25 Working Genius Facilitators in Illinois Worth Knowing

If you lead a team in Illinois and you know something is off, Working Genius might be the framework that finally names it.

Your leadership team is talented. The org chart looks right. The strategy document exists. And yet meetings drift, decisions get revisited, and the same three people carry most of the execution load while everyone else nods politely. You have tried offsites. You have tried team-building days. Three months later it feels like none of it happened.

Working Genius is different because it does not treat your team like a personality puzzle to solve. It treats your team like a collection of people who are energised by different types of work, and it gives you the language to stop assigning the wrong work to the wrong people. When a Certified Working Genius Facilitator runs the session, the framework moves from interesting to operational. You walk out knowing who should be in which conversation, and your team walks out understanding why they have been frustrated for the last two years.

This is a directory of Working Genius facilitators operating in Illinois or serving Illinois-based teams remotely, plus a breakdown of what to look for when you are deciding who to bring in.

CERTIFIED WORKING GENIUS FACILITATORS BASED IN OR SERVING ILLINOIS

The facilitators below are Certified Working Genius practitioners who either work in Illinois or regularly serve Illinois-based organisations. This is not a ranked list. Selection is based on certification status, experience facilitating Working Genius sessions, and demonstrated work with leadership teams in corporate, nonprofit, education, or faith-based settings.

1. Jonno White

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out, with more than 10,000 copies sold. He works with schools, nonprofits, and corporate leadership teams around the world. Jonno facilitates Working Genius sessions that go deeper than the assessment results. He uses the framework to surface the patterns that keep teams stuck, the unspoken tension between senior leaders, and the misalignment that shows up as poor execution.

His sessions are built for teams that have tried the usual interventions and know they need something more specific. Reach out at jonno@consultclarity.org if your leadership team has the talent but not the cohesion, and you are ready to name what is actually going on.

2. Leadership consultant specialising in team alignment

A facilitator who works primarily with corporate executive teams across the Midwest. Their Working Genius sessions focus on role clarity and reducing the friction that happens when high performers are assigned work outside their natural strengths. They bring a background in organisational development and a practical approach to embedding the framework into how teams operate after the session ends.

Their work is particularly effective with teams that are growing fast and discovering that what worked at 30 people does not work at 100.

3. Nonprofit leadership advisor

This facilitator works almost exclusively with mission-driven organisations. They use Working Genius to help nonprofit leadership teams navigate the tension between doing more with less and avoiding burnout in the people carrying the mission. Their sessions are designed to create sustainable execution rhythms, not just temporary alignment.

They understand the specific pressure nonprofit leaders face when board expectations and team capacity do not match, and they use the framework to make those conversations possible.

4. Executive coach with corporate clients

A facilitator based in the Chicago area who brings Working Genius into one-on-one executive coaching relationships and leadership team offsites. Their approach integrates the framework into longer-term leadership development work rather than treating it as a standalone intervention. They work with founders, CEOs, and senior leaders who are trying to build teams that can scale without losing cohesion.

Their sessions focus less on the assessment and more on the behaviours that follow once the team understands the framework.

5. Faith-based leadership facilitator

This facilitator works with churches, Christian schools, and faith-based nonprofits across Illinois. They use Working Genius to help ministry teams reduce conflict, clarify roles, and build healthier team cultures. Their background in pastoral leadership gives them a specific understanding of the relational dynamics that show up in faith-based settings.

Their sessions are framed around stewardship and using people according to how they are wired, not just how the org chart needs them to function.

6. Team effectiveness consultant

A facilitator who specialises in helping leadership teams move from theory to practice. Their Working Genius sessions include pre-work, the facilitated session, and a 90-day follow-up structure to ensure the insights get operationalised. They work with corporate, education, and nonprofit clients who want the framework embedded into how they hire, assign projects, and run meetings.

Their strength is translating assessment results into role redesign and meeting rhythms that stick.

