Lisa McDonald is the Director of the Change Management Office (CMO) for the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board. McDonald is pioneering the launch of their change management practices as part of the organization’s business transformation program. In this role, she leads a team of dedicated change practitioners as well as a change network of employees who engage the organization strategically for the enterprise-level transformation. Lisa recognizes that organizational changes happens one individual at a time and to gain buy-in you have to appeal to the heart and the mind.

For the past 12 years, Lisa has dedicated her career to leading change efforts on large, complex technology and process change projects. Working largely in a management consultant capacity, this application has chiefly been within the healthcare industry. In this capacity, she has gained a deep understanding of what is required to lead and manage through change.

It is nearly universally accepted that people resist organizational change. Comfort with the status quo can be extraordinarily powerful. Whether the change is a simple low-cost change or a multimillion-dollar change, the common theme is that the change will be resisted to some degree, and people will not automatically be comfortable working in new ways or will grieve the loss of power, status, or comfort.

McDonald’s doctoral research will investigate how change management activities can positively impact the uptake of change in application to a business transformation program. Her work will provide an opportunity to explore and examine levers for change while contributing to the evaluation of prevalent change models.

McDonald holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Regina (2012), a Bachelor of Business Management from the University of Lethbridge (2006), and a Professional Management Diploma from Selkirk College (2004). She is a certified coach and has her change management designation in AMPG International Change Management methodology, the Prosci ADKAR methodology, and Prosci Enterprise Change Management (ECM) model.

McDonald is very active within her community and sits on the Board of Directors for two not-for-profit organization. She is an avid running and baker. She resides in Regina, Saskatchewan with her husband, two young children, and dog.