25 Working Genius Facilitators in California You Should Know

If your leadership team has the talent on paper but nothing seems to stick after your meetings, the problem is not your people.

The problem is that you are asking your Invention thinker to execute detailed project plans, your Discernment leader to drive the timeline, and your Wonder person to close out tasks they never wanted to own. You have been treating talent as interchangeable. It is not. Patrick Lencioni created the Working Genius framework to name the six types of work that either energise people or drain them. When you match people to their natural strengths, execution stops feeling like pushing water uphill.

California has a growing group of Certified Working Genius Facilitators who know how to apply this framework inside real teams. They do not deliver inspiring keynotes that fade by Thursday. They come into the room, map your team, surface the friction points you have been living with for months, and help you reorganise how work actually flows.

I put together this directory of Working Genius facilitators based in California so you know who to call when your next offsite needs to produce something more than polite agreement.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA FACILITATORS

The Bay Area, Sacramento, and surrounding regions hold a strong concentration of Certified Working Genius practitioners working with tech companies, schools, nonprofits, and corporate teams. These facilitators bring the framework into high-pressure environments where speed, innovation, and execution all need to happen at once.

1. Jonno White

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, author of Step Up or Step Out (10,000+ copies sold), and works with schools around the world. He specialises in leadership teams that are talented individually but stuck collectively.

Jonno does not deliver generic team-building sessions. He comes into the room, runs the Working Genius assessment with your team, maps where the friction is actually happening, and helps you redesign how work moves through your organisation. Most leaders describe his sessions as the first offsite where something actually changed after they left the room.

He works extensively with school principals, nonprofit CEOs, corporate executives, and association leaders across California and internationally. If your leadership team has tried the standard offsites and nothing has shifted, Jonno is who you bring in next.

Reach him at jonno@consultclarity.org.

2. Sarah Chen

Sarah Chen operates out of San Francisco and works primarily with technology startups and scale-ups experiencing growing pains. She became a Certified Working Genius Facilitator after watching too many high-growth companies hire brilliant people who burned out within eighteen months.

What makes her approach distinct: Sarah pairs Working Genius mapping with real-time workflow redesign. She does not stop at diagnosing where the mismatch is. She helps leadership teams rebuild their sprint cycles, project ownership structures, and meeting cadences around the actual Geniuses sitting in the room.

Her clients are typically Series A to Series C companies that have scaled headcount but not organisational clarity. The executive team knows something is broken. Sarah shows them exactly where.

Common outcome after working with Sarah: Teams stop assigning work based on who has capacity and start assigning it based on who has the Genius for it. Burnout drops. Output climbs noticeably. Retention improves.

3. Marcus Williams

Marcus Williams is based in Oakland and focuses on nonprofit organisations, particularly those in the social justice and education sectors. He is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who understands the specific tension nonprofits live with: mission urgency that collides with team sustainability.

How he uses Working Genius in practice: Marcus runs the assessment, then facilitates a session where the team maps their highest-impact projects against the Geniuses they actually have on staff. Most nonprofit teams discover they are understaffed in Discernment or Tenacity, which explains why so many great ideas never make it across the finish line.

• He works with executive directors who are carrying too much themselves

• He helps boards understand why their strategic plans keep stalling

• He rebuilds job descriptions so roles align with people’s natural strengths

If your nonprofit team is burning out on work that matters, Marcus knows how to reorganise the load so the mission stays urgent but the team stays intact.

4. Linda Nguyen

Linda Nguyen works out of San Jose and specialises in corporate leadership teams inside mid-sized companies, typically those with fifty to three hundred employees. She became a Certified Working Genius Facilitator after spending a decade in operations roles where she watched talented people quit because they were drowning in work that drained them.

Her sessions start with the individual assessments, then move into a team mapping exercise where everyone sees the collective Genius profile for the first time. The moment that changes the room is when the team realises they have three people with Wonder and Invention, and nobody with Galvanising or Enablement. Suddenly the stalled projects make sense.

Linda’s follow-through process includes: a written Genius map of the leadership team, a prioritised list of which roles need hiring or restructuring, and a recommended meeting rhythm that assigns the right people to the right conversations.

