VP of People at Gorilla | In the pursuit of employee significance | Leadership & Career Coach | Illustrator | Corporate Hippy - views expressed here are my own

I’m a tech executive who believes the future belongs to companies that combine AI capability with human intelligence.

Not AI as a silver bullet.
Not people strategy as soft culture work.
Not simplistic “do more, faster” productivity narratives.
But practical systems that help organisations make better decisions as they scale.

I’ve spent my career building and operating those systems across people, performance, operating models, and now AI. 

The work only matters if it shows up in reality; how leaders lead, how teams decide, and how companies change without losing trust.

Most recently, I led the global People function at a Series B energy tech company and co-led our early AI rollout across governance, ethics, enablement, tooling, and experimentation. 

Alongside this, I work with founders, executives, and investors as a fractional leader and advisor. I help organisations roll out AI responsibly, navigate change, and build people systems that compound growth rather than create drag.

If you’re a founder, COO, CPO or leader trying to:
- adopt AI without breaking trust or momentum
- lead change without drowning managers in process
- scale people and operating systems that actually work in the real world.

I write and speak for you.

Things I write about:

- Practical AI adoption without hype or harm
- Where human judgment still matters in everyday AI decisions
- Leading change that creates clarity and engagement, not chaos
- People systems that support growth instead of getting in the way
- Why culture breaks during scale-ups, and how to fix it

Vanessa Monsequeira

It's been a big week, folks

I'm hopping on a plane to Australia for a workation. 

On the agenda:
🌞 Surf - Sun - Seafood.
☕ A proper flat white (finally).
💜 Laughs with family and friends.

Also on the agenda:

Customer calls with Europe from my laptop .. beachside. 

Coffee catch-ups and lunches with Aussie legends. Megan Trotter Matt McFarlane Mark Lewis Mohit Midha Careen Matthews Adam Axon 

to have lots of conversations about AI, People Experience and HR Tech. 

Basically defrosting before tulip season drags me back.

See you on the flip side.

Vanessa Monsequeira - चित्रलेखा

AI Transformation and Change Leadership | Fractional VP People | Building Work as a Product | Corporate Hippy

A woman with dark curly hair and gold-rimmed glasses grins broadly at the camera, holding up an Australian passport. She's wearing a colourful plaid scarf and a red jacket, photographed in an airport terminal.

2 months ago, I had to decide to stay in-house or bet on myself and go solo.

I knew which direction pulled at me.

But I was about to play it safe: positioning myself in a category that felt comfortable, familiar and small.

I told myself I didn't have the right to play in AI.

Even though I'd led AI adoption in my last organisation.

Even though our VC asked me to present best practices and pitfalls to their portfolio companies.

The doubts were loud:
↳ “I'm not technical enough”
↳ “What about the financial risks?”
↳ “Who am I to claim this space?”
↳ “What if I am no good?”

Then I met Frans van Loef in January. 

A busy executive coach, author and former CEO. The kind of person whose calendar you don't expect to make it onto twice.

We had a mentoring conversation over a year ago.

But when we sat down at the same café, same table, it felt like no time had passed.

Like catching up with an old friend who wasn't going to let me shrink. And someone who could show me what it actually looked like to back myself.

He didn't let me get away with playing small.

Frans didn't give me a pep talk. He held up a mirror.

Not just to the last 15 months of AI work, but to 15 years of leadership, change, transformation, tech and business consulting.

The pattern was right there. I'd been doing this work all along, I just hadn't claimed it.

That conversation shifted something.

I stopped waiting for permission and started building.
(more on this every week)

Last week, I launched my business.

I help tech leaders close the gap between AI ambition and AI outcomes, without burning out their managers or losing top talent.

Since then, I've had multiple enquiries and calls.

That's what happens when someone helps you see what you've been too close to see yourself.

Building a business will never be easy.

But if there's a "shortcut", it's having someone who can reflect your capability back to you when self-doubt is doing the talking.

Then it comes down to backing yourself. FULLY.

