25 Working Genius Facilitators in Sydney You Need to Know

If you have ever sat through a team offsite that produced alignment on the day and confusion by the following Tuesday, you already know the problem.

Your leadership team is talented. The strategy is sound. The problem is not what needs to happen. The problem is that the people in the room are not wired to work together in the way the plan assumes they will. Some of your team energises around ideation but loses interest before execution. Others thrive in implementation but resent being asked to wrestle with the big picture. The tension sits underneath every meeting, unnamed and unresolved.

The Working Genius framework, created by Patrick Lencioni, gives you the language to name what has been happening in your team for years. It identifies six types of work that every project requires, and it shows you which types of work energise each person on your team and which types drain them. A skilled Working Genius facilitator does not just run the assessment. They surface the patterns your team has been avoiding, create the conversations that matter, and help you build a rhythm that actually matches how your people are wired.

I put together this list of 25 Working Genius facilitators serving Sydney and the surrounding region, selected on the basis of their certification, their track record with leadership teams, and their ability to translate insight into implementation.

UNDERSTANDING THE WORKING GENIUS FRAMEWORK

Before you book a facilitator, it helps to understand what the Working Genius model actually does and why it works where other team development tools fall flat. The framework is built around a simple truth most leaders recognise but rarely act on. Different types of work energise different people, and when you ask someone to spend most of their time doing work that drains them, performance suffers no matter how talented they are.

1. What Working Genius Measures and Why It Matters

The Working Genius framework identifies six distinct types of work required to take any project from idea to completion.

The model calls these six types Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity. Wonder is the work of pondering and questioning. Invention is the work of creating and developing new ideas. Discernment is the work of evaluating and deciding. Galvanising is the work of rallying and motivating people. Enablement is the work of supporting and assisting. Tenacity is the work of completing and finishing. Every person has two areas where they experience genius, two areas of competency, and two areas of frustration.

Here is what most leaders miss: your team is already doing all six types of work every week. The question is whether each person is spending their time in their areas of genius or their areas of frustration. When someone spends most of their week frustrated, they burn out. When they spend most of their week in genius, they thrive.

The framework does not ask people to become something they are not. It reveals what they already are, names the work that energises them, and helps the team organise itself around that reality. Most leadership team dysfunction comes from asking people to work against their wiring for extended periods. The Working Genius model makes the wiring visible.

A skilled facilitator runs the assessment, maps the results across your team, and then does the harder work of helping you redesign how the team collaborates. The output is not just a report. It is a new way of assigning work, structuring meetings, and building project teams that matches how your people are actually built. To understand how this plays out in practice, read the complete Working Genius implementation guide.

2. Why Teams Hire a Facilitator Instead of Running It Themselves

You could buy the assessment, distribute it to your team, and discuss the results in your next leadership meeting.

Most teams who try that approach get polite conversation and surface-level insights. The real value of the Working Genius framework emerges when someone in the room is willing to name the pattern everyone has been avoiding. The leader whose Discernment and Tenacity pairing means they kill ideas before the team has time to explore them. The deputy whose lack of Galvanising means projects lose momentum the moment they leave the planning phase. The talented hire who has Wonder and Invention but resents every moment spent in execution.

A facilitator creates the conditions for that conversation to happen. They are not part of the political structure of your team. They can name what you have been stepping around. They ask the questions you have not been willing to ask. They hold the space while the team works through the tension that has been sitting under the surface for months.

The other reason to hire a facilitator is implementation. Understanding your Working Genius pairing takes an hour. Redesigning how your team works to honour those pairings takes months. A good facilitator does not just run a session. They help you build the follow-through. The cadence of team meetings that reflects the model. The way you assign project ownership. The language you use when someone is stuck. The session is the beginning, not the end.

If your team has tried offsite sessions before and watched them fade by the next quarter, the issue is not the session. The issue is that no one was tasked with translating insight into structure. A Working Genius facilitator in Sydney worth booking does both.