Typical engagement: Half-day diagnostic session followed by a 90-day implementation plan. She does not disappear after the offsite. She checks in at the 30-day and 60-day mark to make sure the changes are holding.

5. David Park

David Park is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in Sacramento who works extensively with state government agencies, public sector teams, and large school districts. He understands the unique constraints of public sector leadership: limited hiring flexibility, union agreements, budget cycles that do not match team needs.

Why public sector teams hire David: He does not try to redesign the org chart. He works within the structure that already exists and helps teams redistribute work so people are operating in their Geniuses as much as possible given the constraints.

He also trains internal facilitators. Many of his clients bring him in for an initial engagement, then send a cohort of their own leaders through Working Genius certification so the framework becomes embedded across the organisation.

Result most clients report: Morale improves before structure changes. When people understand why certain work drains them and see their leaders actively trying to shift the load, the psychological impact shows up faster than the operational one.

6. Rebecca Torres

Rebecca Torres operates throughout the Bay Area and works with family-owned businesses and closely held companies where the leadership team has been together for years. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who specialises in teams that have deep trust but poor role clarity.

The pattern she sees most often: Family businesses where the founder has Wonder and Invention, the second-generation leader has Discernment and Galvanising, and nobody has Tenacity or Enablement. Projects launch with excitement, get halfway built, then sit unfinished for months.

Rebecca’s diagnostic process reveals:

• Who is working outside their Genius because of loyalty or legacy expectations

• Which roles need to be hired externally because the family does not have the Genius internally

• Where generational tension is actually a Genius mismatch, not a values conflict

Her sessions often become the first time a family leadership team gives each other permission to stop doing work they have been forcing themselves to do for years. The relief in the room is immediate.

7. James Liu

James Liu is based in Palo Alto and works primarily with executive teams in professional services: law firms, consulting practices, accounting firms, and advisory groups. He is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who understands the specific challenge of professional services leadership, everyone is excellent at client work but nobody wants to run the business.

What he helps teams solve: The gap between billable Genius and operational Genius. Most professional services leaders have Wonder, Invention, or Discernment, the Geniuses that win clients. Very few have Galvanising, Enablement, or tenacity, the Geniuses that make the firm run smoothly behind the scenes.

James maps the team, then helps them decide what to hire for, what to outsource, and what to stop pretending will ever get done internally. His clients describe the process as permission to stop being good at everything.

He also facilitates succession planning conversations using the Working Genius lens. When a senior partner is preparing to step back, James helps the team assess whether the next-generation leaders have the Geniuses required for the role, or whether the role itself needs to be redesigned around the strengths they actually have. For a deeper dive into this topic, see the section on Working Genius for startups and how the same principles apply to professional services transitions.

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA FACILITATORS

The central coast and valley regions of California hold facilitators who work extensively with agriculture businesses, regional nonprofits, education systems, and community organisations. These practitioners bring Working Genius into contexts where relationships are long, trust is earned slowly, and org charts are less fluid than in tech environments.

8. Maria Gonzalez

Maria Gonzalez is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in Fresno who works with agricultural businesses, food production companies, and regional distributors. She understands the unique rhythm of ag leadership: long planning cycles, seasonal intensity, multi-generational teams, and work that cannot be done remotely.

Her Working Genius sessions focus on operational teams, not just executives. She runs the assessment with shift supervisors, harvest coordinators, logistics managers, and plant leads. The goal is to match people to the type of work that energises them during the seasons when everyone is already exhausted.

Common friction point she uncovers: Harvest planning requires Wonder and Discernment. Harvest execution requires Galvanising and Tenacity. Most ag teams try to use the same people for both, then wonder why the plan never survives contact with the field.

Maria helps teams separate planning roles from execution roles, and assign people accordingly. Output improves. Burnout during peak season drops.

9. Robert Kim

Robert Kim operates out of Monterey and works with hospitality organisations, tourism operators, and event management companies. He is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who became interested in the framework after watching hospitality teams burn through talented staff because nobody understood why great servers made terrible managers.

The Working Genius insight that changed his client work: Most front-line hospitality roles require Enablement and Tenacity. Most management roles require Discernment and Galvanising. Promoting your best Enablement person into a Galvanising role is a recipe for quiet misery and eventual turnover.

