Today, more than ever, organizations need to anticipate change, rather than react to it. They need to ensure the changes they make to their workplaces, work processes, and work policies are aligned with and measured against business goals. Often, it takes the eyes of an outsider to fully understand and catalyze the leadership, cultural, technological, and other shifts essential to the success of a change initiative.
—a.k.a. “The Kates for Change”—
Principal
Workplace Research & Analytics
Kate Lister is a widely recognized thought leader on trends that are changing the who, what, when, where, why, and how of work. As the founder of Global Workplace Analytics, she has been helping organizations understand, pilot, scale, and optimize their workplace strategies and work practices for nearly two decades.
Kate was one of only three witnesses invited to testify before a U.S. Senate committee regarding the post-pandemic potential for distributed work in government.
A former banker, venture capitalist, and serial entrepreneur, Kate brings the knowledge, wisdom, and research-based discipline her clients need to make informed decisions about how to make work, work better for all constituents.
Kate’s thoughts on the future of work are frequently featured in the news by top outlets including the New York Times, NPR, BBC, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Today Show, and many others.
Kate has written or co-authored five business books, dozens of white papers—including several that were peer-reviewed, and scores of articles.
As a sought-after speaker, Kate has been invited to speak at hundreds of U.S. and global conferences, webinars, and podcasts.
Kate shares her home with four mammals—one two-legged, one three-legged, and two four-legged. A resident of San Diego, she is a weather snob and charges extra if she is forced to travel anywhere with temperatures over 75F or less than 65F, humidity greater than 75%, or bugs. She is willing to make exceptions for Hawaii, New Zealand, and Portugal.
Kate Lister’s Superpowers
Authenticity, empathy, big-picture thinking, making the business case for workplace change for all stakeholders, using research to inform decisions, making work-work better, using science to measure the impact of workplace change on business results
Principal
Workplace Innovation & Transformation
Kate North is a leading authority on workplace and real estate strategies and a trusted advisor to corporate real estate executives, HR teams, and business leaders around the globe. She has spent over 25 years helping organizations envision and execute transformative workplace strategies that align organizational culture with business objectives.
Kate approaches each engagement with an eye toward creating a holistic solution, one that breaks down silos between Real Estate, HR, IT, Finance, Sustainability, and other internal and external stakeholders.
Kate is a passionate community builder. In 2007, she helped launch the first Workplace Community within CoreNet Global. In 2013, she co-founded the “Workplace Evolutionaries” (WE), a vibrant community of practice within the International Facility Management Association (IFMA). She continues to serve as Global Chair of WE, has served on the IFMA Board of Directors (2018-2021), and was awarded the Global Chair Citation by IFMA’s Chairman of the Board (2017).
Kate loves to share knowledge. She has co-authored three editions of “Work on the Move” for the IFMA Foundation—contributing over seventy workplace case studies, produced numerous thought leadership articles, and has led or participated in dozens of webinars and podcasts, and spoken at industry conferences around the world.
Mentoring is a key part of Kate’s life and she is deeply committed to supporting women in real estate for over a decade and is also an active member of the Executive Women in Corporate Real Estate and WIN.
Kate counts herself lucky to have lived in the great cities of NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, La Jolla, Palo Alto, Austin, and even Auckland NZ, but it’s the mountains of Salt Lake City she calls home. If you’re looking to do a little yodeling or terrorizing the mountain slopes, she’s your person!
Kate North’s Superpowers
Consensus building, leadership alignment, identifying the real problem, helping organizations envision, embrace, and solve complex workplace, people, and organizational challenges
We don’t pretend to be the experts for everything our clients need but after 20+ years in the business, we have identified best-in-class providers who can help round out our team when needed. They are not our B team—actually, we never want one of those—they are established experts with strong track records of success in their fields. In most cases, we remain the primary contact on all engagements to ensure the seamless delivery of our combined services, but if it makes more sense for the client to contract with our advisors directly, we are happy to make that work.