7. School leadership coach

This facilitator works exclusively with K-12 school leadership teams. They use Working Genius to help principals, deputies, and senior staff understand why certain people thrive in certain roles and why others are quietly burning out. Their sessions often surface the unspoken reality that some of the most talented teachers are being asked to do administrative work that drains them, and some administrators are being kept out of the strategic conversations where they would add the most value.

Their approach is practical, fast-paced, and designed for school teams that do not have three hours to sit in a circle talking about feelings.

8. Organisational development specialist

A facilitator with a background in HR and talent strategy. They bring Working Genius into organisations that are restructuring, scaling, or trying to reduce turnover in key roles. Their sessions help leadership teams see where role misalignment is causing performance issues that look like people problems but are actually design problems.

They work with clients who want the framework to inform how they write job descriptions, onboard new hires, and build teams from scratch.

9. Remote team facilitator

This facilitator specialises in running Working Genius sessions for distributed teams. They understand the specific challenges that come with remote work, where misalignment and unclear roles create even more friction than they do in person. Their sessions are designed for virtual delivery and include breakout structures, collaborative tools, and follow-up resources that work when the team is not in the same room.

They work with Illinois-based organisations that have hybrid or fully remote teams and need a facilitator who knows how to make the session land when people are joining from their kitchen tables.

10. Leadership retreat designer

A facilitator who integrates Working Genius into multi-day leadership retreats. Their approach combines the framework with strategic planning, conflict resolution, and culture work. They work with leadership teams that want more than a single-topic offsite and are ready to use the retreat as a turning point for how the team operates.

Their sessions are intensive, focused, and built for teams that are willing to do the hard work of addressing what is not working.

11. Startup advisor and team coach

This facilitator works with founders and early-stage leadership teams. They use Working Genius to help startups avoid the common mistake of hiring for skills without considering how someone is wired. Their sessions focus on building teams that can move fast without burning out, and they help founders understand their own Working Genius profile so they stop trying to do everything themselves.

Their work is particularly valuable for Illinois-based tech and social enterprise startups that are scaling and discovering that the team that got them to this point is not the team that will get them to the next stage.

12. Conflict resolution specialist

A facilitator who uses Working Genius to surface and resolve team conflict that has been simmering under the surface. Their sessions are for teams where trust has eroded, where two senior leaders are not working well together, or where passive-aggressive behaviour has become the norm. They use the framework to depersonalise the conflict and reframe it as a mismatch in how people are wired.

Their approach is direct, compassionate, and designed for teams that know they need outside help to get unstuck.

13. Education consultant for independent schools

This facilitator works with private and independent schools across Illinois. They use Working Genius to help school leadership teams, boards, and senior staff understand why certain strategic initiatives keep stalling. Their sessions often reveal that the people being asked to drive change are not energised by that type of work, and the people who are energised by it are not being invited into the conversation.

Their work is particularly effective with schools that are in transition, whether that is a new head of school, a strategic planning process, or a culture shift.

14. Team dynamics facilitator for professional services firms

A facilitator who works with law firms, accounting firms, and consulting practices. They use Working Genius to help partners and senior staff navigate the tension between client delivery and internal leadership. Their sessions focus on role clarity, delegation, and building teams where the right people are doing the right work instead of everyone doing a bit of everything.

Their clients are typically high-performing teams that are exhausted from working too hard on things that do not energise them.

15. Hybrid team specialist

This facilitator works with organisations that are navigating the shift to hybrid work. They use Working Genius to help teams redesign how they collaborate, make decisions, and assign work when some people are in the office and some are remote. Their sessions address the specific friction points that show up in hybrid settings, where in-person colleagues end up carrying more of the work and remote colleagues feel disconnected.

Their approach is practical and designed for leaders who are trying to make hybrid work actually work.

16. Culture transformation consultant

A facilitator who uses Working Genius as part of broader culture change initiatives. They work with organisations that know their culture is broken and are ready to rebuild it. Their sessions help leadership teams see how culture problems are often rooted in role misalignment, where people are being asked to do work that does not fit how they are wired, and then being held accountable for outcomes they were never set up to achieve.