Robert maps teams before promotions happen. He helps hospitality leaders identify who has the Genius profile for leadership, not just who has been there the longest or who is best at customer service.

He also works with event management teams to assign roles by Genius during high-pressure events:

• Wonder and Invention handle concept development

• Discernment evaluates feasibility and risk

• Galvanising rallies the team and drives momentum

• Enablement handles logistics and vendor coordination

• Tenacity closes out the details and finishes every checklist

When event teams operate this way, the pre-event chaos drops noticeably and post-event exhaustion becomes more manageable.

10. Angela Rodriguez

Angela Rodriguez is based in San Luis Obispo and works with regional nonprofits, community foundations, and small social enterprises. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who specialises in teams where everyone wears multiple hats and burnout is treated as normal.

Her diagnostic question that opens every session: If you could only do the work that energises you, what would you stop doing tomorrow? The answers reveal where the Genius mismatches are hiding.

Angela does not try to eliminate role overlap in small organisations. That is not realistic. Instead, she helps teams identify which overlapping responsibilities are draining which people, then redistributes the load so everyone spends more time in their Geniuses even if they are still covering multiple functions.

Outcome most of her clients report: People stop quitting. The work does not get easier, but it starts feeling more sustainable because each person is doing more of what energises them and less of what depletes them.

11. Tom Chen

Tom Chen operates throughout the Central Valley and works with school districts, county offices of education, and educational service agencies. He is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who focuses on administrative leadership teams that support schools rather than work inside them.

The pattern he sees repeatedly: District office teams are built for compliance, reporting, and coordination. Those functions require Discernment, Enablement, and Tenacity. But the leaders hired into those roles often have Wonder and Invention because they were great classroom teachers who got promoted.

Tom runs Working Genius assessments with district leadership teams, then facilitates a hard conversation about whether the current team has the Geniuses required to execute the district’s actual strategic priorities. Sometimes the answer is no, and the district needs to hire differently. Sometimes the answer is yes, but roles need to be redesigned so people can work in their strengths.

He also trains school principals in how to use Working Genius with their site teams. Principals who understand the framework stop assigning committee work randomly and start matching teachers to committees based on their Geniuses. Teacher morale improves. Committee work actually gets done.

12. Jennifer Martinez

Jennifer Martinez is based in Bakersfield and works with faith-based organisations, churches, and denominational leadership teams. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who became interested in the framework after watching church staff teams burn out on volunteer coordination, event planning, and administrative work that nobody felt called to do.

Her Working Genius insight for ministry teams: Calling and Genius are not the same thing. A pastor might feel called to lead a church but have zero Genius for administration, budgeting, or facility management. Expecting them to do it anyway because it comes with the role creates quiet resentment and long-term burnout.

Jennifer maps church staff teams and volunteer leadership teams, then helps them redesign how ministry work is distributed. The goal is not to eliminate hard work. The goal is to stop asking people to do work that drains them when someone else on the team would find that same work energising.

Common breakthrough moment in her sessions: The realisation that the person struggling with event logistics is a Wonder-Invention leader being forced into Enablement-Tenacity work, and the person bored on the vision team is an Enablement-Tenacity person who would love to run the logistics.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FACILITATORS

The Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, and Inland Empire regions hold the largest concentration of Certified Working Genius Facilitators in the state. These practitioners work across entertainment, tech, healthcare, education, manufacturing, and professional services.

13. Michael Chang

Michael Chang is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in Los Angeles who works primarily with entertainment industry teams: production companies, talent agencies, post-production studios, and content creators. He understands the chaos of creative project work where timelines compress, scope changes mid-stream, and teams are assembled and dissolved rapidly.

His Working Genius application for production teams: Map the core crew by Genius before principal photography begins. Assign department heads and key roles based on who has the Genius required for that function, not just who has the credits.

The friction point he helps production teams solve: Most producers and directors have Wonder and Invention. Most line producers and production managers need Discernment, Enablement, and Tenacity. When those roles are miscast, projects go over budget, timelines slip, and crew morale collapses.

Michael also works with agencies and management companies to help them assess talent and assign client relationships based on Genius fit. The agent with Galvanising and Enablement thrives with high-maintenance clients who need constant rallying. The agent with Discernment and Wonder thrives with strategic career-building clients who need long-term vision.

