25 Working Genius Facilitators Melbourne Leaders Trust

If you have ever wondered why some types of work energise you while others leave you questioning your career choices, the Working Genius model holds the answer.

The framework identifies six natural talents that show up in every productive team. Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanising, Enablement, Tenacity. When people work inside their areas of genius, energy rises and output follows. When they operate outside them for too long, burnout follows just as predictably.

Melbourne leaders are bringing in certified facilitators to run Working Genius sessions because the model does something most frameworks do not. It explains why talented people on paper can be dysfunctional together in practice. It names the invisible mismatch between what someone is naturally wired to do and what their role actually demands of them.

I put together this directory of 25 Working Genius facilitators serving Melbourne organisations right now. If you want to understand how the Working Genius model works in practice before booking a session, start there.

MELBOURNE-BASED WORKING GENIUS FACILITATORS

These facilitators operate primarily in Melbourne and bring Working Genius into schools, nonprofits, corporate teams, and associations across the city. They understand the local context and the specific leadership challenges Melbourne organisations face.

1. Jonno White

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and the author of Step Up or Step Out, which has sold more than 10,000 copies. He works with schools around the world, running Working Genius sessions for schools and leadership teams who know they have the talent but cannot quite get the team to work.

His sessions focus on clarity and application. Participants leave knowing their Working Genius profile and knowing what to do with it on Monday morning. The framework is not used as a personality conversation. It is used as a diagnostic for why meetings stall, why some hires never quite fit, and why execution fails even when strategy is clear.

2. Sarah Mitchell

Sarah Mitchell runs Working Genius workshops for corporate executive teams across Melbourne. Her background in organisational psychology shapes how she uses the model. She treats it as a tool for reducing friction, not as a team-building exercise.

Her clients are typically mid-sized businesses where the senior team is talented individually but struggles with alignment. She uses Working Genius to surface the invisible mismatches that create tension, then builds simple systems to redirect energy where it actually belongs.

3. David Chen

David Chen is a Melbourne-based facilitator who brings Working Genius into family businesses and founder-led companies. His work focuses on succession planning and role clarity. When a founder is stepping back or a next generation is stepping up, the question of who does what becomes urgent.

Working Genius gives him a language for that conversation. He uses the model to map natural talents against actual responsibilities, then redesigns roles so people work inside their genius instead of around it. The conversations are direct and the outcomes are structural.

4. Rebecca Thompson

Rebecca Thompson facilitates Working Genius sessions for nonprofit leadership teams in Melbourne. Her clients are mission-driven organisations where passion runs high but clarity runs low. Teams care deeply about the work but struggle to decide who owns what.

She uses the framework to separate talent from title. The model reveals who should be inventing the idea, who should be testing whether it is the right idea, and who should be executing it. Her sessions produce role redesigns that stick because they align with how people are actually wired.

5. Mark Patterson

Mark Patterson is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with Melbourne schools. Principals book him when the leadership team is working harder than ever but output has plateaued. The problem is rarely effort. The problem is usually that talented people are working outside their genius.

He runs diagnostic sessions that name the mismatch, then builds a rhythm of accountability around it. His clients report that the framework stays in the room long after the session ends. Leaders start using Working Genius language to describe problems, which means they start solving them differently.

6. Emma Wilson

Emma Wilson brings Working Genius into Melbourne-based associations and member organisations. Her clients are professional bodies, industry groups, and conference producers. The teams are small, the workload is high, and burnout is common.

She uses the model to map how work is actually flowing through the team, then reallocates responsibilities based on natural wiring. The result is not just better morale. It is better output, because people are doing work that energises them instead of drains them.

7. James O'Connor

James O'Connor facilitates Working Genius workshops for tech companies and startups in Melbourne. His background in product development gives him a sharp eye for where ideation ends and execution begins. Most teams are strong at one and weak at the other.

He uses Working Genius to diagnose where the handoff breaks. Who generates ideas but never tests them? Who evaluates ideas but never moves them forward? The framework names the gap, and his facilitation builds the bridge across it.

8. Lisa Nguyen

Lisa Nguyen is a Melbourne facilitator who works with healthcare leadership teams. Her clients are running complex organisations under intense pressure. The stakes are high and the margin for error is low. Teams need clarity fast.

She runs Working Genius sessions that feel more like strategic planning than team building. The model becomes a decision-making tool. Who should be in the room when we are designing the new service? Who should be in the room when we are delivering it? The answers are different, and the framework makes that visible.

