Meet Us
How do you capture 75 years of combined education, professional experience, research and curated wisdom into words that do our work justice?
We have worked together since 2003-- and to this very day we embrace each and every client like our first - with excitement, with possibility and with comittment. Whether you are an individual, a health system or a start-up looking to lay the formal ground work of creating an intentional culture - we are your people.
Olivia McIvor, Co-Founder
Olivia McIvor, Co-Founder
Olivia McIvor, Co-Founder
Cisgender Female - Mother - Grand Mother - Partner - Sister - Daughter - Aunty - Friend - Author - Coach - Facilitator - Influencer
I am a researcher, author and someone who wants to see the world become a kinder place. I have spent over 3 decades doing my part to influence others whether through our work, educating or in my volunteer p
Cisgender Female - Mother - Grand Mother - Partner - Sister - Daughter - Aunty - Friend - Author - Coach - Facilitator - Influencer
I am a researcher, author and someone who wants to see the world become a kinder place. I have spent over 3 decades doing my part to influence others whether through our work, educating or in my volunteer positions in life. I know we must build more consciously kind and collaborative relationships at work and in life if we are ever going to succeed as a species on this planet.
As a social researcher, my quest is to understand the impact of social-emotional trends on relationships in the world. What attracts us to places, people and things as well as what holds us and engages us.
I am a writer, a listener and an individual who cares deeply about leaving this planet kinder place.
Leslie Nolin, Co-Founder
Olivia McIvor, Co-Founder
Olivia McIvor, Co-Founder
Cisgender Female - Mother - Step Mother -
Grand Mother - Partner - Sister - Daughter
Aunty - Friend - Entrepreneur Coach, Connector
Formally educated in the 80's as a registered Nurse with a degree in community nursing and palliative care. I worked extensively in Pediatric and neonatal ICU before taking on middle management then onto lead
Cisgender Female - Mother - Step Mother -
Grand Mother - Partner - Sister - Daughter
Aunty - Friend - Entrepreneur Coach, Connector
Formally educated in the 80's as a registered Nurse with a degree in community nursing and palliative care. I worked extensively in Pediatric and neonatal ICU before taking on middle management then onto leadership roles in long term care, palliative care, as well as labor & delivery education.
I stepped into training and development in the late 90's while completing a publishing certificate, then forged a path into the trade non-fiction publication world. I set to publishing our organizational development research while working with clients to focus on leadership development that was authentic, foundational and pushed boundaries. From Fortune 500's to long term care, our work has been about helping leaders, help their people.
Olivia McIvor's story
Over two decades of Disruptive Kindness
I remember getting my first performance review in my new role as a Human Resources Manager. I was shocked when I was told that I would never be successful in HR as long as I continued to “wear my heart on my sleeve.” I was told that I needed to toughen up, stop getting so personal with those under my care and not personalize my job. I was then informed that I was too sensitive and compassionate. Wanting to do a good job, I spent the next year trying to figure out how to stop wearing my heart on my sleeve and to fix what was supposedly broken within me.
In my quest to toughen up, I became a victim services counselor, took classes on being a professional counselor, attended assertiveness training and worked on keeping a “professional distance,” while toughening my stance and body language. I stopped making store visits, worked more from my office and all the while I felt like I was betraying my inner voice that told me something was wrong with this picture. I felt that my new behavior was causing me to become less engaged and disenfranchised from my chosen profession. I had not signed up for this, and I was sadly disillusioned.
Throughout my career I have seen an increased need for kindness and compassion as I have attended numerous funerals and sat at the bedsides of dying and ill colleagues. I have also filled out more disability claims for stress and critical illness than I can remember. I have witnessed divorces, addictions, depressions, suicides, workaholics, low self-worth, and every conceivable form of mental, emotional and physical illness. In the same breath, I have seen gradual returns to work, births, marriages, graduations, promotions, recovery, life/work balance, health, and improved self-confidence.
Regardless of the size and scope of the business, profit or non-profit, or what sector or team/family environment you work, live or volunteer in, nothing is static. Therefore, we cannot afford to be, either. It does not take much to show that we care, to demonstrate some gentle kindness and respect for our common humanity.
These early experiences in my career formed in me a desire to humanize the workplace, to give people permission to wear their hearts on their sleeves, to be kind and not feel like they were broken and in need of repair. I have made it my life and work's purpose for well over three decades to put the ‘human’ back into human resources.