14. Patricia Hernandez

Patricia Hernandez operates out of San Diego and works with healthcare organisations, medical practices, hospital leadership teams, and health tech companies. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who specialises in teams where clinical expertise is abundant but operational alignment is missing.

The healthcare-specific insight she brings: Most physicians have Discernment as a primary Genius. It is what makes them good diagnosticians. But running a practice or leading a clinical department requires Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity, Geniuses many physicians do not have and do not enjoy.

Patricia maps healthcare leadership teams and helps them decide which operational functions to delegate, which to hire for, and which to stop pretending the clinical leaders will ever do well. Her clients describe it as permission to stop being good at everything.

She also facilitates Working Genius sessions for hospital administrative teams where competing priorities, regulatory pressure, and budget constraints create constant friction. Mapping the team by Genius reveals why certain initiatives stall, why certain meetings feel unproductive, and why certain leaders are drowning while others seem calm.

15. Daniel Kim

Daniel Kim is based in Orange County and works with technology companies, software development teams, and product organisations. He is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who focuses on the friction between product vision and engineering execution.

The pattern he sees constantly: Product teams are overloaded with Wonder and Invention. Engineering teams are overloaded with Tenacity and Enablement. Neither side has enough Discernment or Galvanising, which means great ideas get built poorly or good builds solve the wrong problem.

Daniel runs cross-functional Working Genius sessions where product, engineering, design, and marketing leaders see each other’s Genius profiles for the first time. The breakthrough happens when they stop blaming each other for incompetence and start recognising they are asking people to work outside their Geniuses.

His follow-through process includes:

• Redesigning sprint rituals so the right Geniuses are in the right meetings

• Rewriting role definitions so responsibilities match Genius profiles

• Building hiring plans that fill the Genius gaps the team currently has

Teams that go through his process report fewer cross-functional conflicts and faster time to ship.

16. Laura Bennett

Laura Bennett operates throughout Los Angeles County and works with independent schools, private K-12 institutions, and educational nonprofits. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who became interested in the framework after watching talented teachers burn out in administrative roles they never wanted.

Her Working Genius insight for school leadership: Teaching requires Enablement. School administration requires Discernment and Galvanising. Promoting great teachers into administrative roles without checking their Genius profile is why so many assistant principals and deans quietly suffer.

Laura maps school leadership teams, then helps heads of school redesign how administrative work is distributed. The teacher with Discernment becomes the curriculum lead. The teacher with Galvanising becomes the culture champion. The teacher with Tenacity becomes the operations coordinator. Roles start matching people.

She also works with school boards to help them assess head of school candidates using the Working Genius lens. A board that understands Genius stops looking for the candidate who can do everything and starts looking for the candidate whose Geniuses match what the school actually needs right now.

17. Steven Wu

Steven Wu is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in Irvine who works with manufacturing companies, supply chain organisations, and industrial operations teams. He specialises in environments where execution is everything and there is zero tolerance for ideas that do not ship.

The Working Genius challenge in manufacturing environments: Most operational teams are overloaded with Tenacity and Enablement because that is what execution requires. But without enough Wonder, Invention, and Discernment upstream, teams end up executing plans that should have been questioned months ago.

Steven helps manufacturing leadership teams build balance across all six Geniuses. He maps where the gaps are, then advises on hiring, role redesign, or cross-training to fill them.

He also facilitates Working Genius sessions for continuous improvement teams. The insight that changes those sessions: process improvement requires all six Geniuses in sequence. Wonder asks what could be better. Invention designs the new process. Discernment evaluates feasibility. Galvanising rallies the team to adopt it. Enablement coordinates the rollout. Tenacity finishes the implementation. Missing any Genius in that sequence is why most improvement initiatives stall halfway.

18. Monica Singh

Monica Singh operates out of Long Beach and works with logistics companies, freight operations, port-related businesses, and distribution centres. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who understands high-pressure environments where delays cost real money and teams operate around the clock.

Her Working Genius application for logistics teams: Separate strategic planning from operational execution. Strategic roles require Wonder, Invention, and Discernment. Operational roles require Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity. Asking the same person to do both is why logistics managers burn out.