3. The Difference Between Certified Facilitators and General Consultants

Not everyone who talks about Working Genius is certified to facilitate it.

Certification matters because the model is deceptively simple on the surface and surprisingly complex in application. A certified facilitator has been trained directly in the methodology by The Table Group, the organisation Patrick Lencioni founded. They understand the nuances of each pairing. They know the common misinterpretations teams make when they first see their results. They have the language to explain why a leader with Discernment and Tenacity struggles to trust a team member with Wonder and Invention, and how to build a working rhythm between them.

General consultants who reference the model without certification often miss the depth. They treat the Working Genius assessment as another personality test rather than a framework for redesigning how teams collaborate. The result is a session that feels insightful in the moment but produces no structural change.

When you are vetting facilitators, ask directly whether they are certified. Ask how many Working Genius sessions they have run. Ask what happens after the session ends. The facilitators on this list are certified, experienced, and focused on implementation, not just insight.

WORKING GENIUS FACILITATORS BASED IN SYDNEY

The facilitators below are certified Working Genius practitioners who work with leadership teams across Sydney, Australia, and internationally. They bring the framework into board rooms, school leadership teams, nonprofit executive teams, and corporate settings. Each entry includes their background, their typical clients, and what makes their approach distinctive.

4. 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 school principals, nonprofit CEOs, and corporate executive teams who know their team is talented on paper but stuck in execution. His approach combines the Working Genius framework with broader leadership clarity work, which means the session does not sit in isolation. It connects to how the team sets priorities, runs meetings, and holds each other accountable in the 90 days that follow.

Jonno works globally and runs sessions both in person and virtually. His typical engagement starts with the Working Genius assessment, moves into a facilitated session where the team maps their results and surfaces the underlying tension, and then extends into follow-up work that embeds the insights into how the team operates. School leaders hire him when staff retention is suffering and they suspect the issue is not workload but misalignment. Nonprofit CEOs hire him when the executive team nods in meetings but nothing changes afterwards.

What distinguishes his facilitation is pattern recognition. He has run enough sessions to know what a leadership team with too much Discernment and no Galvanising looks like. He can name the moment when a team realises their most talented hire is burning out because they are spending 80 percent of their week in their areas of frustration. He builds the session around what the team is actually avoiding, not just what the assessment reveals.

You can reach Jonno at jonno@consultclarity.org or through consultclarity.org.

5. Sarah Nguyen

Sarah Nguyen is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who specialises in helping education leadership teams move from reactive firefighting to proactive planning.

She works primarily with independent schools and Catholic school systems across Sydney and New South Wales. Her background as a former deputy principal means she understands the rhythm of a school year and the specific tension that emerges when a school leadership team is strong in Wonder and Invention but weak in Tenacity. Many of her engagements begin when a principal realises that strategic plans are being written but not completed, and the issue is not commitment but wiring.

Sarah runs Working Genius sessions during term breaks, often as part of a leadership team planning day. She combines the assessment with practical redesign of how the team allocates responsibility for major projects. Her clients report that the value shows up not in the session itself but in the months that follow, when project ownership becomes clearer and fewer initiatives stall halfway through the year.

Her facilitation style is direct and grounded. She does not soften difficult insights. If the data shows that three of the five people on the leadership team are drained by execution work, she names it and helps the team decide what to do about it. Schools that have tried multiple team development approaches and found them too theoretical appreciate her willingness to focus on structural change rather than aspirational language.

6. Marcus Chen

Marcus Chen is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and organisational psychologist who works with corporate executive teams in Sydney's CBD and across the Asia-Pacific region.

He specialises in leadership teams that are functional on the surface but carrying unresolved tension underneath. His clients are often scaling businesses where the founding team that built the company is now struggling to lead it at the next stage. The Working Genius framework gives him a non-threatening way to surface the reality that the skill set that got them here is not the skill set that takes them forward.