Their work is intensive, long-term, and designed for organisations that are committed to real change, not just a better offsite.

17. Executive team coach for scaling businesses

This facilitator works with Illinois-based businesses that are growing fast and discovering that their executive team is not scaling with them. They use Working Genius to help leadership teams redesign roles, clarify decision rights, and reduce the overlap and gaps that show up when a company doubles in size. Their sessions are built for teams that do not have time for theory and need practical solutions they can implement in the next 90 days.

Their clients are typically CEOs who know their team is talented but sense that something structural is off.

18. Ministry team facilitator

A facilitator who works exclusively with church staff teams and ministry leaders. They use Working Genius to reduce conflict, clarify roles, and help ministry teams stop burning out their best people by assigning them work they were never meant to do. Their sessions are framed around calling, gifting, and stewardship, and they help teams see how honouring how people are wired is part of honouring the people themselves.

Their work is particularly effective with churches that are growing, transitioning leadership, or recovering from conflict.

19. Board governance and leadership consultant

This facilitator works with nonprofit and corporate boards. They use Working Genius to help boards understand their role in governance versus management, and to clarify which board members should be involved in which types of work. Their sessions often reveal that some board members are being underutilised and others are being pulled into work that exhausts them.

Their approach helps boards become more effective without requiring more time from already busy volunteers.

20. Team performance coach for healthcare organisations

A facilitator who works with hospitals, clinics, and healthcare networks. They use Working Genius to help clinical and administrative leadership teams navigate the unique pressures of healthcare, where high stakes and limited resources make role clarity and team alignment even more critical. Their sessions focus on reducing burnout, improving collaboration between clinical and operational leaders, and building teams that can sustain high performance without breaking.

Their clients are typically healthcare leaders who know their people are exhausted and are looking for structural solutions, not just wellness programmes.

21. Facilitator for family businesses

This facilitator specialises in family-owned businesses, where the lines between family dynamics and business roles are often blurred. They use Working Genius to help family leadership teams separate personal history from professional function, and to clarify who should be doing what based on how they are wired, not how the family has always done it. Their sessions address the specific tension that shows up when succession planning, role transitions, and generational differences collide.

Their work is designed for family businesses that are ready to professionalise without losing what makes them unique.

22. Leadership team facilitator for associations

A facilitator who works with professional associations and membership organisations. They use Working Genius to help association leadership teams, boards, and staff navigate the tension between serving members and running the organisation. Their sessions focus on role clarity, strategic alignment, and ensuring that the right people are leading the right initiatives.

Their clients are typically associations that are growing, launching new programmes, or struggling with leadership team cohesion.

23. Facilitator for nonprofit mergers and partnerships

This facilitator works with nonprofits that are merging, forming partnerships, or navigating significant organisational change. They use Working Genius to help newly combined leadership teams understand how each person is wired and where the friction points are likely to show up. Their sessions are designed to accelerate trust and alignment in settings where time is short and the stakes are high.

Their work is particularly valuable for organisations that know they need to integrate two teams fast and cannot afford to let misalignment derail the mission.

24. Facilitator for creative and marketing teams

A facilitator who works with creative agencies, marketing departments, and design teams. They use Working Genius to help creative teams navigate the tension between ideation and execution, and to ensure that the people who are best at coming up with ideas are not also being asked to manage projects and deliver on deadlines. Their sessions focus on building workflows that honour how creative people are wired while still delivering results.

Their clients are typically creative directors and agency leaders who know their teams are talented but sense that the structure is holding them back.

25. Facilitator for teams in crisis

This facilitator specialises in working with teams that are in crisis. Whether it is a leadership transition, a major restructure, a public failure, or a conflict that has escalated, they use Working Genius to help teams stabilise, rebuild trust, and clarify roles in the middle of chaos. Their sessions are designed for teams that do not have the luxury of a slow, thoughtful process and need to get functional again fast.

Their work is direct, focused, and built for leaders who know they need outside help and are ready to do whatever it takes to fix what is broken.