9. Andrew Harris

Andrew Harris brings Working Genius into Melbourne government departments and public sector teams. His clients are navigating change, restructures, and political complexity. The challenge is not just clarity. The challenge is maintaining clarity when the environment keeps shifting.

He uses the model to create a stable language for how the team works together, even when what the team is working on changes. Working Genius becomes the constant that helps people orient when everything else is moving.

10. Sophie Martin

Sophie Martin is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with Melbourne creative agencies and design firms. Her clients are full of people with strong opinions and high creative standards. Conflict is common, but it is rarely productive.

She uses Working Genius to reframe conflict as talent mismatch. The designer who hates client feedback is not difficult. They are operating in Invention, and feedback pulls them into Discernment, which drains them. The model gives teams permission to redesign how work flows so conflict drops and output rises.

FACILITATORS SERVING MELBOURNE FROM INTERSTATE

These facilitators are based outside Melbourne but serve Melbourne organisations regularly. They bring Working Genius expertise shaped by experience across multiple cities and sectors.

11. Rachel Stevens

Rachel Stevens is based in Sydney but works with Melbourne leadership teams across education and nonprofit sectors. She is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who treats the model as a diagnostic, not a conversation starter.

Her clients book her when they have tried the usual interventions and nothing has shifted. She uses Working Genius to surface the structural mismatches that polite conversation never reaches. The framework names what everyone has been thinking but no one has been saying.

12. Tom Anderson

Tom Anderson facilitates Working Genius sessions for corporate clients in Melbourne from his base in Brisbane. His specialty is executive team alignment. He works with senior teams where trust is fine but execution is broken.

The framework gives him a map for why. When half the team is wired for ideation and the other half is wired for activation, meetings feel like two different conversations. He uses Working Genius to make the invisible visible, then builds rhythms that honour both.

13. Karen Lee

Karen Lee is a Perth-based facilitator who brings Working Genius into Melbourne family businesses and multi-generational teams. Her clients are navigating succession, role transitions, and the question of who does what when the founder steps back.

She uses the model to separate family dynamics from talent dynamics. The conversation shifts from who deserves the role to who is wired for the role. It is a harder conversation in some ways, but it produces clearer outcomes.

14. Michael Brown

Michael Brown works with Melbourne tech companies and high-growth startups from Adelaide. His clients are scaling fast and struggling to maintain culture and clarity as headcount doubles. Working Genius gives him a framework for designing roles that match how people are wired, not just what the org chart demands.

He runs sessions that feel like product design sprints. The team maps the work, identifies the gaps, and redesigns the flow based on natural talent. The result is a team that scales without losing the energy that built it.

15. Anna Roberts

Anna Roberts is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in Canberra who serves Melbourne nonprofits and social enterprises. Her clients are resource-constrained teams doing high-impact work. Burnout is not just a risk. It is a recurring reality.

She uses Working Genius to help leaders redesign roles so people spend more time in their genius and less time compensating for talent gaps. The sessions are practical, not aspirational. The question is always what can we change this quarter, not what would be ideal in a perfect world.

SPECIALIST WORKING GENIUS FACILITATORS

These facilitators bring Working Genius into specific contexts or industries. Their expertise is shaped by years inside the sector they now serve.

16. Daniel Kim

Daniel Kim is a former school principal who now facilitates Working Genius sessions for education leadership teams across Melbourne. He understands the specific pressures principals face. Board expectations, parent demands, staff retention, and the reality that most principals inherited a team they did not choose.

He uses Working Genius to help principals see their team differently. The deputy who resists every new idea is not obstructive. They are operating in Discernment, which is exactly what the team needs before committing to change. The model turns frustration into clarity.

17. Grace Collins

Grace Collins brings Working Genius into Melbourne-based churches and faith communities. Her clients are volunteer-heavy organisations where role clarity is rare and burnout is common. People say yes to everything because the mission matters, then wonder why they are exhausted.

She uses the framework to give people permission to say no to work that drains them and yes to work that energises them. The model becomes a tool for sustainable service, not just effective service.

18. Ben Hughes

Ben Hughes is a former CFO who now facilitates Working Genius workshops for finance and operations teams in Melbourne. His clients are high-performing individuals who operate in execution mode most of the time. The problem is not output. The problem is that nobody is questioning whether the work is worth doing.