Frans, thank you for being in my corner!


PS. I’m about to launch my newsletter on How AI is rewiring thinking, leadership, and the workforce. Get it for free: https://lnkd.in/eh_aYrzw

Close-up selfie of two people smiling warmly at the camera indoors. On the left, a man with short light brown hair and blue eyes wears a navy collared shirt. On the right, a woman with shoulder-length dark curly hair wears a light knit top, gold necklace, and colorful earrings. They are standing close together in a cozy space with exposed brick and soft natural light in the background.

Anthropic dropped their AI fluency report this week.

Two findings made me curious and hungry:

1. AI Fluency is strongly linked to iteration and refinement, not just output volume.

2. When creating outputs (e.g. documents, code), users get more directive but less evaluative.

AI is making us better but only if we use it to augment our thinking, not delegate, deliver and forget. 

I believe the answer isn't to stop using AI to create outputs.

It's to use it with critical thinking:
↳ Structure Problem Solving
↳ Analysis and Critique
↳ Decision Making 

The problem is that critical thinking is rarely taught in schools, universities, or businesses.

So we're handing people a powerful tool with no framework for how to actually think with it.

That's why I built the The Critical Thinking Sandwich:

Your thinking is the bread: Thick, sturdy, holding everything together.

The filling (meat or veg) is where the real work happens: The iteration, the critique, the refinement.

AI is the cheese: Essential, delicious, sticks things together, but never the main event.

AI is the cheese but it doesn't make the sandwich.

Your thinking does.


#criticalthinking #AI #cognitivedebt

"How to stay sharp when AI does the work" showing The Critical Thinking Sandwich — a five-layer framework for using AI without losing your edge.
Layer 1 (orange, thick): Critical Forethought. Frame the problem yourself before you prompt.
Layer 2 (yellow, thin): AI Output v1. Raw material. Not the answer.
Layer 3 (green, thick): Critical Analysis. You interrogate first, then ask AI to challenge it from multiple angles.
Layer 4 (yellow, thin): AI Output v2+. Refined and pressure tested.
Layer 5 (orange, thick): Critical Readiness. Can you defend this without AI? If not, go back into the filling.
Footer: "AI is the cheese. It doesn't make the sandwich."

IT teams are about to become everyone's problem.

Most leaders haven't realised it yet.

At a hackathon last month, Debora Gallo shared an example that I haven't stopped thinking about. 

People teams are starting to build their own tools. 

Personalised, scrappy and iterative is exactly what the business needs. 

And IT's response was awesome, but we can't maintain that. 

I've seen this movie before. 

Years ago I was brought in as a tech consultant because a company's manufacturing engineering team had started building their own systems rather than waiting in the IT queue. 

They would "dev all the way to core systems" and then throw it over the fence to IT. 

IT was getting frustrated: 
→ Those systems needed to talk to central infrastructure. 
→ They needed someone to maintain them post development. 
→ They needed security sign-off. 

But nobody had planned for it because they went around IT.

They thought IT was too slow and always said no.  

And the whole thing became an expensive, political mess to untangle. 

That was considered an edge case back then. 

"Shadow IT" was the awkward anomaly everyone quietly complained about. In the age of vibe-coding, it becomes the default. 

And the People team won't be the only ones building. 

Finance, Ops, Marketing, Sales and any function with a problem and a bit of curiosity can now ship something. 

That's genuinely exciting! 

But it's also a structural time bomb if no one is asking the harder questions. 

What leaders need to start doing: 

1️⃣ Map your org design for a world where every function can build, not just request. 

2️⃣ Set the rules now: maintenance, governance and security can't be an afterthought when every team is shipping. 

3️⃣ Audit your future roles and skills. Agentic AI and vibe-coding are rewriting what every job actually requires. 

Keen to hear if you've been doing or observing any of the above. 