Strategic Partner
Specialty: Workplace & Portfolio Optimization
Company: Caryatid LLC
Nida Mehtab, Founder and CEO of Caryatid, a boutique Workplace Consultancy, is known for her leadership in commercial real estate, strategic change management, and developing global workplace strategies enabling effective workforce experience. Her expertise in architecture and commercial real estate development, combined with her dual perspective as an occupier and service provider, provides her with a comprehensive understanding of the complex dynamics of real estate. This expertise allows her to effectively address challenges at all levels and cultivate these skills within her team at Caryatid. Her ability to balance employee satisfaction with organizational goals exemplifies her multifaceted skills, fostering meaningful interactions with various stakeholders from C-suite leaders to project teams.
Nida is adept at leveraging data-driven insights from workplace and workforce areas, identifying opportunities, and addressing challenges. This strategic approach to data has been key in advancing Caryatid, especially in managing complex real estate programs and formulating compelling business cases for initiatives up to a billion dollars. She is skilled at synthesizing information from different sources, identifying unmet needs, and devising innovative solutions. Her understanding of how to enable cultural transformation through workplace change has played an integral role in helping organizations achieve their goals.
In addition to being a mentor to aspiring women leaders, Nida also contributes to the Corenet EDIB and WOC committees. She has served on the board of the Goldie B. Wolfe Miller – Women Leadership Initiative and CREW SF.
Nida renews her energy by experiencing diverse cultures in her travels around the world. If you happen to be in the Sahara desert, you might catch her riding a camel.
Nida’s Superpowers:
Her superpowers include workplace strategy, executive alignment, cultural transformation, portfolio planning, capital planning, business case development, success measurement, change management, and data triangulation.
Sr. Consultant
Specialty: Organizational Development, Employee Engagement & Sustainability
Company: WTF Consulting
Lisa’s education, experience, and credentials blend organizational development, DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging), behavioral change, workplace design, and sustainability. She is a passionate advocate for improving work for all.
Lisa has an MS in Organization + Management from Antioch University and holds certifications in mediation, facilitation, interior design, and as a circular economy specialist. She is pursuing a doctorate in Organizational Development + Change at Fielding Graduate University’s School of Leadership Studies and is recognized as being in the top 1% of Mentimeter presenters in the world. Mentimeter is a tool that Lisa uses to ensure that all voices are heard as part of her intentionally designed inclusive workshops.
Lisa is the principal of LisaWhited.com and has consulted with Google, Microsoft, WTW, bp, and Omnicom, among others. She was a contributing author to IFMA’s Work On The Move 3, and received IFMA’s Distinguished Author Award for her book, Work Better. Save the Planet which is a guide for building employee engagement while positively impacting climate change.
Lisa is a resident of Portland, Maine. She is a potato farmer’s granddaughter and an engineer’s daughter. The first informs her work ethic, and the second explains her love of solving problems.
Superpowers:
Believing in the art of possibility, including all voices in change, public speaking, facilitation, listening, and respectfully questioning assumptions.
Sure, there are bigger firms, but here are some of the reasons our clients and partners choose us instead:
• We didn’t just swoop in for the kill when “hybrid” and “remote” work became popular. We have been helping organizations with distributed work strategies for over two decades.
• Our work is informed by science. We maintain and continually update a proprietary database that includes over 7,000 research papers, case studies, news items, and more.
• Kate Lister, the founder of Global Workplace Analytics, was one of only three witnesses invited to testify before a Congressional Committee regarding the post-pandemic future of distributed work in government.
• When the U.S. General Accountability Office was charged with finding tools that could help them quantify the impact of distributed work in government they called our Workplace Savings Calculator © “comprehensive and thoroughly researched.” It was the only tool recommended in their report to Congress.
• We are a globally recognized authority on the future of work. Together the principals of Global Workplace Analytics have written or co-authored eight books, numerous research papers, and dozens of articles, several of which were peer-reviewed.
• You won’t get the ‘B Team’ after the sale is done because we don’t have one.
• We take our work, but not ourselves, seriously.
