Magnifor Consulting

Leading with Impact in Times of Great Peril and Change

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 03:30:09 -0700

A Story About Dilemmas

A Glaswegian woman, a child of World War II, grew up knowing two things for certain about the life she wanted: a highly adventurous world-traveling life and children. For most people, these two desires would be in perpetual conflict. For her, they were as inseparable as two sides of the same coin.

Her adventures would eventually take her to nearly 100 countries, and she would bring her children to most of them. She took her first child, by boat, halfway around the globe when he was just a month old, completing the circumnavigation five years later with a second child in tow. She travelled long stretches of the world’s three longest rivers and through pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia. She drove from Scotland to Yemen, and twice from Scotland to Jordan and back again, the first time with her two-, three-, and seven-year-old children. They passed through Syria during a civil war. They navigated the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula. They drove deep into the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia to visit a sixth-century Christian monastery and to see rare petroglyphs in Qilwah; No roads, just maps and a compass.

This was the texture of her life: extraordinary, deliberate, and carrying genuine risk. The thread running through it all was a tension she never fully resolved. She wanted adventures for herself and her children. But how do you have those adventures while keeping your children safe? This was her lifelong dilemma. There had to be trade-offs. There had to be detailed plans and contingencies. There had to be courage because it was never entirely safe, but it was never boring.

Her willingness to navigate that tension, rather than resolving it by choosing either adventure or kids, produced moments of...Read More

Reimagining HR: a new people strategy for the AI generation

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 10:22:00 -0700

Traditional HR models are outdated. They are reactive, slow, and service-based. What would a people strategy anno 2025 look like when we could invent it today without the legacy of traditional HR?For this session, we are joined by Maria Hernandez, who brings a powerful combination of strategic HR leadership and transformational thinking to organizations ready to scale. As a global people leader and fractional CHRO/CPO, Maria specializes in building future-ready, scalable HR systems that drive sustainable growth. What sets Maria apart is her courage to tackle the complex, uncomfortable questions that many leaders avoid—the very questions that unlock breakthrough solutions to today's most challenging workplace dilemmas.

'What leaders don’t talk about’ With Anita Sunby

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 13:14:23 -0700

Firing someone is a skill, and board members or other leaders who may have to deliver the bad news might not have the skills or emotional intelligence to handle it well.

Anita will discuss better ways to fire leaders, so your company’s reputation is not trashed, and others are not afraid to take up the reins.

Anita has 30 years of experience in leadership positions at some of the largest companies in the Nordics. She has developed teams and business areas, established operations in new markets, and contributed to profitable growth. She published her first book in 2023 ‘What Leaders Don’t Talk About’, based on interviews with 70 CEOs.

Currently Anita works as a strategic adviser and executive coach in her own company: One Life Company."

#fullydistributed #nooffice

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 06:08:50 -0700

In a world where boundaries blur, and technology connects us like never before, fully distributed teams shine as a beacon of innovation and collaboration. Imagine the tapestry woven from diverse talents, perspectives, and cultures, each thread contributing to a richer, more vibrant creation. With the freedom to work from anywhere, these teams harness the power of flexibility, enabling unparalleled work-life balance and fostering creativity.

The true strength of distributed teams lies in their adaptability, as they can pivot & respond to challenges that traditional teams often lack. Embracing this model breaks down conventional geographical barriers and cultivates a sense of inclusivity and belonging, empowering individuals to shine in their unique strengths. Together, they demonstrate that success is not confined to a single location but thrives in the limitless synergy of collaboration across the world.

In this session, we are guided by Luigoi Lenguito, managing a team of 90 FTE #fullydistributed #nooffice. His company BforeAI is honored the Transform Award: Connected Culture of 2025! This award celebrates companies with the most thoughtful and practical models for creating a thriving distributed workforce

Luigi will take us through the impact of:

the foundation: GIVE TRUST vs EARN TRUST;

Culture's invisible yet powerful influence
Like wind that cannot be seen but whose effects are unmistakable, organizational culture invisibly shapes every aspect of how companies function and evolve. This hidden force guides...Read More

Calm and confident decision-making for a world we don'tfully understand

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 19:46:46 -0700

Look around. We seem to be going from one thing to the next - and leaders are surprised and even taken aback along the way, time and again. We are often surprised because our organizations, societies, and ways of working are too often designed for what we think the world is like rather than what it actually is like. We often think we can predict and control. While that is sometimes appropriate, this increasingly gets us into trouble when it isn't.

