Meet the Speaker — Kimberley Parsons
Kimberley Parsons is the CEO of Bamboo Teaming. She is leading a session at WITS 2023 Virtual Summit on What Every Leader Should Know to Catalyze Higher Team Performance.
Why is speaking at WITS important to you?
For the first ten years of my career, I played several roles in Information Technology from developer to leader. Even after my transition to people and organizational effectiveness, I still feel that Tech is my home. Tech is at the forefront of so many companies’ ability to innovate and be resilient in complexity so speaking at WITS is an opportunity to help catalyze leaders, especially women leaders, to be on the forefront of more effective teaming and outcomes in their organizations.
What or who inspires you?
My son is a prominent inspiration for me. I marvel at his zeal for life, the big confidence in such a small body, and the kindness and love he has for all his friends. He is an example to me to live life with just as much gusto and a childlike thirst for love and learning with boldness.
Most useful article you’ve read in the last month
I recently co-wrote an article and had it published in Harvard Business Review, “Make Inclusive Behaviors Habitual on Your Team”. And although I wrote it, with each conversation I have with leaders about the usefulness of the concepts, I get even more nuanced insight into how important the playing field of “teaming” is in helping cultivate more inclusive behaviors in organizations.
https://hbr.org/2023/05/make-inclusive-behaviors-habitual-on-your-team
When you were a kid what was your dream job?
I had an amazing political science teacher in high school who made our Mock Trial club so fun and exciting that I just knew the best job ever was to be a judge. Funny how the twists and turns of life take us on various journeys in our careers and life.
Tell us something about your session
I often find that while leaders know they need to work better together, they don’t have a roadmap to help them figure out what the path is to get there. I love presenting this session, What Every Leader Should Know to Catalyze Higher Team Performance, because leaders walk away with new insight about the fundamental areas that need to be addressed to have more effective teaming, and simple pragmatic practices that can be implemented right away to address specific challenges that might be “at play” in their teams.
What other sessions or speakers are you most excited to see?
There are so many sessions that I would love to attend but I thought I’d spotlight this one on Tuesday, July 18th — UX, Dev and Product: Brainstorm facilitation and analysis. Given the pressure the leaders I work with feel to show up with “the answers” already baked and the time pressure to get to a solution fast, I’m excited to add to my facilitation toolkit ways to support teams in having the “magical conversations” that can come out of well-executed brainstorming sessions.
Hear from Kimberley and the other amazing women in tech speaking at WITS 2023 Virtual Summit by registering here.
