In this issue of our Strategy and Leadership Podcast, we talked with Jonathan Rewers, the Manager of Design Strategy and Delivery at the City and County of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. While Jonathan works with a wide variety of projects within his role, his main purpose is to lead teams through the strategy process to provide innovative ideas and solutions for city transportation. In essence, Jonathan is a problem solver.

Rob Attwell, COO of Careteam Technologies, joins us for a chat on the strategies he uses to effectively manage his team and understand his clients. Overloading on processes has been known for slowing down innovation, but Rob talks about how Careteam is able to balance both while scaling up a nine-month start-up. Finally, Rob emphasizes that there is no excuse for not planning for the future.

Having a committed group of people is the first step in creating an aligned strategic plan, you then have to work with all those committed people to agree on a direction and ultimately move forward. Cecilia Reyes, the Planning & Operations Manager at The David Suzuki Foundation shares her experience creating a strategic plan.

Andrew Budkofsky the Chief Revenue Officer at Digital Trends Shares his best practices for leading remote teams, keeping them focused and aligned with organizational objectives.

Julie Carbone, the Associate Director of Strategy at OMD Montreal, joined us to chat about aligning teams with organizational strategy and performance. When working with external clients in the world of advertising and marketing, there are two strategies to consider: both yours and theirs. It is important to work together and communicate with internal teams, as well as client teams.

How do you get 11000 people all working together? You need someone whose only job is to support communication and collaboration within that organization. Meet Charles Jessup. He's an internal facilitator and he's coming to a meeting near you. On a daily basis, Charles leads and facilitates meetings, workshops and events for internal managers and leaders within the company, looking to improve their side of the organization.

Jeremy Bailey, the Creative Director for Product at FreshBooks, (an online accounting system for small businesses) joined us to chat about strategy, leadership and culture and how these help influence creativity and customer service. Jeremy shares insights on how critical thinking and team building can help organizations align their teams with their mission, empowering them to make decisions, as the organization grows.

Jane Watson,the Head of People at Actionable (actionable.co), chatted with us about organizational culture, and its relationship with strategy. With experience across many sectors, Jane has worked with a multitude of teams and people, and has worked in the HR sphere for over 15 years. When it comes to organizational culture, there are a few key takeaway learnings.

Shane is the Director of Operations, Vancouver Island, at Paladin Security Group Ltd., and he has been with the company for 6 years. What I appreciate about this conversation is hearing about some of the tactics Paladin used to develop the people in their organization, and how Shane was able to follow a set growth trajectory.

Mission statements are often exercises in wordsmithing that lack an emotional connection and simplicity that will compel people into action.