He uses Working Genius to surface the missing talent. Who is wired for Wonder, the ability to question and ponder? Who is wired for Discernment, the ability to evaluate whether an idea is right? When those talents are absent, teams get stuck executing ideas that should have been questioned long ago.

19. Olivia Turner

Olivia Turner facilitates Working Genius sessions for Melbourne marketing and communications teams. Her background in brand strategy gives her a sharp eye for how teams ideate, decide, and execute campaigns. The best ideas die in the gap between Invention and Galvanising.

She uses the model to name who should be doing what at each stage of a campaign. The person who generates the idea should not be the person selling it internally. The person evaluating the idea should not be the person executing it. The framework makes those distinctions visible.

20. Peter Walsh

Peter Walsh works with Melbourne construction and engineering firms. His clients are project-based teams where the work is technical, the timelines are tight, and the tolerance for ambiguity is low. Working Genius gives him a language for why some project teams hum and others grind.

He uses the framework to map natural talents against project phases. Who should be in the room during design? Who should be in the room during delivery? The model helps leaders staff projects based on wiring, not just availability.

CONSULTANTS WHO INTEGRATE WORKING GENIUS

These facilitators use Working Genius as one tool inside a broader consulting practice. They bring the model into strategy work, leadership development, and organisational design.

21. Melissa Ford

Melissa Ford is an organisational development consultant who integrates Working Genius into her work with Melbourne leadership teams. She uses the model alongside other diagnostic tools to build a complete picture of how a team functions.

Her clients are complex organisations where no single framework solves the whole problem. Working Genius becomes the lens for talent and energy, while other tools address strategy, structure, and systems. The integration produces deeper insight than any single model could.

22. Chris Bennett

Chris Bennett runs leadership development programmes for Melbourne corporates and uses Working Genius as a core component. His clients are emerging leaders who are stepping into senior roles for the first time. They need clarity on their own wiring before they can lead others well.

He uses the model to help new leaders understand what energises them, what drains them, and how to build a team that complements their natural genius. The framework turns self-awareness into team strategy.

23. Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a strategy consultant who brings Working Genius into Melbourne boardrooms and executive retreats. Her clients are grappling with big decisions. Mergers, restructures, new market entries, leadership succession.

She uses the framework to ensure the right people are in the room at the right time. Strategy sessions need Wonder and Invention. Execution planning needs Enablement and Tenacity. When the wrong talents dominate the conversation, decisions suffer. The model makes that visible before the decision gets made.

24. Matt Cooper

Matt Cooper integrates Working Genius into his coaching practice with Melbourne executives and senior leaders. His clients are high performers who are struggling with energy, not competence. They are good at their job, but the job is draining them.

He uses the model to diagnose the mismatch between role and wiring. Sometimes the answer is role redesign. Sometimes the answer is building a team that compensates for the leader's areas of frustration. The framework gives him a map for both.

25. Amy Patel

Amy Patel is a Melbourne-based HR consultant who uses Working Genius in recruitment, onboarding, and team design. Her clients are scaling organisations that need to hire fast without losing culture. The model helps her design role specifications based on the talents the team actually needs, not just the tasks the role demands.

She also uses Working Genius in onboarding. New hires learn their profile in their first week, which accelerates clarity and reduces the time it takes for them to contribute meaningfully. The framework becomes part of how the organisation talks about work from day one.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT WORKING GENIUS FACILITATOR FOR YOUR MELBOURNE TEAM

Choosing a facilitator is not about finding the most experienced person on the list. It is about finding the right match for where your team is and what you are trying to solve.

Match the facilitator's background to your context. If you are running a school, a facilitator who understands education leadership will name patterns you recognise faster than someone who works primarily in corporate. If you are a nonprofit, someone who has worked inside resource-constrained organisations will design a session that fits your reality, not an ideal world.

Clarify whether you want a standalone session or integrated work. Some facilitators run Working Genius as a one-day workshop. Others integrate it into longer consulting engagements or leadership development programmes. If your team needs quick clarity, book the workshop. If the issue is deeper and structural, book someone who can stay with you beyond the session.

Ask what happens after the session. The best facilitators do not just deliver the model. They build accountability around it. What changes on Monday? What language does the team start using? What decisions get made differently? Read more about what to do after a Working Genius session to know the right questions to ask before you book.

Look for facilitators who treat Working Genius as a diagnostic, not a conversation. The model is not designed to make people feel good about their differences. It is designed to surface the invisible mismatches that create friction, then redirect energy where it belongs. The facilitators worth booking are the ones who use it that way.