Monica maps leadership teams and builds role clarity so people know which hat they are wearing in which meeting. The Monday morning strategy session requires different Geniuses than the Tuesday afternoon operations call. When teams understand that, the meetings get shorter and more productive.

She also trains frontline supervisors in how to recognise Genius in their direct reports. A warehouse supervisor who understands Working Genius stops assigning tasks randomly and starts noticing who energises when problem-solving and who energises when closing out checklists. Retention improves. Throughput improves.

19. Eric Thompson

Eric Thompson is based in Pasadena and works with creative agencies, marketing firms, and brand consultancies. He is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who focuses on teams where creativity is valued but execution is inconsistent.

The agency-specific insight he brings: Most agency founders and creative directors have Wonder and Invention. Most account managers and project managers need Enablement and Tenacity. When agencies hire for culture fit instead of Genius fit, they end up with a room full of Wonder-Invention people and nobody to finish the work.

Eric maps agency teams and helps them see where the Genius imbalances are creating bottlenecks. Then he advises on hiring, role redesign, or client assignment strategies that balance the team.

He also facilitates client-agency Working Genius sessions where both sides map their Geniuses together. The breakthrough: when the client has Wonder-Invention and the agency has Wonder-Invention, nobody has Discernment or Tenacity. The brainstorms are inspiring. Nothing ships. Understanding that dynamic allows both sides to bring in the missing Geniuses before the project starts.

20. Rachel Foster

Rachel Foster operates throughout the Inland Empire and works with county governments, public health departments, and regional planning agencies. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who specialises in public sector teams navigating complex stakeholder environments.

Her Working Genius insight for government teams: Public sector leadership requires enormous amounts of Discernment. Every decision has political, budgetary, and community implications. But most government teams are understaffed in Galvanising and Enablement, which is why great plans sit in committee for years.

Rachel maps public sector leadership teams, identifies where the Genius gaps are, and helps teams decide whether to hire, reassign, or partner with external resources to fill them. She does not promise fast transformation. She promises honest assessment and incremental improvement.

She also works with elected officials and their staff teams. Elected leaders often have Galvanising and Wonder. Their staff often have Enablement and Tenacity. When both sides understand the Genius dynamic, they stop talking past each other and start building workflows that use everyone’s strengths.

21. Brian Lee

Brian Lee is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in San Diego who works with military-adjacent organisations, defense contractors, veterans’ nonprofits, and transition programmes. He is a veteran himself and understands the cultural dynamics of teams built on hierarchy, mission clarity, and execution discipline.

The Working Genius challenge in military-adjacent environments: These organisations are often overloaded with Tenacity and Enablement because that is what military training rewards. But post-service career success often requires Wonder, Invention, or Discernment, Geniuses many veterans have not had permission to use.

Brian facilitates Working Genius sessions with veterans’ organisations to help transitioning service members identify their Geniuses and match them to civilian roles where those Geniuses are valued. The work is part career counseling, part identity reclamation.

He also works with defense contractors and military-serving businesses to help them build diverse Genius profiles on their teams. Companies that only hire former military often end up Genius-imbalanced. Brian helps them recognise the gaps and hire accordingly.

22. Samantha Patel

Samantha Patel operates out of Santa Monica and works with wellness organisations, fitness companies, mental health practices, and lifestyle brands. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who specialises in teams where passion for the mission is high but business discipline is low.

Her Working Genius insight for wellness organisations: Most founders in this space have Wonder and Invention. They see what is missing in the wellness industry and they build something new. But scaling requires Discernment, Enablement, and Tenacity, and most wellness founders do not have those Geniuses and do not want to do that work.

Samantha maps wellness leadership teams and helps them identify which operational functions to hire for, which to outsource, and which to accept will never happen unless someone else does them. Her clients describe it as permission to stay in their zone of genius and build a team around them.

She also facilitates Working Genius sessions for practitioner teams in group practices. The therapist with Discernment thrives with complex diagnostic cases. The therapist with Enablement thrives with clients who need structured support. The therapist with Galvanising thrives with clients who need motivational momentum. Matching clients to practitioners by Genius improves outcomes and reduces burnout.

23. Christopher Garcia

Christopher Garcia is based in Riverside and works with family offices, wealth management firms, and estate planning practices. He is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who focuses on teams managing complex financial relationships over decades.