We don't fully understand our world - and never will. However, that doesn't mean we are powerless and lack agency. Quite the contrary - when we realise this and design our organisations accordingly, it offers ways forward. That takes courage, curiosity and humility. It also takes skill - particularly around decision-making. In this session, Ben Cattaneo, Founder of The Decision-Making Studio will share some insights and practices that help us think differently about the world in which we live and how to make decisions in it so that regardless of what we face, we will have calm and confidence

Will ai become more human or will it make us more machine?

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 09:54:39 -0800

Last week, I had the privilege of hosting the inaugural session of Leading With Impact, our Community of Practice for leaders committed to meaningful transformation. It was an inspiring event filled with deep conversations, thought-provoking insights, and, most importantly, great questions.

With the phenomenal Marina Steagall as our keynote speaker, we explored the power of the questions we ask every day. Are we aware of the types of questions that come naturally to us? And more importantly, which questions are missing from our repertoire?

From the five categories of questions: are we asking the right ones?

We used the framework from Harvard Business Review’s ‘The Art of Asking Smarter Questions’ (by Arnaud Chevalier, Frédéric Alsace, and Jean-Louis Barsoux, HBR May-June 2024), which identifies five mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive categories of questions:

Investigative: What’s known? - these questions help analyze problems and clarify objectives
Speculative: What if? - also known as the possibility-based questions, these reframe challenges and push us beyond limiting assumptions
Productive: Now what? - these drive decisions, actions, and momentum
Interpretive: So what? - these questions synthesize trends and give meaning to information
Subjective: What’s unsaid? - these delve into personal feelings, fears, and motivations, aka the human factor

The first four categories focus on content, logic, and analysis and are in a natural order. But the last category, Subjective, stands apart - tapping into emotions, frustrations, concerns, beliefs, expectations, and...Read More

‘What if?’ questions

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 05:31:03 -0800

How do you prompt questions that open up forexploration, imagination, and creativity? In a time dominated by uncertainties, asking questions and portraying genuine curiosity with optimism has never been more critical. We are happy to announce Marina Steagall as our keynote speaker to illuminate the path forward on possibility-based questions. With over 20 years of experience, Marina worked in six sectors and four countries, always helping companies reposition and prepare for significant shifts. In all her roles, with one exception, she had no predecessor, and Marina was called upon for her innovative leadership and need for impact without a clear definition o how.

Why Change and Transformation are Two Very Different Things

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 00:00:39 -0800

Why Change and Transformation are two very different things.

While change and transformation are often used as synonyms, these are both very important but different journeys to embark on. You must understand the difference first to know what is wanted or needed.

We’ve all seen this many times: the new leader comes in and wants change. Processes must be leaner, customer response times must be faster, and services must be cheaper. Change is often, if not always, characterized by ‘-er’ words; it looks to the past and wants to make things better, faster, or cheaper. And with that perspective, the most you usually achieve is a future that is incrementally better than the past because change has its anchor in the past.

Transformation requires something completely different. Starting a transformation requires anchoring yourself in the future: a critical but tricky process. When you anchor yourself in the future, the past can inform rather than constrain, as you act in ways that are different from the past to create that transformational future. It does not mean that you should not respect it. Honoring what was achieved in the past is essential. Then, you let it go and build a future vision of how things should be.

A vision is often phrased strategically and looks far into the future. And with that, it is not always easy for each employee to understand how their role, task, and talent contribute to that vision. As the north star can shine bright in our skies, every colleague must...Read More

Powerfull or powerless in the virtual space. The choice is yours

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 07:56:29 -0800

Our keynote speaker, Ghislaine Caulat, will show us what we do not know about what we don’t know about power in the virtual space. To create a culture of speaking up, you need to understand the power dynamics in virtual teams. And with the explosion of hybrid teams and the increasing pressure to protect the planet, it has become imperative to know how power works in virtual collaboration and leadership. Ghislaine will bring both in-depth knowledge and very practical tips for you to implement immediately.

This session will start on December 8 at 1 PM CET.

Please email rls@magnifor.com to let us know you want to join. We need your confirmation of attendance before November 22, 2023.