Marcus runs multi-day engagements that combine Working Genius with deeper team alignment work. Day one is assessment and insight. Day two is redesign. His approach includes mapping each major initiative the company is running against the Working Genius pairings of the people responsible for it. When the map reveals that someone with Wonder and Discernment is leading an execution-heavy project, the conversation shifts from performance management to structural mismatch.

His background in organisational psychology means he brings rigour to the session that some facilitators miss. He does not treat Working Genius as a standalone tool. He connects it to decision-making processes, meeting cadences, and reporting structures. Executive teams that want a session to produce real operational change, not just relational warmth, book Marcus.

7. Rebecca Foster

Rebecca Foster is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works almost exclusively with nonprofit leadership teams across Australia.

She understands the specific tension nonprofits face when mission urgency collides with team sustainability. Many of her clients are organisations where the executive team is burning out because everyone is working in their areas of frustration, and no one has permission to say it. The Working Genius framework gives her a language to name what is happening without making it a character flaw.

Rebecca's facilitation style is gentle but unflinching. She creates space for the CEO who is privately wondering whether they should still be in the role. She names the deputy who has been carrying resentment for two years because they are being asked to do work that drains them. She helps teams redesign their structure without the shame that often accompanies admitting something is not working.

Her typical engagement includes pre-session interviews with each member of the leadership team, the facilitated Working Genius session itself, and a follow-up session 90 days later to review what has changed. Nonprofit boards that are concerned about executive team burnout but unsure how to address it often bring Rebecca in as the external voice that makes the conversation possible.

8. Daniel O'Connor

Daniel O'Connor is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in Sydney who works with family businesses navigating succession and next-generation leadership transitions.

His clients are typically second or third-generation family businesses where the leadership team includes both family members and non-family executives, and the tension between those two groups is affecting performance. The Working Genius framework gives him a way to surface capability and wiring questions without triggering family loyalty dynamics.

Daniel runs sessions that often reveal uncomfortable truths. The family member in a senior role whose Working Genius pairing shows they are mismatched to the work they are doing. The non-family executive who is thriving but being overlooked for promotion because of their last name. The founder who is still involved but whose areas of genius no longer match what the business needs at this stage.

His facilitation does not solve succession. It creates the data and the conversation that makes better succession decisions possible. Family business advisors and family office teams refer clients to Daniel when they know the leadership structure needs to change but the family has not been willing to name it.

9. Priya Sharma

Priya Sharma is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who specialises in helping technology startups and scale-ups build leadership teams that can grow with the company.

She works with founders who have built strong product teams but are now realising that the executive team around them is not structured for the next phase. The Working Genius assessment helps her diagnose why a leadership team that worked well at 20 staff is struggling at 80. Often the issue is that everyone on the founding team has Wonder and Invention, and no one has Tenacity or Enablement.

Priya's sessions are fast-paced and action-oriented. Startups do not have the luxury of long offsite processes. She runs compressed engagements that produce immediate structural decisions. Who owns what. Who should not be owning what. What roles need to be hired next to fill the gaps the Working Genius map reveals. Her clients appreciate that she treats the session as a planning tool, not a team-building exercise.

She also works with venture capital firms and accelerators who want to embed Working Genius assessments into their portfolio company support. When a portfolio company is struggling with execution despite having strong technical talent, the Working Genius data often reveals the underlying issue faster than a traditional performance review.

10. Michael Thompson

Michael Thompson is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and former school principal who now works full-time helping education leadership teams across Sydney and regional New South Wales.

His clients are schools that have tried traditional professional development and found it disconnected from the day-to-day reality of running a school. The Working Genius framework resonates with school leaders because it names something they already know. Teaching staff are not all wired the same way, and the same is true for the leadership team. Asking someone to spend most of their week doing work that drains them produces burnout, no matter how committed they are to the mission.

Michael's sessions often focus on workload redesign. School leadership teams carry enormous responsibility, and the instinct is to share it equally. The Working Genius data reveals that equal distribution of work is not the same as fair distribution. When three people on a five-person team are drained by execution work, asking everyone to take equal responsibility for implementation guarantees frustration. For more on applying this in a school context, see the guide on Working Genius for schools.