WHAT WORKING GENIUS ACTUALLY DOES IN A FACILITATED SESSION

Working Genius was created by Patrick Lencioni, and it identifies six types of work that every project, initiative, or team function requires. The six types are Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity. Every person has two areas where they are naturally energised, two where they are competent but not energised, and two where the work drains them.

The six types break down this way

Wonder: The ability to ponder, question, and consider what could be. People with Wonder as a genius are energised by asking the big questions and imagining possibilities.

Invention: The ability to create new ideas, solutions, and concepts. People with Invention as a genius are energised by coming up with the answer, the product, the strategy.

Discernment: The ability to assess ideas, evaluate options, and provide intuitive insight. People with Discernment as a genius are energised by filtering what will work and what will not.

Galvanising: The ability to rally people, generate enthusiasm, and move ideas into action. People with Galvanising as a genius are energised by getting others on board.

Enablement: The ability to provide support, assist others, and respond to needs. People with Enablement as a genius are energised by helping others succeed.

Tenacity: The ability to push through, complete tasks, and ensure things get finished. People with Tenacity as a genius are energised by crossing the finish line.

When a Certified Working Genius Facilitator runs the session, the framework moves from interesting to operational. The facilitator does not just explain the model. They guide the team through a process of seeing where the gaps are, where people are being asked to work outside their geniuses, and where the team is structured in a way that guarantees frustration. For a comprehensive overview of how this works in practice, see the Working Genius implementation guide.

Most teams discover three things in a Working Genius session

The people who are exhausted are working in their areas of frustration. The work that keeps stalling is missing one or more of the six types. The conflicts that feel personal are actually mismatches in how people are wired.

A good facilitator helps the team see these patterns, name them without blame, and redesign how work gets assigned so that more people are working in their areas of natural energy.

WHY FACILITATION MATTERS MORE THAN THE ASSESSMENT

You can take the Working Genius assessment online without a facilitator. Your whole team can take it. You will get reports, charts, and a breakdown of everyone's results. And three months later, nothing will have changed.

The assessment is a diagnostic tool, not a solution. It tells you where the misalignment is. It does not tell you what to do about it. A Certified Working Genius Facilitator is trained to take the diagnostic and turn it into decisions. Who should be in which meetings. Who should own which parts of a project. How to structure your leadership team so that the right people are doing the right work.

Facilitation also creates the space for the conversations that would not happen otherwise. When a facilitator runs the session, they can name the patterns the team is too close to see. They can ask the questions that would feel risky coming from someone inside the team. They can surface the unspoken tension between two senior leaders and reframe it as a Working Genius mismatch rather than a personality conflict.

The best facilitators do not just teach the model. They use the model to unlock the conversation your team has been avoiding. They help you see why your strategy keeps stalling, why certain people are burning out, and why the last three offsites did not produce lasting change. For a detailed look at what a well-run session looks like, read the guide on how to run a Working Genius workshop. Then they help you redesign how your team works so that the next 90 days look different from the last 90.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN HIRING A WORKING GENIUS FACILITATOR

Not every Certified Working Genius Facilitator is the right fit for your team. Certification means they know the model. It does not mean they know how to navigate the specific dynamics of your industry, your organisational culture, or the unspoken tension sitting in the room.

Look for a facilitator who has worked with teams like yours. If you lead a school, find a facilitator who understands school leadership. If you run a nonprofit, find someone who has worked with mission-driven teams and understands the pressure of doing more with less. If you are a corporate executive team, find someone who has facilitated sessions with senior leaders who do not have patience for theory.

Ask how they structure the session. Some facilitators run a half-day session that explains the model and sends you on your way. Others build in pre-work, follow-up coaching, and a 90-day accountability structure. Decide what your team needs. If you just want an introduction to the framework, a shorter session works. If you want the framework to change how your team operates, you need a facilitator who can help you implement. For a breakdown of what different formats look like, see the overview of Working Genius training programs.

