Gorilla - Energy data applications

Imagine a world where selling carbon-free energy is as easy as selling bananas at the farmers market.

Gorilla wants to empower the global shift to carbon-neutral energy. We do it through one of a kind energy data applications.

In order to enable our company vision and mission, the People Team mission is to enable Data Rangers (our employees) to grow individually and as a troop by creating easy to use and elegant people solutions.

VP of People

Jangala

Growth cycles in business are broken.

And leaders and teams are feeling the whiplash from everchanging internal and external headwinds.

The ultimate hack to grow resilient organizations has been under our noses all along. 

Jangala People Solutions is a playground to experiment with how leaders and teams harness 3.8 bn years of nature's blueprints, psychology, and neuroscience to:

► Explore how Regenerative Design principles can shape sustainable organizational practices and foster long-term resilience.

► Cultivate Nature-Inspired Leadership by integrating nature's wisdom into leadership strategies for innovation, resilience, and organizational health.

► Embracing the Adaptive Cycle to navigate scale, change, reorganization within fast moving environments.

Services: Leadership Coaching and Development. Teams Coaching and Development, Workshop Facilitation

People Advisory, Leadership & Teams Facilitator

Offbeat

Offbeat is one of the leading L&D communities where L&D professionals accelerate their career.

Mentor

Philips

HR plays a critical role in ESG and social impact. 

As the corporate landscape shifts towards prioritizing sustainability and social impact, my pivot into a sustainability role at Philips aligns with the evolving expectations of both consumers and employees.

I was committed to leveraging my people and culture expertise to enable Philips businesses and external organizations to set and meet their ESG goals, and foster culture of sustainability within the organization

The skills accrued here have deepened my understanding of ESG and how as HR professional I can further addressing social aspects, such as inclusion, diversity, and equity, and talent processes.

Sustainability Strategist - Philips Innovation Services

Miro

Imagine scaling from 350 to 1000 employees in < 12 months during the pandemic.

I built and scaled the L&D and Culture function at Miro from Series B - C during this crazy hypergrowth to answer these questions:

"How do we scale our company without losing our culture?"
"How do we build a culture as collaborative as our product?
"How do we stay nimble as we expand?"

Leading a team of learning designers and agile coaches, we built people solutions like products to  ensure our culture didn't "break".

...

Head of People Solutions Design  

PwC Australia

The aim is not to be an agile organization. The aim is to achieve your business objectives with agility. 

This was one of the core principles Christopher Webb and I co-founded the Agile Advisory around in 2017 when the applications of agile outside of software development were still in it's infancy. 

Our goal was to help organizations avoid cutting and pasting scrum across all their departments and saying 'ta da' "we're agile".

Instead we grew an inclusive and diverse multi-disciplinary team to work with clients to redesign their operating models and refresh their ways of working.

In doing so we aimed to bring organizations closer to their customers and employees, and to increase speed to value by developing viable and feasible solutions. 

I specifically focussed on leadership agility, and teams development + delivery using agile ways of working and human centred design methods to deliver better outcomes. 

Highlights: 

► Designing and implementing company-wide New Ways of Working simulation training to 30 000K employees using more LEGO than one person would buy in their lifetime.

► Establishing social labs innovation approach and delivering large group facilitation to enable the cross-sector teams to collaborate and prototype solutions to end homelessness in a generation.

Senior Manager - Agile Advisory, Technology Consulting

Deloitte Australia

Think strategically, solve complex problems, format slides fast.

In my interview I said I'm a corporate hippy, they said you're hired, and on Day 1 I was shipped out to a mining and metal company ....

Not quite the regenerative green warrior project I expected, yet to do this day it remains one of the best projects of my life.

Why? I got to work with amazing client leaders and it's where I cut my teeth on:

Buidling and faciltiating strong team dynamics globally, managing global strategic change, global learning and development strategy, the ups and downs of stakeholder engagement and M&A / demergers....

... and it's when I became an accidental technologist.

It's also where I learned consultants' obsession with slides and spreadsheets. 

If you can't beat them join them. So I pivot-tabled, hypothesis treed, and powerpointed my way on several projects for national banks, insurers, and retailers. 

Until I was selected among 20 people nationally to go on a 3 day immersion with the  Design and Visual Storytelling team.

