Listen to our Season 2 trailer
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In season two, Debra joins forces with new co-host lisa Schmidt to challenge the status quo of obsolete workplace practices and ideas about leadership that contribute to inequality and disengagement—and slow the pace of much needed change and innovation.
Listen in as Debra and lisa parlay their extensive experience, critical insights, humour and smart-ass attitudes into showing there IS a better way to work, and live.
As founder of Work Revolution, I am an outspoken advocate for humanizing the workplace, focused on developing conscientious leadership, and supporting professional careers grounded in purpose. Does this sound airyfairy to you? I can assure it’s not. There is a growing body of peer-reviewed behavioral and neuroscience research that shows we can do better. Much, much better!
My academic and professional credentials include a business degree and post-graduate certifications in Human Resources Management, and Adult Learning and Development. Amongst my peers and clients, I am known as a principled, straight shooter with a great sense of humour, dedicated to helping people and organizations do their best work.
Speaking of humour, one of my passions is Improv; I completed the program at Second City, in addition to many other courses, and I perform occasionally, or at least I used to prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The principles of Improv are fantastic for improving listening and collaboration, building trust and practicing non-judgment of self and others. I am always looking for ways to incorporate this into my facilitation and coaching work.
On a personal note, I live in Toronto with my husband, two sons and our dog. I love traveling, spending time with family and friends, lake swims, skiing, ice cream cones and inventing new cocktails. Although I sometimes swear like a trucker, I balance it out with Pilates, meditation and gratitude.
As founder of Work Revolution, I am an outspoken advocate for humanizing the workplace, focused on developing conscientious leadership, and supporting professional careers grounded in purpose. Does this sound airyfairy to you? I can assure it’s not. There is a growing body of peer-reviewed behavioral and neuroscience research that shows we can do better. Much, much better!
My academic and professional credentials include a business degree and post-graduate certifications in Human Resources Management, and Adult Learning and Development. Amongst my peers and clients, I am known as a principled, straight shooter with a great sense of humour, dedicated to helping people and organizations do their best work.
Speaking of humour, one of my passions is Improv; I completed the program at Second City, in addition to many other courses, and I perform occasionally, or at least I used to prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The principles of Improv are fantastic for improving listening and collaboration, building trust and practicing non-judgment of self and others. I am always looking for ways to incorporate this into my facilitation and coaching work.
On a personal note, I live in Toronto with my husband, two sons and our dog. I love traveling, spending time with family and friends, lake swims, skiing, ice cream cones and inventing new cocktails. Although I sometimes swear like a trucker, I balance it out with Pilates, meditation and gratitude.
Far more than a consultant, I am a thoughtful and pragmatic facilitator who goes to the heart of things, and taps into decades of coaching and supporting leaders at all levels in iconic Canadian organizations such as the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the CBC, the Hospital for Sick Children—and internationally with the Mastercard Foundation. I do my best work helping senior leaders get out of the business of managing people, and into catalyzing belonging, innovation, purpose and impact.
My core philosophy about development is this: before you can do you, you must be you, which many of us struggle with, having contorted ourselves to fit into workplaces that ask us to bring our best work, but block any thinking or behaviour that threatens the status quo. My focus is on helping leaders get clear on who they are, and want to become—and from there, figuring out what they want to do.
My formal education includes a BSC in Human Nutrition and Biochemistry, a Masters of Education in Organizational Change and a professional coach certification. Aside from that, I’m a former speechwriter credited with writing "the Million Dollar speech" for a hospital fundraising campaign, the recipient of Canadian Council literary funding, a contributor to Forbes on leadership and coaching, an occasional essayist on Medium, and a co-host for the first two seasons of the Different People Podcast. I am currently writing both a non-fiction book on how to address organizational dysfunction once and for all, and a novel set in 1980s Montreal.
I love travel (and miss it terribly, given pandemic constraints), paddleboarding at sunrise, Scandinavian noir fiction and mucking about in the garden.
Far more than a consultant, I am a thoughtful and pragmatic facilitator who goes to the heart of things, and taps into decades of coaching and supporting leaders at all levels in iconic Canadian organizations such as the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the CBC, the Hospital for Sick Children—and internationally with the Mastercard Foundation. I do my best work helping senior leaders get out of the business of managing people, and into catalyzing belonging, innovation, purpose and impact.
My core philosophy about development is this: before you can do you, you must be you, which many of us struggle with, having contorted ourselves to fit into workplaces that ask us to bring our best work, but block any thinking or behaviour that threatens the status quo. My focus is on helping leaders get clear on who they are, and want to become—and from there, figuring out what they want to do.
My formal education includes a BSC in Human Nutrition and Biochemistry, a Masters of Education in Organizational Change and a professional coach certification. Aside from that, I’m a former speechwriter credited with writing "the Million Dollar speech" for a hospital fundraising campaign, the recipient of Canadian Council literary funding, a contributor to Forbes on leadership and coaching, an occasional essayist on Medium, and a co-host for the first two seasons of the Different People Podcast. I am currently writing both a non-fiction book on how to address organizational dysfunction once and for all, and a novel set in 1980s Montreal.
I love travel (and miss it terribly, given pandemic constraints), paddleboarding at sunrise, Scandinavian noir fiction and mucking about in the garden.