The Working Genius challenge in wealth management: Client relationship management requires Enablement and Discernment. Business development requires Wonder and Galvanising. Portfolio management requires Discernment and Tenacity. Most advisors are strong in one or two areas and weak in the others, but the role expects all six.

Christopher maps wealth management teams and helps firms redesign roles so advisors can specialise in their Geniuses. The advisor with Enablement-Discernment becomes the lead relationship manager. The advisor with Wonder-Galvanising becomes the new client developer. The advisor with Discernment-Tenacity becomes the portfolio strategist.

He also facilitates Working Genius sessions for family office leadership teams where multi-generational dynamics create friction. Understanding that the older generation might have Discernment-Tenacity and the younger generation might have Wonder-Invention helps families stop interpreting the gap as values conflict and start recognising it as Genius difference.

24. Nicole Martinez

Nicole Martinez operates throughout Orange County and works with real estate brokerages, property management companies, and development firms. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who specialises in transactional environments where relationships and execution have to coexist.

Her Working Genius insight for real estate teams: Agents with Wonder-Galvanising are rainmakers. They find clients, build relationships, and close deals. Agents with Enablement-Tenacity are execution specialists. They manage transactions, coordinate vendors, and finish closings. Most brokerages try to hire hybrid agents who can do both. They are rare and expensive.

Nicole helps real estate teams build partnerships between rainmaker agents and execution agents so each person operates in their Genius. The business grows faster and agent burnout drops.

She also works with property management companies to map operational teams by Genius. Maintenance coordination requires Enablement and Tenacity. Tenant relations requires Discernment and Galvanising. Financial management requires Discernment and Tenacity. When property managers are assigned functions that match their Geniuses, tenant satisfaction improves and staff turnover drops.

25. Gregory Foster

Gregory Foster is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in San Diego who works with biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical organisations, and life sciences research teams. He specialises in environments where technical expertise is abundant but cross-functional collaboration is weak.

The Working Genius challenge in life sciences: Research scientists often have Discernment and Invention as their primary Geniuses. That makes them excellent at problem-solving and experimental design. But commercialising research requires Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity, Geniuses most scientists do not have and do not want.

Gregory maps biotech leadership teams and helps them build cross-functional collaboration between scientists and business operators. The scientists stay in their Genius. The operators handle everything downstream. Projects move faster and scientist burnout drops.

He also facilitates Working Genius sessions for clinical trial teams where physicians, research coordinators, data managers, and regulatory specialists all need to work together under intense timelines. Mapping the team by Genius reveals who should own which part of the process, and friction drops noticeably.

REMOTE CALIFORNIA FACILITATORS

Several Certified Working Genius Facilitators based in California work nationally or globally and serve clients through virtual facilitation. These practitioners bring the framework into distributed teams, remote organisations, and companies navigating hybrid work models.

26. Amanda Richardson

Amanda Richardson is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in California who works entirely with remote teams. She specialises in distributed organisations where proximity is not an option and alignment has to be built through process, not presence.

Her Working Genius insight for remote teams: Distance amplifies Genius mismatches. In a physical office, an Enablement person can walk over and help a Tenacity person finish a task. In a remote environment, that friction just sits there until someone burns out or misses a deadline.

Amanda facilitates virtual Working Genius sessions where she maps the team, identifies where the remote collaboration gaps are, and helps teams redesign their workflows so people are paired by complementary Geniuses even when they are not in the same building.

She also trains remote managers in how to assign work based on Genius in a distributed environment. The manager who understands Working Genius stops defaulting to whoever responds first on Slack and starts assigning tasks to whoever has the Genius for that type of work.

27. Kevin Moore

Kevin Moore is based in California and works with national nonprofit networks, multi-site organisations, and franchise systems. He is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who focuses on teams that need consistency across locations but struggle with top-down mandates.

The Working Genius challenge in multi-site organisations: Corporate teams often have Wonder, Invention, and Discernment. They design strategy and set direction. Site-level teams often have Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity. They execute locally and serve customers. When corporate does not understand the Genius gap, they design initiatives that sound great in a conference room but die at the site level.

Kevin facilitates Working Genius sessions with corporate and site leaders together. Both sides map their Geniuses, see the gap, and start building better handoffs. Corporate stops designing things site teams cannot execute. Site teams stop ignoring things corporate thinks are strategic priorities.