#aiadoption #orgdesign #futureroles

Black background with large white serif text reading "In organizations when everyone is vibe-coding......." with the words "vibe-coding" highlighted in purple, followed by "Who will maintain our apps?" with the word "maintain" highlighted in coral orange. Vanessa Monsequeira and Intentional AI Adoption appear in small text at the bottom left and right corners.

Are you team OpenAI or Anthropic?

For me, it's Anthropic for the win. 

I love:
🧡 Claude Chat
🧡 Claude Cowork
🧡 Claude Code (still WIP)

I appreciate a tool that doesn't optimise for dopamine.

No endless suggestions designed to keep you hooked.
(Worth a listen: Lenny's Podcast with Edwin Chen, CEO of Surge)

I support co-founders who:

a) Give away 80% of their personal wealth
b) Don't donate $25M to oppressive political regimes

I support a CEO (Dario Amodei) who writes real thought leadership:

→ The Adolescence of Technology
→ Machines of Loving Grace

Are any of these founders perfect? No
Is the wealth amassed insane? Yes

But the AI bubble isn't bursting anytime soon.

And what that means for employees is non-negotiable:
Upskill on tooling, critical thinking, and ethics.

In my opinion,  🧡 Anthropic for the win on all three.

Video credit: Reuters at AI Summit India

#aiwars #techbrodisputes #AI

Have you every attended a 'conference' that changes the way you think, learn and experiment?

For me that's been PX experiences by SapienX.

Every year I learn things from fellow speakers and peers that keeps me coming back. 

Every single time I've been able to put what I've learned into action immediately.

Key highlights:

🗓️ 2024 - London

➟ How to launch people products using best practices from marketing 
➟ UX to PX applications and north star and meaningful metrics 
➟ Deep dives into service design and the double diamond, and interactive icebreakers I still steal to this day. 
➟ Everyone comes to the game of work with the same set of cards but a different set of rules from past workplaces... and we expect everyone to play the same game 

🗓️ 2025 - London and Amsterdam

➟ PX in action for performance design 
➟ PX and service design deeper dives 
➟ Practical applications of agile for people teams 
➟ The culture card game and a touch of wizardry 
➟ Experiment Design canvas - integrating all our learnings into action 
➟ Purpose at work interactive session and preview of Jessica Zwaan's new book 
➟ The future of HR turning into the future of design of work, workforce, and workflows 


🗓️ 2026 What will we see next? 

Join us at PX Live to find out.

It's going to be a cracking line-up:

Alicia Grimes
Dart Lindsley
Glenn Martin
Chris Metcalfe
Luke O'Mahoney
Thomas Forstner
JooBee Yeow, PhD (OOO)
and me Vanessa Monsequeira - चित्रलेखा

If you're: 
👉🏽 A Head of People trying to drive real impact 
👉🏽 A PX leader building capability beyond admin 
👉🏽 Someone who believes the People function can be more strategic

come join us for the fun, to learn, and to be part of the movement to redesign the future of HR and work.

It's on March 20 and it's limited to 100 practitioners.

Discount code - VANESSA-10

#peopleexperience #pxlive

Promotional banner for PX Live London featuring a diverse audience smiling and seated at a live event. Overlaid text reads: “Work is broken. Product can fix it.” Event details: “PX Live — London | March 20th.” “Limited tickets available” appears alongside a QR code. Supported by hownow, Humaans, and huggg. Sapien logo in the top left corner.

Merkle

Chris’s role is to unite, improve, and enable the growth of the Customer Experience Management (CXM) business across APAC in Merkle and inject CXM solutions into dentsu media and creative propositions. 

Countries: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, India, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Phillipines

Asia Pacific Chief Operating Officer 

dentsu

CXM Asia Pacific Chief Operating Officer 

Chris' role worked on many divisional challenges in AR&C to cultivate efficiency through agility.

Responsible for ensuring all the strategic goals of the AR&C Division are delivered through best-in-class performance, investment & governance management.

Chris implemented industry-leading processes (QBR's) and tools, built a team of subject-matter experts, and drove divisional prioritisation, clear accountabilities, and consistent value measurement to guarantee outcomes were delivered effectively, on time and on budget.

