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.

Dr. Remo Gujer, General Manager, Switzerland and Austria Bristol Myers Squibb

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.

Robert Tessarolo, President & General Manager Actavis Specialty Pharmaceuticals Canada

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.

Bruce Clark, President and CEO, Medicago

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.

Nicole Sierra Rolet, Principal at Chene Bleu, CEO of La Verriere
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.
Juergen Harter, CEO, Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre

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.

Dianne Lee, Managing Director

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.

John Pottage, Chief Scientific & Medical Officer, Senior Vice President, ViiV Healthcare

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!

John Ryan, Director of Finance and Operations, Pharmaceutical Industry

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.

Alaisdar Graham, EVP Enterprise Operations, Atlantic Lottery Corporation

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.

Pat Goldthorpe, Director Associated Brands and Marketing Chair, Women in Food Industry Management

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.

Karen Scollick, General Manager, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Canada

Kathryn did a superb job on an extremely complex and dynamic project – I had complete confidence that the project would be well executed.

Sara Nixon, HR Director, Research and Development, GlaxoSmithKline

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.

John Dillon, VP Global Medical Affairs, ViiV Healthcare

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.

Sandra Cruickshanks, Vice President, Thornley Fallis Communications

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.

Kris Shah, President, OME Group Consultants

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.

Stephanie Ortenzi, Principal at Pistachio: writing about the business of food

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.

Beth Johnson, Director of Quality and Patient Safety, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

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.

Andy Williams, Senior Director European Medical Operations, GlaxoSmithKline

You have blown me away! What a piece of work! Thank you a thousand times.

Susanne Mikler, VP Corporate Development Liaison College and Chair of Women in Food Industry Management

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!

Anne Dean, VP Client Integration and Regional Managing Director, Schawk Inc.

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.

Rav Kumar, VP Regulatory and Development Operations, GlaxoSmithKline

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.

Nancy Florence, Director IT, GlaxoSmithKline

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.

Raymond Castonguay, VP Finance and Investments, Genome Quebec

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.

Suzanne Villeneuve, CEO, Purecell Technologies Limited

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.

Tom Carter, Chair & President, Strategic Leadership Forum

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.

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Kathryn Simpson :: Leading for Change - How to Thrive During Uncertain Times

Leading for Change: How to Thrive During Uncertain Times

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