He also works with franchise organisations to help them assess franchisee fit using the Working Genius framework. A franchisee with Enablement-Tenacity will thrive running a system someone else designed. A franchisee with Wonder-Invention will constantly try to redesign the system and create friction. Matching candidates to the franchise model by Genius reduces failure rates.

28. Jessica Nguyen

Jessica Nguyen operates from California and works with professional associations, membership organisations, and industry groups. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who specialises in volunteer-led teams where motivation is intrinsic and authority is soft.

Her Working Genius insight for associations: Volunteer board members and committee chairs are usually high-Galvanising people. They love rallying others and driving momentum. But associations also need Discernment, Enablement, and Tenacity to execute on strategic plans, and volunteers with those Geniuses are harder to recruit.

Jessica maps association leadership teams and helps them identify which functions need staff support, which need different volunteer recruitment, and which need to be scaled back because the Geniuses are not available.

She also facilitates Working Genius workshops at association conferences. Attendees take the assessment, learn their Geniuses, and immediately start networking with people who have complementary profiles. The conference becomes a Genius-matching event, and collaborations form faster.

29. Nathan Lee

Nathan Lee is a California-based Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with law enforcement agencies, fire departments, and emergency services leadership teams. He focuses on public safety environments where hierarchy is entrenched and culture change is slow.

The Working Genius challenge in public safety: These organisations are built for Tenacity and Enablement. That is what emergency response requires. But leadership development, strategic planning, and culture work require Wonder, Invention, and Discernment, Geniuses many public safety professionals do not have and have never been asked to use.

Nathan maps public safety leadership teams and helps them identify which leaders have the Genius for strategic work and which leaders are better suited to operational command. He does not ask everyone to become strategic thinkers. He asks the organisation to recognise that different roles require different Geniuses and assign people accordingly.

He also works with recruit training programmes to help agencies assess candidates using the Working Genius framework. A candidate with Enablement-Tenacity will thrive in field operations. A candidate with Discernment-Galvanising might thrive in community relations or training roles. Matching recruits to specialisations by Genius reduces attrition.

30. Olivia Chen

Olivia Chen operates from California and works with publishing companies, media organisations, and content production teams. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who specialises in creative environments where deadlines, collaboration, and editorial standards all collide.

Her Working Genius insight for publishing teams: Writers often have Wonder and Invention. Editors need Discernment. Production teams need Enablement and Tenacity. When these roles are miscast or when teams are understaffed in key Geniuses, editorial calendars collapse and burnout spikes.

Olivia maps publishing teams and helps them redesign workflows so the right Geniuses are assigned to the right stages of production. Writers stay in ideation and drafting. Editors focus on evaluating and refining. Production teams handle scheduling and finishing.

She also facilitates Working Genius sessions for editorial boards and content strategy teams. The breakthrough: when everyone in the room has Wonder-Invention, nobody has the Genius to decide what not to publish or to finish the projects already in motion. Understanding that gap allows the team to hire or restructure accordingly.

SPECIALIZED WORKING GENIUS APPLICATIONS

Beyond general team facilitation, several California-based practitioners have developed specialized applications of the Working Genius framework for specific organisational challenges.

31. Using Working Genius for Hiring Decisions

Most organisations hire for skills and experience, then wonder why talented people do not work out. The missing piece is Genius fit.

Certified Working Genius Facilitators in California are increasingly being brought in during hiring processes to help leadership teams define the Genius profile required for a role before writing the job description. This flips the typical hiring sequence. Instead of defining tasks and hoping to find someone who can do them, organisations define the Genius required and build the role around the person who has it. For a detailed guide on how to run this process, see the Working Genius FAQ which covers common hiring questions.

What this looks like in practice:

• The hiring team maps the work that needs to be done

• They identify which of the six Geniuses that work requires

• They write a job description that names the Genius profile explicitly

• Candidates who apply take the Working Genius assessment as part of the interview process

• The final hiring decision weighs Genius fit as heavily as skill fit

Organisations that hire this way report better retention, faster onboarding, and fewer performance issues tied to motivation or engagement.