Head of Strategic Performance | AR&C 

PwC Australia

Chris' role is to cultivate agility at PwC and our clients.

Chris and team assist value focused organisations realise business agility aspirations through advice, coaching and application of enterprise agile practices, frameworks and technical speed to market enablers such as DevOps.

We create contextual agility approaches for each client need, combining the agile mindset with practical and pragmatic application of agile practices, frameworks and value realisation measures. 
We are agnostic, yet fluent in many agile frameworks (including scrum, kanban, SAFe, LeSS, DA2.0, lean startup, HCD, CI/CD, TDD, BDD, design thinking, etc) and work with you to bring the balance to enable outcomes.

Clients:
- VCAT
- Coles 
- Telstra
- Qantas
- Jetstar
- NAB
- Grocon
- Victoria Police
- Oz Minerals
- IAG

Director of Agile Advisory | Strategy | Innovation | Ways of Working

Deloitte Australia

Christopher couples his passion for innovation and lean/agile specialisation to create customer-focused client outcomes that span complex backend core systems through to customer experience. Chris works across business units, portfolio, programme and delivery layers of organisations to enable accelerated delivery, continuous improvement and customer experience improvement. 

Recent Clients Include:
- Telstra
- City of Melbourne
- ANZ
- ING Direct
- Energy Australia

Director | Agile Strategy & Delivery

Chris couples his passion for accelerated/optimised technology delivery in fast-paced markets with innovation, human centered design, creative ways of working (the agility toolbox) and focus on sustained value.
As an Agile Leader at Deloitte, he represents over 170 experts nationally in Agility and Continuous Delivery in the Agile Community of Practice. 

In this role Chris has focused on building Agile knowledge, culture and expertise across Deloitte by developing internal training programs, executive briefings, client/networking events and tools/accelerators for Deloitte practitioners. He advises/coaches projects on creative approaches, framework/practice usage, organisational culture transformation, mindset and quality assurance of delivery.  

Agile@Deloitte utilises the following Frameworks: Scrum, Lean, Kanban, Design Thinking, Human Centred Design, DevOps, Cynefin, Kaizen, *Scaling Frameworks*: Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Large Enterprise Scaled Scrum (LeSS), Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) and *Hybrid's* such as Prince2 Agile, and, Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM),

Agile Community of Practice Leader

Christopher specialises in program/project delivery optimisation and acceleration via Agile frameworks (Scrum, Lean, LeSS, SAFe, Kanban, Kaizen, + many more) and correlating technology practices (DevOps). He works across business and technology business units as necessary to achieve client outcomes. 
Part of Deloitte Australia's Agile Community of Practice (CoP) leadership team, resource development and agile industry events. 

Recent clients Include:
- Telstra
- Global Energy & Resources client
- ING Direct (Australia)

Manager | Agile Advisory | Enterprise Information Management

Deloitte UK

Christopher transferred to the London office to work in the Telecommunication, Media and IT (TMT) and Energy and Resource (E&R) industries. 
Chris specialises in technical transformations that improve customer experience and product offerings. 
He advises on adoption of Agile project methodology, customer experience, enterprise performance management, continuous improvement, data migrations, target operating models, cost reduction and customer analytics. 

Clients include:
- Llyods Banking Group (LBG)
- Group NBT (NetNames)
- National Grid
- British Gas
- British Telecom
- Canon
- Telkom

Senior Consultant

Christopher joined Deloitte’s Enterprise Information Management (EIM) consulting practice as Consultant. The EIM practice service offerings include: Information strategy and governance, Enterprise data management, Enterprise content management, Business intelligence and data warehousing, Information collaboration and agility and Analytics.