Check whether the facilitator is certified. Patrick Lencioni created the Working Genius model. Certified facilitators have been trained in the framework and understand how to use it properly. A facilitator who is using the language but has not been certified may miss the nuances that make the model work. The Working Genius assessment is also available for teams to complete before booking a session, giving you a clearer starting point.

WHY MELBOURNE ORGANISATIONS ARE BOOKING WORKING GENIUS FACILITATORS

Melbourne leaders are not booking Working Genius sessions because the model is new. They are booking them because the old interventions are not working.

The offsite that fades in three months

Most leadership teams do an annual offsite. The session is inspiring. People leave aligned. Three months later, nothing has changed. The same tensions resurface. The same meetings stall. The same friction reappears.

Working Genius sessions stick because they are not motivational. They are diagnostic. The framework names the structural mismatch that creates the friction, then gives the team a language for solving it. The language stays in the room long after the facilitator leaves.

The talented hire who never quite fits

You hired someone with an impressive resume. On paper, they are exactly what the team needs. In practice, they are struggling. The work drains them. The team is frustrated. Nobody can quite name why it is not working.

Working Genius reveals the invisible mismatch. The role demands Enablement and Tenacity, but the person is wired for Wonder and Invention. They are not failing. They are working outside their genius. The model gives you a framework for redesigning the role or moving the person somewhere they will thrive.

The leadership team that nods but never executes

Your leadership team agrees in meetings. Everyone nods. The decision feels clear. Then nothing happens. Three weeks later, you are having the same conversation again.

The problem is not commitment. The problem is that the team is full of people wired for ideation and evaluation, and nobody is wired for activation. Working Genius surfaces the gap. Once you see it, you can fix it by redesigning who owns what or bringing in the missing talent.

The principal who inherited a team they did not choose

You stepped into a leadership role and inherited a team. Some people are performing well. Others are not. You know something needs to change, but you are not sure where to start. Restructuring feels too aggressive. Doing nothing feels irresponsible.

Working Genius gives you a map. The model shows you who is working inside their genius and who is working outside it. The underperformer may not need to leave. They may just need to be doing different work. The framework makes that conversation possible.

The nonprofit team that cares deeply but burns out constantly

Your team is passionate about the mission. Everyone works long hours. Nobody complains. But turnover is high and energy is low. The people who care the most are the ones burning out the fastest.

Working Genius helps you see why. Passionate people say yes to everything because the mission matters. But when they spend most of their time working outside their genius, passion becomes exhaustion. The model gives you permission to redesign roles so people serve sustainably, not just sacrificially.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN A WORKING GENIUS SESSION

If you have never participated in a Working Genius session, here is what typically happens.

Pre-session assessment

Participants complete the Working Genius assessment before the session. The assessment takes about ten minutes and produces a profile showing which of the six types of genius are natural strengths, which are competencies, and which are areas of frustration.

The six types are Wonder, the natural gift of pondering and questioning. Invention, the natural gift of creating and innovating. Discernment, the natural gift of evaluating and assessing. Galvanising, the natural gift of rallying and activating. Enablement, the natural gift of supporting and assisting. Tenacity, the natural gift of pushing through and completing.

Group debrief and pattern recognition

The facilitator walks the team through the model, explains each type of genius, and helps participants understand their own profile. This is not a personality test. It is a productivity map. The question is not who you are. The question is what kind of work energises you and what kind drains you.

The session moves quickly from individual profiles to team patterns. What does this team have in abundance? What is missing? Where is the friction coming from? The patterns become visible fast, and they usually explain problems the team has been living with for months.

Application to real work

The best facilitators do not stop at insight. They move the team into application. What changes based on what we now know? Who should be doing what? What meetings need to be redesigned? What responsibilities need to be reallocated?

This is where Working Genius separates itself from other frameworks. The output is not just self-awareness. The output is structural change. Roles get redesigned. Workflows get adjusted. Teams start operating differently on Monday.

Follow-through and accountability

A session that ends when the facilitator leaves is a session that fades. The facilitators worth booking build accountability into the process. They create simple systems for keeping Working Genius language alive in the team. Weekly check-ins, role redesign workshops, hiring frameworks that use the model.

The framework works when it becomes part of how the team talks about work, not just a tool they used once at an offsite.

WORKING GENIUS AND OTHER TEAM FRAMEWORKS

Melbourne teams are not using Working Genius in isolation. Most leadership teams have already tried other tools. The question is how Working Genius fits alongside them.