It's here that I unearthed my natural tendency for human-centred design (HCD) and its powerful methods, which evolved into working on agile software development projects, and agile coaching, and  learning and development solutions.

I knew that my future work would always boil down to:

Understand the problem + Build the right things + Build the things right.

...

Human Capital Management Consultant

Croydon Council

Organisational Change & Development - Learning and Development - Product Development 

Croydon Council:
In a post Global Financial Crisis climate, Croydon Council received a mandate form the federal government to cut costs by £200 million by 2018. Subsequently the council commenced a large scale restructure and review of services. To assist the ensuing changes the Chief Executive initiated a 3 year values based culture transformation for the organisation (approx. 2000 employees). As one of four core members in the Change and OD team Vanessa delivered the following high quality services:

Culture Transformation
- Mobilisation of culture change champion network \
- Leadership and project management 
- Development of learning forums and materials to equip and empower staff with change conversation capabilities.  These initiatives increased employees’ change skillset, augmented employees’ sense of work efficacy and opened communication channels between different departments
- Change project evaluation  

Leadership
- Middle Management Leadership Skills Audit 
- Logistics Management for annual senior leadership summit for 300 senior leaders 
- Future leadership capabilities scenario mapping to enable leaders to lead and manage political,    economic, technology and social change reforms

Online Learning
-  Designed, developed and maintained  user centric change  and L&D intranet sites to support staff communications and e-learning

Leap Partnership:
- Working with FTSE 100 clients such as Lloyds TSB, Sage and Honeywell to develop a prolific teams inventory which helps teams in their learning and development functions and overall performance

Organisational Change and Development Consultant

Mendas Ltd.

Client Delivery: National Health Services (NHS), UK Government Organizations (NDA), Smith and Williamson Accountants

Business Psychologist

Munro & Forster

Client Delivery for Nestle Carnation, La Roche-Posay, Roche Diagnostics and Ronald McDonald House Charities

Commercial and Healthcare Graduate PR Analyst

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

What do you get when you cross a business psychologist + an accidental technologist + agile coach + a tree hugger?

A global People & Culture leader, who embraces her corporate hippy persona to revitalize organizations worldwide.

I currently lead the global People Function at Gorilla - energy data applications, a fast growing series B SaaS scale up. 

I've held leadership roles at Miro, PwC, Deloitte and Philips where I've built, shaped and scaled cultures.

I know what it takes for startups and scaleups to design their People strategy for future success.


My career highlights include:

► Scaling the L&D and Culture function at Miro from series B - C. 

► Developing social labs approach for cross-sector teams to protoype solutions to end homlessess in a generation in Australia for The Constellation Project.

► Designing and implementing the Global IT Learning strategy, and Change Management and Comms approach for the most complex demerger in australian history (mining and metals company). 


Find out more:

Illustrations - I simplify complex ideas through the power of picture
https://www.instagram.com/nessmonsequeira_illustrations

The Nature of Leadership + Career Newsletter - is filled with practical tips and focuses on how leaders and employees can redesign the work experience.

https://nessmonsequeira.beehiiv.com/

I moved to Amsterdam in 2020 after visiting it for exactly one day in 2006.

November marks 5 years in the Netherlands. It wasn't what I expected.

2020:
Ness: "Hey Nick, this digital whiteboard company reached out about a role in Amsterdam."
Nick: "Just see where it goes."

Two weeks later, I'd signed with Miro (back when they were the "lesser-known digital whiteboard platform") to scale their People Solutions function from 350 to 1,000 people in a year.

Then came one of the most bizarre plane journeys of our lives: the airline had to call the Australian government pre-flight to confirm we were on the approved leave list. We were told we couldn't return until the end of the pandemic.

No safety net. No return ticket. Just two suitcases and a gutsy decision.
Maybe it was reckless, but Nick and I are suckers for adventure.

___

What moving here was supposed to be:
👉🏾 A career opportunity in a cool European city

What it became:
🧡 A masterclass in scaling companies during chaos (hello, pandemic)
🧡 Where I built community instead of just a network
🧡 A new obsession with white asparagus season
🧡 Where "home" stopped meaning one country
🧡 A lesson in how day spas work (IYKYK)
🧡 Proof that betting on yourself pays off

Dank u wel to everyone who has been part of my personal and professional journey in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK. 

