Nick is an expert in leadership development, executive coaching, learning strategy design and implementation, culture change and employee engagement. He's led transformative programmes in agile, technology implementation, diversity and inclusion, mental health and wellbeing, mindset and behaviour change, ways of working and learning enablement, and is very interested in building great employee experiences to drive great customer experiences which drive great business outcomes. He's a highly skilled facilitator and public speaker, and has a knack for spotting and unleashing the potential in those around him. He's got over 20 years of experience in doing the small stuff and the very big stuff at some of the world's and NZ's leading organisations - in financial services with Barclays Capital, Barclays Wealth Schroders, Lloyd's of London, and Goldman Sachs. In consulting services with Deloitte. In the public sector with Auckland Council, and most recently in digital services and telecommunications with Spark New Zealand.

I've recently written about:

People

Learning Enablement

At the tail end of last year, I spent some time with the brilliant Nigel Paine at LearningNowTV discussing the changes that we made to create the Learning Enablement team whilst at Spark New Zealand. As an organisation, Spark provided our learning team with the space and trust to try something new that we fundamentally believed in, and for that I’ll be forever grateful. We learned so much throughout our transformation to becoming a Learning Enablement team, and many of these lessons and highlights have been captured in this interview with Nigel.

Technology

Fixing the problem of knowledge management

“Knowledge is power”. I’ve often heard the phrase; said casually by friends, colleagues, politicians, leaders. It’s bandied around like nobody’s business, and the truth is if you hear something enough times, you start to believe it. But is it true? Is knowledge really power? It’s certainly not fake news… having more information than the next person does give you something that they don’t have - knowledge - but does the way we treat knowledge help or hinder our organisations?

People

Smash 2024

Now is the perfect time to be planning ahead for things you want to achieve for the year ahead, and crucially working out how you’ll work to achieve them. The easiest and best time to dedicate to thinking about your career, your business goals, your personal aspirations (and even your home renovation plans) is when you are still relaxed from a break, the inbox is pretty quiet, and the daily routine and rhythms are yet to pick up.

Strategy & Leadership

Leading brilliantly through change

Change can be tough. It can be hugely unsettling for people who are going through it, and overwhelmingly stressful for those leading it too. It also can be exciting, exhilarating, and an amazing ride. Regardless - being a great leader through change means putting people first.

Performance

Why giving feedback is ALWAYS the right thing to do

Bottom line is this. If you can see something, and other people can’t (or won’t) see it, then it’s always the right thing to call it out. Politely. With care. With love. With respect. The intention of giving feedback must always be that you care about the other person; That you care about better outcomes for you, them, the organisation, and everyone around them.

Culture

Employers - get ready for your future employees

Education today is changing. It’s different to what many of us grew up with, and may feel unfamiliar or “loose” to those of us who had a more formal and structured education. These days, knowledge can be accessed instantly and doesn’t necessarily need to be committed to memory for ever. The skills our children will need to be successful in this world are demonstrably different to the ones we developed at school. The rate of change has increased significantly, and our approach to education has had to make some pretty big leaps to stay relevant.

Nick Mackeson-Smith

I've recently written about:

Learning Enablement

Fixing the problem of knowledge management

Smash 2024

Leading brilliantly through change

Why giving feedback is ALWAYS the right thing to do

Employers - get ready for your future employees

You can talk to me about:

Strategic and Transformation Advisory

Strategy Design

Transformation

WalkMe Design and Implementation

WalkMe Discovery

WalkMe Governance and Maintenance