“It was in a bunker in Iraq—when the stakes were highest—where I got my opportunity to level up. From ‘solid’ leadership to ‘exceptional’ leadership; from a ‘fine’ strategy to a ‘winning’ strategy; from a ‘satisfactory’ culture to a truly ‘exceptional’ one. Doing so often meant the difference between life and death.
Before long I was ‘hooked’ on occasioning transformations like these, and when I left the Air Force, I sought new avenues for that work.
I dedicated myself to studying the art and science of transformative leadership, seeking experts worldwide and partnering with different thought leaders.
But my journey ultimately took me beyond the world of academia to the world of business, helping individuals and teams to overcome chronic breakdowns, bypass daunting obstacles, and break free from the shackles of mediocrity to do the work they always dreamed of.
Seeing these individuals fully (and finally!) express their potential and their purpose is a feeling that quite simply never gets old.
In 2015 I formed TGN Consulting to scale the impact of these transformational encounters on an enterprise-wide level. Over time, I learned through success and failure and feel we have finally cracked the code on what it really takes to make real a future that is significantly different than the past.
For me, this work is always personal. We don’t have clients. We have partners. The executives and teams we work with have become some of my most important relationships. Our partner’s challenges and opportunities become deeply personal as I have been known to stay awake at night thinking about them.
But it’s also personal because of how much it matters. I’m always guided by a single question: “Does the work I dedicate my life to ensure that my daughter Aspen and her generation will inherit a future brighter than our present?”
I believe that the work we’re lucky enough to do every day—the work of bringing that authenticity, presence, bravery, connection, and excellence into the office—is accomplishing just that. I consider it a privilege and a pleasure.”
“They were tired and beat down, and not from the rigors of the work itself, but from the dysfunction they encountered during their 9-to-5. They lacked clarity and alignment, a sense of where they were going and why they were going there.
And so it was at a very early age that I internalized the condition of the modern North American workforce and began to dream of something different.
A different way of working. A different kind of organization. One in which people felt excited to come to work and able to bring their best selves to it.
As my career unfolded–from an officer in the Canadian and British armies, to building public transit in Cameroon or renewable energy projects in Liberia, to the world of management consulting—I learned how stakeholders continually got out of sync in a sea of complexity, and what it takes to align them again in a systemic and sustainable way.
Through all of it, I learned a simple and powerful truth: that when great people get in the room and are unencumbered by the tiresome frustrations and destructive dynamics of a typical workplace, great things happen.
My belief is that the thorniest of challenges in business and society really can be worked out. They aren’t impossible predicaments. They are complex challenges. And with the right tools and frameworks, we can get out of our own way and tackle them head on.
I joined Kari and TGN Consulting because this is ground zero for the kind of paradigm shift that’s ripe in this moment. When we can have this kind of impact at scale, it’s astounding to think of the possibilities for people and planet.”