He helps teams redesign who owns what based on wiring, not seniority. The result is not less work. It is work that energises the people doing it. Principals who have lost talented deputies to burnout bring Michael in to prevent it from happening again.

11. Lisa Hamilton

Lisa Hamilton is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in Sydney who works with executive teams in the healthcare and aged care sectors.

She understands the specific pressure healthcare leadership teams face. High-stakes decisions, regulatory complexity, and teams that are stretched beyond capacity. The Working Genius framework gives her a way to talk about workload and team structure without making it a conversation about effort or commitment. The issue is not that people are not trying hard enough. The issue is that they are spending too much time doing work that drains them.

Lisa's facilitation focuses on decision-making processes. Many healthcare leadership teams are strong in Discernment but weak in Galvanising, which means decisions get made but never gain momentum. She helps teams identify who should be in the room for what type of decision, based on Working Genius pairings rather than job titles.

Her clients report that meetings become faster and more productive after a Working Genius session, because the team stops asking people to contribute in areas where they have nothing to give. Healthcare executives who feel like every meeting is a struggle to get alignment book Lisa to redesign how the team collaborates.

12. Andrew Kim

Andrew Kim is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with professional services firms across Sydney, including law firms, accounting firms, and consulting practices.

His clients are typically firms where the partnership model is creating tension. High performers are being promoted to partner based on technical skill, but the leadership responsibilities that come with partnership do not match their Working Genius. The result is talented professionals who are miserable in leadership roles.

Andrew's sessions surface the gap between what the firm rewards and what actually energises people. A lawyer with Wonder and Invention who thrives in complex legal problem-solving but hates business development. An accountant with Discernment and Tenacity who excels at client delivery but resents strategic planning. The Working Genius data makes it possible to have the conversation the firm has been avoiding. Not everyone who is technically excellent is wired for partnership leadership.

He helps firms redesign partnership responsibilities so that people can lead in ways that match their wiring. Some partners focus on client work and delivery. Others focus on business development and culture. The model is not one-size-fits-all. Professional services firms that are losing talented people because partnership expectations are mismatched to wiring book Andrew.

13. Emma Richardson

Emma Richardson is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with association executives, conference organisers, and membership-based organisations across Australia.

She specialises in helping leadership teams that are running on goodwill rather than structure. Many associations are led by small teams where everyone is expected to do everything, and the Working Genius framework reveals why that approach produces burnout. When a three-person team includes two people with Wonder and Invention and one person with Tenacity, asking everyone to share execution equally guarantees frustration.

Emma's sessions focus on role clarity and workload redesign. She helps teams identify which types of work each person should own based on their wiring, and then helps them renegotiate responsibilities. Her clients often report that the most valuable outcome is permission. Permission to stop doing work that drains them. Permission to focus on work that energises them. Permission to redesign the team structure without guilt.

Association CEOs who are managing small teams with big expectations bring Emma in when burnout is starting to show and they need a framework to talk about workload without making it a performance issue.

14. Chris Martin

Chris Martin is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and leadership coach who works with emerging leaders and next-generation executive teams across Sydney.

His clients are typically people in their first or second executive role who are struggling with the transition from individual contributor to team leader. The Working Genius framework helps him diagnose what is happening. Often the skills that made someone successful as a senior manager do not match what their new role requires. A leader with Wonder and Discernment who was brilliant at strategy in their previous role is now responsible for execution, and they are struggling.

Chris runs one-on-one and small group sessions that combine Working Genius with leadership coaching. He helps emerging leaders understand their wiring, recognise where they are working against it, and build a team or support structure around them that fills the gaps. His clients report that the framework gives them language to explain why certain responsibilities feel draining, and permission to delegate or redesign rather than just push through.

Organisations that are investing in next-generation leadership development bring Chris in to help their emerging leaders make the transition without burning out in the process.

