and change their stories to enable bigger change in their work, lives and organizations.
 
Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
 
Yes And Game
 
More about Nadine:
Story coach, writer and marketer, Nadine Araksi (formerly Silverthorne) has spent over two decades creating click-worthy content, publishing personal essays and writing researched service journalism for some of Canada’s biggest brands. As a story coach, Nadine is obsessed with examining the stories we tell ourselves, the ones that keep us stuck, the ones that oppress us and her passion is in rewriting those stories to empower women and marginalized groups. 
Nadine’s current focus is on mental and physical well-being and helping women avoid burnout through mind-body connection and story exploration. Nadine hopes to share her personal experiences of moving from darkness to light with courage, kindness, and gratitude with those who are ready to listen and use them as a catapult for their own journeys.

Follow Nadine at:
​
Website  |  Instagram  |  Instagram (story coach)
 

This week I'm joined by Nadine Araksi, an expert on stories and how they can facilitate incredible change. Nadine talks about the client work that she does as a story coach and how story has been the unifying thread throughout her life and career. We get into how story is a tool to help people connect with purpose and intent, how it facilitated inclusion and brings people together. Nadine talks about one of her favourite tools for using and applying story and how central emotions are in story to make sense of our experiences, thoughts and decisions. Nadine tells us about a difficult change experience that she led a team through and how story was an important part of helping people move through the change towards a common future.

Links to resources mentioned in the episode:
​
KUBA

Dr. Laurie Santos – Happiness Lab episode

Do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know the side you are used to is better than the one to come? - Rumi
 
More about Nadine:
Story coach, writer and marketer, Nadine Araksi (formerly Silverthorne) has spent over two decades creating click-worthy content, publishing personal essays and writing researched service journalism for some of Canada’s biggest brands. As a story coach, Nadine is obsessed with examining the stories we tell ourselves, the ones that keep us stuck, the ones that oppress us and her passion is in rewriting those stories to empower women and marginalized groups. 
Nadine’s current focus is on mental and physical well-being and helping women avoid burnout through mind-body connection and story exploration. Nadine hopes to share her personal experiences of moving from darkness to light with courage, kindness, and gratitude with those who are ready to listen and use them as a catapult for their own journeys.

Follow Nadine at:
Website  |  Instagram  |  Instagram (story coach)
 

In this episode of Change: The Conversation we are back with Chris Carter, a change consultant and the founder and principal of orgshift solutions.
 
In this final conversation with Chris Carter, he tells us more about his experience with a suburban library that was facing a big change and transformation. We get deeper into how this organization approached Strategic Planning differently and why. Chris tells us about how the leader was the driving force behind this change, and how the approach to strategy was deeply linked with the leaders desire to change the organization from the inside out. We talk about how the vision was the thread that tied everything together and how culture was a driving force behind how this organization internalized this incredible change and sustained it.
Chris shares the tool he uses most often to assess and identify cultural attributes, and then, how to use this information to create meaningful change.
 
Denison Organizational Culture Survey
 
More about Chris:
Chris is an experienced business and IT management consultant with over 25 years of experience in all aspects of change, especially when enabled by technology. Leading with a business-first perspective, Chris has consulted to both public and private sector organizations: facilitating strategic direction, designing appropriate and flexible organizational structures and processes, documenting business and system requirements, creating road maps and action plans, preparing change program business cases, assessing outsourcing strategies, implementing benefit realization plans and systems, and providing program management support and leadership to achieve desired business outcomes.
Chris is the founder and principal of orgshift solutions, a leading boutique consultancy focused on heliping clients from all sectors – non-profit, private and public sector – design and deliver strategic and operational decision-making, value-driven transformation programs, and breakthrough group collaboration performance.
 
Follow Chris at:
Website  |   LinkedIn
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