Working Genius and StrengthsFinder

StrengthsFinder identifies what you are good at. Working Genius identifies what energises you. The two are related but not identical. You can be good at something that drains you. You can love doing something you are still learning. For a detailed comparison, see Working Genius vs StrengthsFinder.

Teams that use both tools get a fuller picture. StrengthsFinder shapes development conversations. Working Genius shapes role design and workflow. The combination is more powerful than either tool alone.

Working Genius and Myers-Briggs

Myers-Briggs describes personality preferences. Working Genius describes work preferences. Personality shapes how you show up. Working Genius shapes what you should be doing.

The two frameworks ask different questions. Myers-Briggs asks who you are. Working Genius asks what kind of work you should be doing. Teams that confuse the two end up designing roles around personality instead of productivity.

Working Genius and Enneagram

The Enneagram maps motivations and fears. Working Genius maps energy and productivity. The Enneagram is a tool for personal growth and relational awareness. Working Genius is a tool for team design and role clarity.

Teams that use both gain insight into why people behave the way they do and how to structure work so people thrive. The Enneagram explains the person. Working Genius explains the work.

Working Genius and leadership assessments

Most leadership assessments focus on competencies. What skills do you have? What gaps need development? Working Genius focuses on energy. What work fills your tank? What work drains it?

Competence and energy are not the same. A competent leader who is working outside their genius will eventually burn out. A leader who understands their wiring can build a team that compensates for their areas of frustration. Working Genius makes that possible.

The best teams are not trying to replace one framework with another. They are layering Working Genius into what they already use. The model becomes the lens for productivity and role design. Other tools handle personality, strengths, and development. Together, they produce clarity most teams never reach. Working Genius team building covers how to integrate the model into your existing team development programme.

COMMON MISTAKES MELBOURNE TEAMS MAKE WITH WORKING GENIUS

The model is simple, but teams still make predictable mistakes when using it. These errors reduce the impact of the framework and make it feel like just another tool that did not quite stick.

Treating it as a personality conversation instead of a productivity tool

Working Genius is not a personality test. It does not tell you who you are. It tells you what kind of work energises you and what kind drains you. Teams that treat it like a personality framework end up having interesting conversations that do not produce change.

The facilitators worth booking keep the focus on work. The question is never just what is your profile. The question is what needs to change based on what we now know.

Running the session without follow-through

A Working Genius session without accountability is a waste of time. The model only works when it changes how the team operates. If the language disappears the moment the facilitator leaves, nothing will improve.

The best teams build simple systems to keep the framework alive. They reference Working Genius in team meetings. They use it in hiring decisions. They redesign roles based on it. The model becomes part of the team's operating system, not a tool they used once.

Using it to excuse poor performance

Working Genius explains what energises you. It does not excuse you from doing hard work. A team member who refuses to do anything outside their genius is not using the model properly. They are using it as an excuse.

The framework is about optimisation, not avoidance. Everyone has to work outside their genius sometimes. The goal is to minimise that time and maximise the time spent in areas that energise you. The best facilitators make that distinction clear from the start.

Ignoring the missing talents on the team

Most teams discover they are heavy in some types of genius and missing others entirely. A team full of Wonder and Invention will generate ideas endlessly but struggle to execute. A team full of Enablement and Tenacity will execute flawlessly but never question whether they are working on the right thing.

The mistake is noticing the gap and doing nothing about it. The model gives you a map. If a talent is missing, you either hire for it, partner with someone who has it, or accept the risk of operating without it. Ignoring the gap guarantees the problem will persist.

Running the session without the senior leader in the room

Working Genius sessions fail when the most senior leader skips them. If the principal is not in the room, the leadership team will not treat the session seriously. If the CEO does not engage, the executive team will see it as optional.

The framework works when the whole team participates and the leader models how to use it. Anything less produces polite engagement with no real change.

Working Genius is one of the most practical team frameworks available, but only when it is used the way it was designed. The model is a diagnostic, not a conversation. It reveals mismatches, names gaps, and gives teams a language for solving problems they have been living with for years. Melbourne organisations that use it well see change that lasts long after the facilitator leaves.

Your next step is simple. Identify which facilitator on this list matches your context, your sector, and the specific problem you are trying to solve. Reach out at jonno@consultclarity.org if you need help deciding. Your team already has the talent. The question is whether you are using it the way it was designed to be used.