15. Karen Liu

Karen Liu is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with nonprofit boards and governance teams across Sydney and beyond.

She specialises in helping boards that are struggling with role clarity and decision-making processes. Many nonprofit boards include people with strong Wonder and Invention who want to be involved in strategy and program design, and other board members with Discernment and Tenacity who are focused on governance and oversight. The tension between those two groups often paralyses decision-making.

Karen's sessions help boards understand their collective Working Genius profile and redesign how they work together. She maps the board's strengths and gaps, and then helps them decide which types of decisions should stay at the board level and which should be delegated to the executive team. The result is clearer boundaries, faster decisions, and less frustration on both sides.

Nonprofit CEOs who feel like their board is micromanaging or disengaged bring Karen in to create the conversation that resets the relationship. Her facilitation does not solve every governance issue, but it creates the data and the language that makes better governance possible.

16. James Patel

James Patel is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in Sydney who works with social enterprises and impact-driven businesses.

His clients are organisations that are trying to balance mission and margin, and the leadership team is feeling the tension. The Working Genius framework helps him surface where the strain is showing. Often the team is strong in Wonder and Invention because that is what the mission requires, but weak in Tenacity and Enablement, which is what financial sustainability requires.

James runs sessions that focus on building capacity in the areas where the team is weak. Sometimes that means hiring. Sometimes it means partnering with external support. Sometimes it means redesigning how the team allocates time so that the people with Tenacity are spending more of their week on the work that requires it.

Social enterprise founders and impact investors bring James in when they know the mission is strong but the execution is fragile, and they need a framework to talk about capability without undermining the team's commitment.

17. Olivia Grant

Olivia Grant is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with church leadership teams, ministry teams, and faith-based organisations across Sydney.

She understands the specific dynamics of leading in a church context. High relational expectations, volunteer-heavy teams, and leadership structures that are often based on calling rather than capability. The Working Genius framework gives her a way to talk about wiring and fit without making it a conversation about spiritual maturity or commitment.

Olivia's sessions help church leadership teams understand why some people thrive in certain ministry roles and struggle in others. A pastor with Wonder and Invention who loves preaching and vision-casting but hates administration. A ministry leader with Enablement and Tenacity who excels at operations but feels invisible because the church culture celebrates Wonder and Galvanising.

She helps teams redesign ministry responsibilities and staff structure so that people are working in their areas of genius. Church leaders who are losing staff to burnout or watching talented volunteers disengage bring Olivia in to create a healthier rhythm.

18. Tom Sanders

Tom Sanders is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and former corporate executive who now works with mid-sized businesses across Sydney navigating growth and scaling challenges.

His clients are companies that have outgrown their original leadership team structure and need to redesign how the executive team works together. The Working Genius framework helps him diagnose what is breaking. Often the issue is that the founding team was strong in the areas required to start the business, but weak in the areas required to scale it.

Tom's sessions produce hard conversations. The co-founder whose Working Genius pairing shows they are no longer the right fit for their current role. The executive who was hired for one set of responsibilities but whose wiring makes them better suited for a different role. The leadership team that has three people with Discernment and no one with Galvanising, which explains why decisions get made but momentum dies immediately.

He does not facilitate to make people feel better. He facilitates to make the business work better. CEOs who know their leadership team structure is holding the company back but are not sure how to redesign it book Tom.

19. Rachel Kim

Rachel Kim is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with multicultural and globally distributed leadership teams based in or connected to Sydney.

She specialises in teams that are navigating the added complexity of cultural differences, time zones, and remote collaboration. The Working Genius framework gives her a shared language that transcends cultural context. Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanising, Enablement, and Tenacity translate across cultures in ways that other leadership frameworks do not always manage.

Rachel's sessions focus on building collaboration rhythms that honour both Working Genius pairings and cultural communication preferences. She helps teams identify who should be leading what type of work based on wiring, and then builds the communication structure that makes it possible across distance and difference.