Special shout out to the communities at the D2 collective, Diverse Leaders in Tech, Hatch - Immersive learning experiences and Omek. I was missing a sense of belonging in the middle years and you helped me find home. 

Of course thanks to Nick and our best doggo Tiger. You make A'dam home.

Here's to many more beautiful years and doing more dutchy things. 🚴🏽‍♀️

What's the gutsiest career move you've ever made?

Vanessa Monsequeira - चित्रलेखा

VP of People at Gorilla | Building Employee Experience as a Product | In pursuit of making work suck less | Leadership & Career Coach | Corporate Hippy - views expressed here are my own

Ness and her husband Nick taking a celebratory selfie with glasses of red wine. Ness has curly dark hair and is wearing a cream sweater with a gold necklace. Nick has a beard and is wearing a light green sweater. Both are smiling warmly at the camera in what appears to be a restaurant or café setting.

Every Head of HR knows the secret "job description."

We carry skills and emotions that never make it onto our job ad. The weight of decisions that affect people's livelihoods. The loneliness of being the only one in the room thinking five moves ahead from a people strategy and ops perspective.

Many talk about being a "Strategic" HR leader. Very few execute it well. Even fewer teach it effectively.

Recently, I completed the JooBee's Strategic HR Leader Step Up Bootcamp.
I desperately wish I'd had before my leadership roles at Miro and Gorilla!

🧰 Here's what made it transformational:
— All Real-world application, not theory:
— Deeply thinking and practice  through compensation structures and leveling frameworks for scaling startups (so many lessons!!!!!)
— Building scalable people operations during the critical build phase
— Consolidating thinking around scaling agility people as a product
—  ALL learning through interactive doing and teamwork

💪🏾 Strengthening our diagnostic muscles:
— Sharpened organizational diagnosis and problem-solving through the PIC framework
— Practical tools I'm already applying in my day-to-day

🎭 The role-play day (this alone was worth the price): 
A full day with professional actors playing:
— A Founder who kept changing goal-setting structures mid-quarter
— A COO who outright refused 360 feedback
— A CMO who wanted to pay out-of-band for an average performer

🔥 The fireside chat: One hour with a top VC Stephen Millard from Notion Capital. Finally, a safe space to ask all those fiery questions as HR we think but rarely voice to board members.

💜 And the unexpected value: 
— The cohort itself became both a learning experience and group therapy (IYKYK).
— Perhaps the most invaluable aspect was pairing with a group of people living the same reality. People who didn't just empathise, they solutionize the right way.

Thank you Ed Ross Missy S. Katie Downes (Beales) Elena Argyriou María Clara Wasileff Seun Iyaniwura . I'm genuinely grateful to each of you. You helped me learn, grow, and realise "it's not just me." 

I very rarely give an NPS of 10.
This is it, folks. run, don't walk.
Worth every minute. Worth every penny.

And thank you again JooBee Yeow, PhD for your masterful facilitation 🫶🏾

P.S. Sneak peak of the course in comments!

#PeopleLeadership #HRStrategy #StartupHR #PeopleOps

Screenshot of a video call with seven participants from the JooBee Strategic HR Leader Step Up Bootcamp cohort, including Missy Strong, Ness from Gorilla, Clari Wasileff from Ekumen, Seun, Elena from Snappymob, Ed from Aiven, Katie from YLD, and JooBee Yeow (course facilitator with Step Up Bootcamp branding visible).

What’s more important: leading or managing?

Hint: Most people choose wrong.

Leadership = vision.
Management = execution.
Both matter but neither is enough.

Inspiration alone doesn’t create outcomes.
Systems alone don’t inspire people.
Vision + systems alone ≠ success.

I empathise.
As a leader, you put these building blocks in place and think:
“We’re doing things right.
 Why isn’t it working?”

Because something critical is missing.

The space in between: the Adaptive Space**.

The interface between entrepreneurial thinking and operational discipline.
Where innovation meets implementation.
Where ideas become action.
Where strategy actually moves.

This is the missing middle.
When all three work together (leadership, management and the Adaptive Space) momentum, magic and money follow.

If you lead people, your job is not choosing between leadership and management.
Your job is learning to operate and helping others operate in the Adaptive Space.

