What if your executive team could finally have that conversation?
Facilitation that helps your team tackle your biggest challenges — to productively debate what matters, align around key decisions, and move forward with purpose.
Strategic Planning Sessions ▞ Executive Retreats ▞ Board Meetings ▞ Company Offsites ▞ Conferences
“Marja is a natural partner who makes it easy to tackle the challenges that come with either developing a new strategy or, even more difficult, changing a strategy that needs it. She is an incredible listener who quickly assimilates ideas and concepts, organizes them into a framework, leads you to think about them differently, helps you choose a path or decision, then commit to a plan of action.”
Does This Sound Like You?
You feel like you’re underutilizing your leadership team’s talent and perspective.
There’s growing tension between what you say the direction is and what your team is actually doing.
Something has shifted in your market, customers, or team and you're not sure what to do next.
You know it's time to develop a strategy, you just don’t know where to start.
Your team is full of smart, capable people but somehow you're not all pulling in the same direction.
You’re doing a lot of things, but you’re not sure if they’re the right things.
You’re starting to worry that your strategy is out of date or never really got off the ground in the first place.
You’ve been having the same strategic conversation over and over, without landing on real decisions.
You're sensing that the business could be more focused, more energized, more aligned but you’re not sure how to get there.
You know the answers are in the room... you just need help unlocking them.
You need a facilitator who can meet you where you are.
I can help.
Develop an approach that is adapted to your unique situation.
Synthesize what you already know, so we can use it to make informed decisions.
Understand your team as a group and individuals, shaping our interactions to get us to where we need to be.
Engage your team in fresh, bold and inspiring ways.
“Marja is so warm-hearted and honestly wants the best for the people she works with on any project. But don’t let the wonderful demeanor fool anyone; she has a spine of steel and is willing to deliver the tough messages.”
I Work With…
Senior executives who need help setting a direction and building alignment so that their organizations can move forward with purpose.
Smart, dedicated and driven individuals seeking an outside perspective and an unbiased voice to support them in new challenges.
Leaders who want to know where their blindspots are and to be given the straight facts, who want to explore new and different ideas.
Visionaries within organizations of all sizes, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) ready to drive towards decisions that will propel them through their next phase of success.
Together, we create long-term plans that provide confidence and direction to clients’ teams and organizations, unleashing their next wave of potential.
How it Works
I can promise you there aren’t generic, “industry-standard” frameworks with me.
Every business is unique and I fully tailor my approach to your needs. The core process often looks like this:
1
Interviews
I meet your team. Together, we bring more definition to the problem we’re aiming to solve. And, I start to see where the sticky parts might be.
2
Planning
Together, we craft the details of the facilitated session. I bring you ideas and you give me feedback. May also include coaching your team to create the needed factbase.
3
Facilitation
I guide you and your team to solve your problem, drawing out contributions from all, shining light in the corners we’ve been avoiding, fostering fruitful debate, adjusting as needed to get to results.
4
Synthesis
I pull it all together, so you know exactly what you’ve decided and why. We’ll work together to create a clear written document in your preferred format for your chosen audience.
5
Ongoing Support
I’ll stay involved as much as you want as you transition from deciding to executing. From additional workshop-style sessions to individual thought-partnership, I’ve got your back.
“Marja’s low-key demeanor is unique for consultants. Many feel the need to command the process, own the room and ‘earn their money.’ But her approach is one of flexibility: learn, hypothesize, gather data, reflect, lead thought-provoking sessions, force participants to be active. Then, repeat cycle until project completion.”
What You Get: Facilitation That Delivers
A Perspective
I’m a good listener and can succinctly summarize key ideas, but I’m not only reflecting back what I hear. I offer my own perspectives and I’m not afraid to call out hard truths. With years of experience in management consulting, I’ve been in the trenches solving the very problems with which you’re struggling. I bring my intuition, insights and pattern recognition to bear in designing interactions that work and guiding conversations towards superior outcomes.
Debiased Outcomes
The (Nobel-recognized!) field of behavioral economics proves our decision making is often irrational, not because we’re dumb, but because we’re human. We are particularly prone to these irrational biases when the decisions we’re making are infrequent with results well into the future — exactly the strategic business decisions you are trying to make. I’ve worked closely with leading thinkers in this field, notably Professors Olivier Sibony and Dan Lovallo, to develop, test and implement de-biasing techniques that yield high-quality strategic decisions. If your team consists of humans, you can’t afford to overlook the adverse impact of our commonly-held biases.
A Path to Impact
Aligning with your team on a strategic decision is a critical step, but it’s only the first one. Translating strategic decisions into action is the real source of value, but all too often, businesses fail to reallocate their most important resources — capital, talent, executive attention — in line with the new direction. I lean on my work as author and recognized contributor to novel thinking on the difficulty organizations face in translating strategy to action and the techniques that can bust through the inertia. From me, you won’t just get a decision, but a team that is ready to move.
“Marja is focused, committed, never distracted. She is not just a thought-partner, but an impact partner. She runs at 150% driven by purpose and passion.”
Why Choose Me?
You’ll get the straight truths, good and bad, so you can figure out your next moves.
I am a former Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company with broad strategy, business development and commercial operations expertise across multiple industries. Before turning independent, I was a VP of Marketing and Strategy & Business Development at Ecolab, responsible for growth strategy, innovation, new product launches, sales support and marketing communications of a $1B growth business.
As an independent consultant, I focus on strategy (growth, portfolio, go-to-market, strategic execution) and setting my clients up for high impact (top-team alignment, de-biased decision making, change management). I have found that client service - helping you succeed - is where my heart is; it’s what gets me up in the morning.
My education is in the sciences. I hold a BS in Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I bring my analytical background and ongoing drive to understand how things work to every project.
My hobbies include choir, theater, home improvement and all manner of crafting. I enjoy the stage, but am happy to share the spotlight; the best performances are always a team effort. I find great fulfillment in conceiving of a new idea, tackling the challenges in bringing it to life and standing back to admire the finished product. Even better when the accomplishment is shared with others equally invested in the outcome.