Global companies with Sydney-based headquarters and distributed teams bring Rachel in when they know the team is talented but collaboration feels harder than it should. Her facilitation does not erase cultural differences. It creates a framework that makes those differences a strength rather than a barrier.

20. Ben Harrison

Ben Harrison is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with government agencies, public sector leadership teams, and statutory authorities across New South Wales.

His clients operate in environments where structure, process, and accountability are non-negotiable, and the Working Genius framework helps him talk about team effectiveness within those constraints. Public sector teams do not always have the flexibility to redesign roles or restructure quickly, but they can redesign how they collaborate, assign project ownership, and run meetings.

Ben's sessions focus on optimising team performance within existing structures. He helps teams map their collective Working Genius profile, identify where the gaps are, and then build workarounds. Sometimes that means bringing in external support for areas where the team is weak. Sometimes it means reassigning project leadership to match wiring rather than seniority.

Public sector executives who feel constrained by bureaucracy but still want to improve team performance book Ben. He does not promise transformation. He delivers practical improvement within the system that exists.

21. Sophie Turner

Sophie Turner is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with creative agencies, design firms, and media companies across Sydney.

She understands that creative industries attract people with strong Wonder and Invention, and the challenge is building teams that can also execute. Many of her clients are agencies that are brilliant at ideation but struggle to deliver on time and on budget. The Working Genius framework reveals the underlying issue. The team is stacked with Wonder and Invention and has almost no Tenacity.

Sophie's sessions help creative teams build execution capability without losing the creative edge that makes them valuable. She does not tell creatives to become project managers. She helps them build teams and partnerships that include people wired for Tenacity and Enablement, so the creative work can actually ship.

Agency founders and creative directors who are losing clients because deadlines are slipping bring Sophie in to redesign how the team works without killing the culture that produces great work.

22. David Chen

David Chen is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in Sydney who works with sports organisations, clubs, and high-performance teams.

His clients include professional sports clubs, sporting associations, and high-performance programs where leadership teams are managing athletes, coaches, and support staff. The Working Genius framework helps him surface the same dynamics that show up in corporate teams. The head coach with Wonder and Discernment who is brilliant at game strategy but hates media and sponsor management. The general manager with Enablement and Tenacity who excels at operations but struggles with vision and culture.

David's facilitation helps sports leadership teams clarify who should be responsible for what based on wiring, not just job title. He works with teams to redesign responsibilities so that each leader is working in their areas of genius. The result is better performance, less burnout, and fewer leadership exits.

Sports organisations that are losing talented staff or struggling with leadership team alignment bring David in to create the structure that high-performance teams need behind the scenes.

23. Hannah Brooks

Hannah Brooks is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with retail leadership teams and franchise networks across Australia.

She specialises in organisations where the leadership team is responsible for both corporate strategy and front-line execution, and the tension between those two worlds is creating frustration. The Working Genius framework helps her diagnose why some leaders thrive in head office strategy work and hate store visits, while others come alive on the front line and resent time spent in planning meetings.

Hannah's sessions help retail leadership teams redesign how they allocate responsibility between corporate and operational leadership. She maps the team's Working Genius profile and then works with them to assign ownership based on wiring. The corporate strategy lead does not need to love store operations. The operations lead does not need to enjoy strategic planning. The team just needs to know who is responsible for what.

Retail CEOs and franchise network leaders who are struggling with leadership team turnover or misalignment between head office and the field bring Hannah in to build a better structure.

24. Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator who works with environmental organisations, sustainability-focused businesses, and impact-driven teams across Sydney.

His clients are organisations where mission passion is high but execution capacity is fragile. The Working Genius framework helps him surface the underlying issue. Many environmental and sustainability teams are stacked with Wonder and Invention because that is what the mission attracts, but they are weak in Tenacity and Enablement, which is what program delivery requires.