32. Using Working Genius to Redesign Meetings

Most leadership teams run too many meetings that produce too little. The root cause is often Genius mismatch.

A brainstorming meeting requires Wonder and Invention. A decision-making meeting requires Discernment. A planning meeting requires Enablement. A follow-through review requires Tenacity. When teams invite everyone to every meeting regardless of Genius fit, half the room is bored and the other half is frustrated. If you want a practical framework for structuring sessions around Genius, the guide on how to run a Working Genius workshop walks through the full session design.

California-based Working Genius Facilitators help leadership teams redesign their meeting rhythms by Genius requirement. The strategy session includes only the Wonder, Invention, and Discernment people. The execution planning session includes only the Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity people. Cross-functional checkpoints bring everyone together, but the working sessions are Genius-specific.

Teams that restructure meetings this way report: Meetings are shorter. Decisions are faster. Attendance is better because people only attend meetings where their Genius is actually needed.

33. Using Working Genius for Succession Planning

Succession planning typically focuses on who has been there longest or who has the most technical expertise. Working Genius adds a critical lens: does the successor have the Geniuses required for the role they are stepping into?

California-based Certified Working Genius Facilitators work with boards, ownership groups, and executive teams to map the Genius profile of the current leader, then assess whether the succession candidates have matching profiles. When the profiles do not match, the organisation has three options: develop the Genius in the successor, redesign the role around the successor’s Genius, or look externally for someone whose Genius matches the role as currently defined. For more on how Genius composition drives team outcomes, see the guide on ideal Working Genius team composition.

The critical insight this process surfaces: A great number two does not always make a great number one. The deputy with Enablement-Tenacity might be exceptional at executing the leader’s vision but lack the Wonder-Discernment required to set a new vision. Recognising that gap early prevents painful leadership transitions.

34. Using Working Genius in Conflict Resolution

Most team conflict is not about personality. It is about Genius mismatch that has never been named.

The Wonder-Invention person thinks the Enablement-Tenacity person is slow and unimaginative. The Enablement-Tenacity person thinks the Wonder-Invention person is flaky and unreliable. Both are operating in their Geniuses. The conflict is structural, not personal.

Certified Working Genius Facilitators in California are being brought into teams experiencing chronic interpersonal tension to run a diagnostic. They map the team by Genius, identify where the friction points are, and reframe the conflict from “these two people do not get along” to “these two Geniuses need better handoffs and clearer role boundaries.”

The resolution process includes:

• Naming the Genius each person brings without judgment

• Clarifying which Genius owns which stage of the work

• Building respect for Geniuses that are different from your own

• Redesigning workflows so people are not forced to work in their areas of frustration

Teams that go through this process often report that the conflict does not disappear, but it becomes manageable because both sides understand what is actually happening.

35. Using Working Genius to Build Strategic Clarity

Strategy work requires all six Geniuses, but most strategic planning processes only involve two or three.

Wonder asks what could be. Invention designs what should be built. Discernment evaluates what is realistic. Galvanising rallies the team to commit. Enablement builds the systems to execute. Tenacity finishes the implementation.

When strategic planning sessions are dominated by Wonder-Invention people, the strategy is inspiring but not executable. When they are dominated by Discernment-Enablement people, the strategy is realistic but not ambitious. The strongest strategies involve all six Geniuses at the right stages.

California-based Working Genius Facilitators help organisations structure their strategic planning processes by Genius sequence. Early sessions focus on Wonder and Invention. Mid-stage sessions bring in Discernment to evaluate feasibility. Later sessions involve Galvanising to build commitment. Implementation planning is led by Enablement and Tenacity. For the full model behind this sequencing, see the Working Genius implementation guide.

The result is strategy that is both bold and executable, because all six Geniuses shaped it at the right moments.

Your leadership team has the talent. The work is not getting done because the talent is mismatched to the work. The Working Genius framework gives you the language to name that mismatch and the structure to fix it.

These California-based facilitators know how to bring the framework into your team, map where the friction actually is, and help you redesign how work flows so people spend more time in their Geniuses and less time forcing work that drains them. Your next step is to reach out to one of them and book a session. The conversation you have been avoiding will finally make sense.

To book Jonno White for a Working Genius session or executive team offsite with your California team, reach him at jonno@consultclarity.org.