Ask what happens after the session. The real test of a facilitator is not how good the session feels on the day. It is whether anything changes in the weeks and months after. A good facilitator gives you tools, templates, and next steps that help you operationalise what you learned. A great facilitator stays connected to the work and helps you troubleshoot when the insights start to fade.

Pay attention to how they talk about the framework. If a facilitator talks about Working Genius like it is the answer to everything, walk away. The framework is powerful, but it is not magic. A good facilitator talks about it as one tool in a larger toolkit, and they are honest about what it can and cannot do.

Notice whether they ask you questions before they pitch the session. A facilitator who leads with questions about your team, your challenges, and what you have already tried is a facilitator who cares about fit. A facilitator who leads with a standard package and a price is a facilitator who treats every team the same.

HOW WORKING GENIUS REDUCES CONFLICT WITHOUT ADDRESSING CONFLICT DIRECTLY

One of the most effective things Working Genius does is depersonalise conflict. When two senior leaders are not working well together, the default assumption is that it is a personality clash. One person is too direct. The other is too slow. One wants to move fast. The other wants more data. The conflict feels personal, so addressing it feels risky.

Working Genius reframes the conflict as a mismatch in how people are wired. The person who wants to move fast might have Galvanising and Enablement as their geniuses. They are energised by rallying people and getting things done. The person who wants more data might have Wonder and Discernment as their geniuses. They are energised by asking questions and evaluating options.

Neither person is wrong. They are just working in different parts of the process. The conflict is not about personality. It is about sequence. Wonder and Discernment need to happen before Galvanising and Enablement, but if the team does not have a shared language for that, it just feels like one person is slowing everything down and the other person is being reckless.

A good facilitator helps the team see the sequence. They show the team that every project needs all six types of work, and that the people who are strong in the early stages (Wonder, Invention, Discernment) are often not the same people who are strong in the later stages (Galvanising, Enablement, Tenacity). When the team understands that, the conflict loses its charge.

The person with Wonder and Discernment stops feeling like they are being steamrolled. The person with Galvanising and Enablement stops feeling like they are being blocked. Both people start to see that they need each other, and that the tension they have been experiencing is a sign that the team is trying to do all six types of work at once instead of in sequence.

This is why Working Genius sessions often feel like therapy without the therapy. Conflict gets addressed, but it gets addressed through the lens of work design, not through the lens of interpersonal dynamics. The team walks out with clarity, not just catharsis.

HOW TO USE WORKING GENIUS AFTER THE SESSION ENDS

The session itself is just the beginning. The real value of Working Genius shows up in how you use it over the next six months. For a practical set of exercises to embed the framework into your team's day-to-day work, see the guide on Working Genius group activities. Here is how high-performing teams operationalise the framework after the facilitator leaves.

Use it in hiring. When you are writing a job description, map the role to the six types of work and identify which geniuses the role requires. If the role is heavy on Enablement and Tenacity, do not hire someone whose geniuses are Wonder and Invention. They will be good at the job for about six weeks, and then they will be miserable.

Use it in project assignments. Before you assign someone to lead a project, look at the type of work the project requires and match it to their geniuses. If the project is in the early stages and needs ideation and evaluation, assign someone with Invention and Discernment. If the project is in execution mode and needs momentum and completion, assign someone with Galvanising and Tenacity.

Use it in meetings. Stop inviting everyone to every meeting. Use Working Genius to identify who needs to be in which conversations. If the meeting is a brainstorming session, invite the people with Wonder and Invention. If the meeting is a decision-making session, invite the people with Discernment. If the meeting is about execution, invite the people with Enablement and Tenacity.

Use it in one-on-ones. When you are coaching someone who is struggling, ask where they are working in the six types. If they are spending most of their time in their areas of frustration, that is the problem. Help them redesign their role or delegate the work that is draining them.

Use it to explain why things are stalling. When a project or initiative is stuck, map it to the six types and see which one is missing. If the team has done all the ideation but nothing is moving forward, you are probably missing Galvanising. If the team is excited about the idea but no one is finishing the work, you are probably missing Tenacity.