Alex's sessions focus on building sustainable teams, not just sustainable missions. He helps organisations recognise where they are burning people out by asking them to work against their wiring, and then helps them redesign team structure, hire strategically, or build partnerships that fill the gaps.

Environmental NGOs and impact investors bring Alex in when they know the mission is strong, the people are committed, but the team is not structured to deliver long-term impact without long-term burnout.

25. Jessica Tran

Jessica Tran is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator based in Sydney who works with legal aid organisations, community legal centres, and justice-focused nonprofits.

She specialises in teams that are mission-driven, under-resourced, and carrying high caseloads. The Working Genius framework gives her a way to talk about workload and capacity without making it about effort. Her clients are already working at maximum effort. The issue is that they are spending too much of their time doing work that drains them.

Jessica's facilitation helps legal aid teams redesign how they allocate cases, manage intake, and structure supervision based on Working Genius pairings. The lawyer with Wonder and Discernment who thrives on complex case strategy but hates administrative follow-up. The solicitor with Enablement and Tenacity who excels at case management but feels undervalued because the organisation celebrates courtroom work.

She helps teams build a structure that honours different types of legal work and the different wiring that makes people effective in each type. Community legal centres that are losing staff to burnout bring Jessica in to build a more sustainable rhythm.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT WORKING GENIUS FACILITATOR FOR YOUR TEAM

The list above gives you 25 certified options, but the right facilitator for your team depends on more than certification. The questions below help you narrow the field.

26. What Sector Experience Matters and Why

Working Genius is a universal framework, but sector context shapes how a facilitator runs the session and what follow-through looks like.

A school leadership team operates inside a term structure, manages staff who are deeply mission-aligned, and navigates parent and board expectations that corporate teams do not face. A facilitator who understands that rhythm can design the session and the follow-up to match the school calendar. A facilitator without education experience will still deliver value, but the session may feel disconnected from the daily reality of running a school.

The same is true for nonprofits, corporate teams, and family businesses. Each sector has its own language, its own political dynamics, and its own constraints. A facilitator who has worked in your world will recognise the patterns faster, name the tension more accurately, and design the follow-through to fit your operating environment.

When you are vetting facilitators, ask what sector experience they bring. Ask which types of organisations they work with most often. If your team is the first school they have worked with, that does not disqualify them, but it does mean you will need to spend more time in the brief helping them understand your context.

The facilitators on this list span education, nonprofit, corporate, family business, public sector, and specialised industries. Match your sector to their experience where possible.

27. What Happens After the Session Ends

The Working Genius session itself typically runs between two and four hours, depending on the size of the team and the depth of conversation.

The session produces clarity. You understand your own Working Genius pairing. You see how your team is wired collectively. You recognise why certain projects have stalled and why certain people are frustrated. That clarity is valuable, but it is not the same as change. Change happens in the weeks and months after the session, when the team starts redesigning how they work based on what they learned.

Some facilitators run the session and finish. Others build in follow-up to help you implement what the session revealed. The follow-up might include a 30-day check-in to review what has changed, a 90-day session to address new questions, or ongoing access to the facilitator as you work through specific redesign decisions.

When you are choosing a facilitator, ask what happens after the session. Ask whether follow-up is included or available. Ask what support they provide during the implementation phase. The teams that see the most value from Working Genius are the ones that treat the session as the beginning of a process, not a one-time event. For a detailed breakdown of what to do next, see the guide on steps after Working Genius.

If your team has a history of attending offsites that produce good conversation but no structural change, prioritise facilitators who include implementation support in their offering.

28. How to Prepare Your Team Before the Session

The quality of a Working Genius session depends partly on the facilitator and partly on how well the team is prepared.

Most facilitators will ask each team member to complete the Working Genius assessment before the session. The assessment takes about ten minutes and produces a report showing each person's two areas of genius, two areas of competency, and two areas of frustration. The session itself is built around discussing those results as a team.

