our people

My first job was at a large Canadian company where my dad and both my brothers were employed.

It didn't take me long to realize that the department I was working in could be more efficient and improve its results. So I set about developing a strategy to change things and worked on my own time to develop a business plan. It was a cool learning experience for a young man; I knew I had done great work and I was confident my boss would be delighted. However after I had unrolled my plan to him, he looked me in the eye and told me: "I didn't hire you to think."

What an opportunity missed! There are few bosses nowadays who would dare say something like that. But organizations certainly limit potential growth when they do not fully engage and align employees with organizational goals and objectives. I firmly believe that high involvement equates to high performance. Over the years I have focused on identifying and implementing integrated organizational effectiveness, training, change and communications strategies that connect the vision of leadership, the 'voice of customer' and the potential of people to engage employees and boost organizational performance. Prior to forming Strategic Connections Inc., I held a number of senior positions in strategic human resources, strategic planning and corporate communications. Through my work in the public, not-for-profit and private sector I have had the honour of managing, developing and implementing strategic business plans, HR strategy, internal and external communications plans, change management initiatives, marketing programs and knowledge management strategies.

Thankfully nowadays I am hired to think. And I know that if we treat our people with a level of decency, respect what they have to offer, and seek their involvement, life at work can be an extremely fulfilling and engaging experience for everyone.

When I was four years old , my recently widowed and exhausted mother enlisted the help of a rather lovely young woman in caring for her youngest, and most lively, child. Libby was everything a four year old could hope for; caring, energetic and amusing. There was, however, one drawback. Libby and I did not share a common language.

As adults we assume communication does not happen without language, and to some degree we are right. But what Libby taught me, was that words are but one part of the communication puzzle, through which we build knowledge and understanding of the world and our fellow travelers, on this little blue globe. It is a lesson I have taken with me in my work as communicator and teacher.

I must confess by age 20 I had forgotten my lesson from Libby and began my career very much devoted to words. Writing for newspapers and later in the corporate world seemed like a reasonable way to get a message across. It needed another human encounter to push me to the next level.

By this time I had moved country and continent. I had gone from a very traditional, hierarchical organization to a more liberal environment. Within weeks of starting my new position I had that encounter - it was indirect but no less effective. I got onto the elevator at the end of the day to find myself sharing it with the CEO and one of the janitors. They were happily dissecting last night's game. Neither had any idea of the impact they had made on me. I was blown away. Where I came from executives did not talk to underlings, let alone travel in elevators with them.

After this encounter I began to notice how people related to the CEO, and behold it was positive, very positive. They wanted to work and be effective for him. They also seemed to get what he was trying to do. Some years later the leadership changed and the organization changed with it. All the enthusiasm and excitement was lost and employees seemed disheartened. The new CEO was too busy, locked away in his office, to notice.

I realized that behaviours are closely observed and have a potentially greater impact than do our words.

And so began a lifelong interest in the psychology of how we communicate and educate in the workplace, and a gradual drift toward internal communications and the challenge of fully engaging employees.

In my work with clients these learnings have helped me to know that communication is a multifaceted thing. We can use scientific methods to improve it and make it more efficient. But at the end of the day we need the human touch; the involved executives, the caring managers to make this wonderful process truly effective.

I guess my formal education in communications began with the first story I ever wrote in Mrs. Nagata's grade 1 class. It was entitled, "The Purple Elf"; a fairly standard proverb about the struggle between conformity vs. individuality and the need for recognition - psychological themes that I was incapable of labelling as such at 6 years of age but able to articulate through the magic of storytelling. My story included many pictures, and while I never really developed a talent for art, I did continue to grow my love of words.

So much so, that in university I studied linguistics. I was fascinated by the science of the spoken and written word as I still am today.

My path to SCI, while destined, was indirect. As I moved out of school and into the working world, one of my first grown-up jobs was working for a large multi-national hotel chain. They'd set high expectations for their employees and had so many systems and processes in place, yet there was little confusion about who we were and why we were there. The corporate vision and objectives were extremely well communicated and because of that, I understood how my even my little role could contribute to the corporate strategy and this inspired me to commit my best everyday.

I think I was very lucky to have had this experience early on in my career path as it stuck with me throughout the years and helped shape my understanding of the vital link between a corporation's external image and the efforts invested into employee engagement in that image.

At Strategic Connections I get to use my love of words and my passion for internal communication to design strategies for companies that engage and inspire their employees just as I experienced many years ago. My combined business experience in public, private and not for profit enterprises has equipped me with the expertise for solid assessment and strategic implementation within a variety of organizational structures.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to do what they love. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

A social butterfly from the start, my mother continually berated me through my teen years for never being home. This love of adventure and passion for learning spurred my departure from the quiet Kootenay roots, to the metropolitan buzz of Vancouver, and Simon Fraser University. Four years and a Bachelor of Communications degree later, my relationship with my mother has changed significantly. The long distance between us has brought us closer in some regards but has forced us to adapt our communication methods. We arranged the typical Sunday phone call, which worked out quite well until I discovered the game of golf and was no longer home on Sundays.

We needed to find an additional method to stay in contact. Email seemed like an ideal solution. The only problem being that email was not a natural for my mother. My mom is a smart woman. She is currently completing a Masters program in leadership and administration. Despite this fact, she constantly seemed to be having trouble with "The Email" - as she referred to it.

Email and computer technologies are second nature to me; I grew up as they were taking off. My mother was not as able to grasp the new concepts; she was very resistant to the change. There were many frustrating conversations that included me explaining things like the fact that she could check her home email from work and her work email from home. It took us some time but we now use a mix of email and phone to communicate.

We live in a dynamic society that is ever changing. It is important that we are able to adapt to our new surroundings and remain flexible. Communication is fundamental to us as human beings, and has been since the earliest of civilizations. We must be aware of the new technologies and processes that are impeding and aiding the means in which we function as a society. Daily, we are faced with situations that require us to re-evaluate our communication strategies.

I am delighted to be working for an organization that identifies this dynamic as central to the healthy operation of a business. You can't measure the effectiveness of communication by counting the number of phone lines in an office or the number of emails in an inbox. I look forward to assisting organizations to grow effective communication strategies for every situation.