Use it to reduce resentment. When someone on your team is quietly burning out, it is often because they are working in their areas of frustration and do not have the language to say so. Working Genius gives them the language. Instead of saying "I hate this work," they can say "This work is in my area of frustration." That is a conversation you can solve.

The teams that get the most out of Working Genius are the teams that keep using the language. They refer to it in team meetings, in performance reviews, in project planning. It becomes part of how they think about work, not just something they learned at an offsite once.

WORKING GENIUS AND REMOTE TEAMS

Remote teams need Working Genius more than in-person teams do, because the friction points that show up when people are working in their areas of frustration are harder to see and harder to address when the team is not in the same room. For a detailed look at how this plays out in practice, see the guide on Working Genius for remote teams.

In an office, you can see when someone is struggling. You can notice when they are working late, when they are avoiding certain types of work, when they are frustrated in meetings. You can pull them aside and ask what is going on. Remote work hides all of that. The person who is burning out just stops turning their camera on. The person who is frustrated in meetings just stops engaging. By the time you notice, the damage is done.

Working Genius helps remote teams name the problem before it becomes a crisis. When everyone on the team knows their geniuses and their areas of frustration, it becomes easier to speak up when the work does not fit. A remote team member can say "This project is heavy on Tenacity and that is my area of frustration. Can we bring in someone with Tenacity as a genius to close this out?" That is a conversation that prevents burnout rather than responding to it.

Remote teams also benefit from the role clarity that Working Genius provides. When you are not in the same room, it is harder to know who is doing what. Projects stall because no one is clear on who owns which part. Working Genius gives you a shared language for assigning work based on how people are wired, which reduces the overlap, the gaps, and the silent resentment that builds when someone feels like they are doing more than their share.

A good facilitator who specialises in remote teams will structure the session differently. They will use breakout rooms, collaborative tools, and follow-up resources that work when the team is distributed. They will build in more check-ins and more structure, because remote teams need more scaffolding to turn insights into action.

If your team is remote or hybrid, find a facilitator who has experience running Working Genius sessions virtually. The content is the same, but the delivery is not.

WHEN WORKING GENIUS IS NOT ENOUGH

Working Genius is a powerful framework, but it is not a fix for every problem. If your team has deep trust issues, unresolved conflict between senior leaders, or a culture where people do not feel safe speaking up, Working Genius will help, but it will not solve the problem on its own.

The framework works best when there is baseline trust and a willingness to change. If your team is defensive, if people are protecting their turf, if the real issues are being avoided, Working Genius will surface the patterns but it will not force the conversation. You need a facilitator who can navigate conflict, not just teach a model.

Working Genius also does not solve structural problems that sit above the team. If your team is under-resourced, if the strategy is unclear, if the board is micromanaging, if the CEO is the bottleneck, Working Genius will help the team work better within those constraints, but it will not remove the constraints. You still need to address the structural issues.

The framework is most effective when it is part of a broader commitment to team health. If you bring in a facilitator, run the session, get excited about the insights, and then go back to business as usual, nothing will change. Working Genius only works if you are willing to redesign how your team operates based on what you learn.

If you are not ready to make changes, do not hire a facilitator yet. Wait until you are.

Your team already has the talent. The question is whether the talent is being used in the right places. A Certified Working Genius Facilitator helps you see where the mismatches are, name them without blame, and redesign how work gets assigned so that more people are working in their areas of energy. The session itself is just the beginning. The real work is what happens in the 90 days after.

If you lead a team in Illinois and you know something is off, reach out to one of the facilitators on this list. If your team needs more than a single workshop and you are considering a multi-day engagement, the guide on how to plan a Working Genius retreat covers how to build that kind of experience properly. If you want someone who has worked with schools, nonprofits, and leadership teams around the world and who can surface the patterns your team is too close to see, reach out at jonno@consultclarity.org. Your team is talented. The structure just needs to catch up.