Clients include:
- Telstra
- TRUenergy

Consultant

Telstra

Christopher was contracted as a Continuous Improvement Specialist in the Customer Experience Improvement Team, as part of Consumer Operations, aiming to improve customer satisfaction, first time contact resolution and improving business processes across all customer facing business units at Telstra ( Consumer [Retail), Business, Wholesale and Enterprise & Government). The approach was to identify measure and understand every customer transaction for improvement opportunities. This was achieved by implementing Customer Transaction Surveys (CTS), a combination of operational data from multiple silo systems, voice of the customer survey, recorded calls, email traffic, speech analytics and voice analytics. CTS obtain valuable insights of what customers experience across the following channels Inbound & selected Outbound calls, Email, Online (Telstra.com.au & BigPond.com.au), Complaint calls, Social Media (facebook, twitter, whirlpool & 17 other identified sites), Online Live Chat, Field Technician visits and Proactive contact campaigns (Moving Home, Online Billing & BigPond [broadband] Activations).
 -	Chris was a founding member of the CTS team, assisting in the design, build and implementation of CTS.
-	Chris analysed the voice of the customer, business processes, agent behaviour and systems to find business improvement opportunities. Opportunities were presented to the executive level monthly, prioritised and aligned with business unit improvement roadmap. 
-	To improve voice of the customer analysis Chris worked to implement text analytics (Martin Doors Analytics Lavastorm) and trialed speech analytics (Verint) to classify the audio verbatim files.
-	Christopher created pilot customer Call Back program to re-contact customers with unresolved inbound call queries with the Service Recovery Team.

Continuous Improvement Specialist (Senior Business Analyst)

BearingPoint

Christopher performed as a Consultant in the Technology Solutions practice at BearingPoint.  He has experience on large-scale engagements with global organisations focusing on the establishment and oversight of program office functions, project communications, resource management and stakeholder engagement. Chris’s strength’s include project management, requirements gathering, strategy, marketing, and good communication skills. He was also a member of the social committee organising family days, monthly social drinks, and chocolate and whisky tasting courses.

Business Consultant

Michael Page

Christopher applied for role through Michael Page and was offered a graduate position in the Technology Division.  As a graduate he underwent training and was then promoted to Consultant.  As a recruitment consultant his role was to work with both employers and job seekers to facilitate a successful match. Whether advising one of the worlds largest companies on a candidate sourcing strategy or helping a potential candidate take the next step in their career.

Technology Recruitment Consultant

Transformation leader with 19 years of global, cross-industry experience driving business agility by blending technology, strategy, and organizational frameworks to deliver measurable operational results and customer experience uplift worldwide.


Christopher's consulted to the following clients:
Qantas, ANZ, ING Direct, BHP Billiton, Lloyds Banking Group, NetNames (Group NBT), National Grid, Canon, British Gas, British Telecom (BT), Telkom SA, Telstra, TRUEnergy, Connell Wagner, Aus. Dept of Defence, NAB, Jetstar, Grocon, Oz Minerals, Coles, Victoria Police.


STRATEGY
- Business & Technology Strategy
- Agile Operating Models & Org. Design
- Market/Competitor analysis/benchmarking
- Proposals/Tender/Contract/RFI/RFP

AGILITY
- Agile Op Model transition & outcome uplift
- WoW Advisory & C-suite Agility Coaching
- OKRs, scorecards, roadmaps

DELIVERY
- Complex Transformation (Agile & PMI)
- Program Management, Governance, & PMO
- Program Risk / Viability Assessments
- GTM Proposition creation & curation 

TECHNOLOGY
 - CX: Digital, Socials, CRM, loyalty, eCommerce, CDP
 - APAC digital landscape behaviours & capability
 - Rating & Billing, OSS/BSS, Retail Media Network

OPERATIONS
- Governance & Management systems
- Value & benefit mgmt. & optimisation
- Nearshore/offshore management 
- M&A scan, integration & coordination
- Vendor Partnerships & Alliances 
- Business & IT Process improvement


"You must collect the dots before you connect the dots" 

You cannot predict the future, only learn from the past, sense patterns and adapt as the connection between dots becomes clear. In my role I look across industries and organisations to understand, interpret and add dots to build organisational agility through performance.

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