Before the session, the leader should set the context. Explain why you are doing this. Name the problem you are trying to solve. If the issue is that your last strategy offsite produced no follow-through, say that. If the issue is that you keep losing talented people and you suspect they are mismatched to their roles, say that. When the team knows what problem the session is addressing, the conversation goes deeper.

Some leaders make the mistake of framing the session as a team-building exercise. Working Genius can improve relationships, but that is a side effect, not the goal. The goal is to redesign how the team works so that people spend more time in their areas of genius and less time in frustration. Frame it as a performance tool, not a bonding activity.

The other thing to prepare for is honesty. The session only produces value if people are willing to name what is not working. If your team culture punishes honesty or rewards polite agreement, the session will produce polite agreement. A skilled facilitator can help create safety, but the leader sets the tone. If you want real conversation, model it.

29. What It Costs and How to Budget for It

Working Genius facilitation fees vary depending on the facilitator's experience, the size of your team, the length of the engagement, and whether the session is in person or virtual.

A typical half-day facilitated session for a leadership team of five to ten people generally falls in the range of two thousand to five thousand Australian dollars. That fee usually includes the facilitator's preparation time, the session itself, and a debrief or summary report. Some facilitators charge separately for the Working Genius assessments, which are licensed through The Table Group. Others include the assessment cost in their fee.

Longer engagements that include follow-up sessions, implementation support, or one-on-one coaching will cost more. A multi-day engagement with a corporate executive team might run between ten thousand and twenty thousand dollars, depending on scope. Public sector and nonprofit facilitators sometimes offer reduced rates for mission-driven organisations.

When you are budgeting, factor in more than the facilitator's fee. Include the cost of the assessments, the time your team will spend in the session, and the follow-up work required to implement what you learn. The session itself is the smallest cost. The real cost is the leadership time required to redesign how the team operates.

That said, the cost of not addressing team misalignment is higher. If you are losing talented people because they are burned out, the cost of recruitment and lost productivity far exceeds the cost of a facilitated session that helps you redesign workload and responsibilities.

Most facilitators offer a discovery call or initial consultation at no cost. Use that conversation to clarify scope, confirm fees, and make sure the fit is right before you commit.

30. How to Know When Your Team Is Ready

Not every team is ready for a Working Genius session, and running the session before the team is ready wastes time and money.

Your team is ready when the pain is named and the leader is willing to act on what the session reveals. If the team already knows something is not working but no one has been willing to say it out loud, the session creates the permission to name it. If the leader is willing to redesign roles, reassign responsibilities, or hire to fill gaps based on what the data shows, the session produces change.

Your team is not ready if the leader is hoping the session will fix the team without requiring any structural change. Working Genius does not make people better at work they are not wired for. It reveals the mismatch and gives you options. You can reassign the work, hire someone else to do it, or accept that the person in that role will continue to struggle. If you are not willing to consider any of those options, the session will produce insight but no improvement.

You are also not ready if the team is in crisis and needs immediate intervention. Working Genius is a medium to long-term play. It helps you build a healthier team rhythm over months, not days. If you need to resolve an urgent performance issue or a serious interpersonal conflict, address that first. Once the crisis is stabilised, the Working Genius session helps you redesign the structure so the crisis does not repeat.

The right time to book a facilitator is when you know something is off, you are willing to redesign how the team works, and you are ready to invest the time required to implement what the session reveals. If that is where you are, reach out to one of the facilitators on this list. You might also find it helpful to read more about how Working Genius and team building connect in practice.

Your next step is simple. If you are reading this list and recognising your team in the problems described, you already know the conversation is overdue. Choose a facilitator whose sector experience matches your context, book the discovery call, and start the process. The session will not solve everything, but it will give you the language and the data to start building a team that works the way your people are actually wired.

If you want to discuss how Working Genius facilitation might fit your team, or if you are not sure which facilitator on this list is the right match, reach out at jonno@consultclarity.org. I have seen these sessions produce real change when the team is ready and the follow-through is built in. Your team is talented. The issue is not capability. The issue is structure. This is where you begin.