What are you experiencing in the Adaptive Space?


**Coined by Mary Uhl-Bien and colleagues in Complexity Leadership Theory.

Infographic titled “Lead your team to achieve outcomes” with the subtitle “It’s not about leader vs manager. Be both and know how to adapt.”

On the left, three vertical sections appear along a downward arrow:

Leadership (Vision): Set vision and strategy; Shape culture; Guide through change; Enable learning.

The Adaptive Space (Integration): Translate strategy to action; Zoom out and think; Foster conflict and collaboration; Adapt dynamically.

Management (Execution): Plan and organize; Monitor performance; Maintain standards; Solve risks and problems.

On the right, four statements each paired with colour bars:
“Inspiration ≠ outcomes” (pink gradient).
“Vision and systems alone ≠ success” (purple gradient).
“Systems alone ≠ inspired people” (orange gradient).
“This will empower outcomes” (combined pink, purple, orange gradient).

Footer includes the name Vanessa Monsequeira and the tagline “Leadership that makes work suck less.”

All leaders want healthy culture and "happy" teams.

The truth most miss is that the feedback that stings the most is often the feedback you need the most to create thriving environments. 

Not because all feedback is necessarily "true." 

But because it uncovers signals of unmet needs. 

It's a diagnostic clue.

To truly unlock team performance and team health (after putting the basics in place), we have to go where it hurts the most.

That place = crunchy feedback and difficult conversations.

Most leaders avoid negative feedback like the plague.

It makes sense, emotional pain register in the brain like physical pain.

... and we've got enough 💩 to deal with everyday. 

Yet, here's what I always tell leaders:

→ You worth and value as a leader aren't defined by negative feedback.
→ Crunchy feedback means your organisation and team are still talking to you.
→ They haven't given up. They're still invested.
→  Of course, guide your team to use radical candor. Rudeness is never accepted.

At this time of year:
→ Many are analysing annual engagement results or performance reviews.
→ Don't waste the gift of honest feedback. 
→ Learn how to separate signal from noise and find the deeper unmet needs. 

The steps below have helped countless leaders turn feedback from something to fear into fuel for growth.

Use it. Watch what happens when you stop avoiding the hard stuff.

Infographic titled 'Negative feedback doesn't kill team engagement. It improves it.' Lists 8 steps for processing feedback: 1. Read positive comments first, 2. Find themes/patterns, 3. Ask yourself 'What need was met here?', 4. Read the difficult comments, 5. Find themes/patterns, 6. Ask yourself 'What was the unmet need here?', 7. Practice disassociation technique - Your value as a leader ≠ feedback, 8. Devise your game plan to address unmet needs.

Your team doesn't trust your decisions.

Not if you lead like you're faking it.

I know this because early on I desperately tried to learn it all and know it all. 

Then I stopped pretending I had all the answers AND started trusting when i did. 

Great leaders:
↳ Name the uncertainty in the room
↳ Ask questions they're "supposed" to know
↳ Give feedback within 24 hours, not 24 days
↳ Hire slower and fire faster than they think they should
↳ Admit when a direct report knows more
↳ Coach in public, not just behind closed doors
↳ Can be both soft and strong in the same meeting
↳ Make decisions without consensus (then explain why)
↳ Let team members see them learning new skills
↳ Create psychological safety before pushing for results
↳ Don't let what they don't know make them lose confidence in what they do know.

"I need to be the smartest person in the room" = fastest way to lose your best people.

One of my favourite leadership reframes:

Last week a leader I coach told me they were stuck on a strategic decision because 'they didn't have enough context yet.' 

Here's what I asked them.:

"If you had to make this decision in the next team meeting, what can you name what you DO know, and what would you say you DON'T know, out loud?"
↓

[Name what you know, + state your uncertainty publicly] + [invite the team to fill gaps] = [better decisions through transparency]

The strongest leaders aren't the ones with all the answers. 

They're the ones who can build confidence, name what they don't know, and still move forward.


#leadership #decisionmaking #leadingteams

-step leadership framework for making decisions when you don't have all the answers. Shows how to name uncertainty publicly, state what you know, invite team input, and reach better decisions through collective wisdom. Real example using AI adoption demonstrates the framework in action.

taplio

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