Jenny Brice is emerging as one of our most thoughtful and articulate advocates for a more realistic approach to the future of work.Hugh Mackay AO is the founder of the Australian quarterly research series The Ipsos Mackay Report. He is a psychologist, sociologist, social researcher, writer and former teacher.
Jenny has been working with me as my business coach for over six months. During that time, she has helped me see some new perspectives on both my role and workplace. She has helped me see how I can be more effective as a leader, has helped me bring more efficiency into my day and has helped me to find confidence in my personal leadership style. Jenny has also helped me to develop practical tools to help me address specific issues in my workday. Working with Jenny has brought enormous benefit to my work, and I would have no hesitation in recommending her to others.
Former Director and Deputy Chair of Tourism Noosa & Corporate Governance Lawyer
Jenny has the innate ability to coach individual directors and boards towards real results in the areas of strategy, operations, and governance. Jenny is tenacious in her approach, is driven by results, and tackles individual problems head on whilst always keeping in mind the bigger picture. I can’t recommend Jenny enough; I’ve seen her work her magic in tough situations and its impressive..
Jenny Brice has appeared regularly on my ABC radio program over a five-year period. During that time she has both commented on topical career and workplace issues, as well as initiated and pitched topics of interest that she has written about in opinion pieces.
Her segments for my radio program have been well-researched and have included plenty of up to date facts, information and examples from reputable sources to validate our discussions. Jenny is a knowledgeable guest presenter whose decades of industry experience is apparent in the material she provides and presents. She is well-spoken, knows how to direct a conversation and challenge current assumptions about workplace, industry issues and standards. She is a thoroughly engaging interviewee and presenter.
I worked with Jenny when I began an executive role leading a function that required restructure and uplift, in an organisation that was undergoing significant transformation.
Jenny’s expertise in senior HR roles and Executive Coaching provided a very useful platform to sense check problem statements and generate potential pathways and solutions. Her independence and incisive observational skills were beneficial in identifying blindspots and constructively challenging assumptions and beliefs, leading to sound decision making in my new role.
In addition to my one on one sessions, Jenny was available for ad hoc discussions to thrash out issues when needed. Knowing that Jenny was available as an independent sounding board was reassuring.
I found it easy to establish rapport early in my work with Jenny and was confident in her discretion at all times. I’m happy to recommend Jenny Brice as an Executive Coach.
As a Director I have been very impresses by Jenny’s ability to facilitate the Associate Directors Board Summit, and our own Board strategy meetings.
Her ability is knowing when to engage the board in discussion and push for outcomes demonstrates exceptional facilitation skills. Jenny takes a lot of time in pre-work preparation to ensure constructive outcomes.
As a company we have also engaged Jenny for executive coaching and career planning and intend to continue to engage Jenny’s services. I would highly recommend Jenny as an Executive facilitator and Coach.
Jenny has been working with Maxitrans and myself for the past 12 months to develop a dynamic professional team, empowered to adopt a number of changes required to realign the business for short and long term success. Jenny has been facilitating training and strategy sessions across all functional areas of the business leading to an agreed action plan and business alignment. Through the facilitation process our people have grown and embraced the training at all levels and are well equipped for the challenges ahead. Jenny’s extensive knowledge of HR & Business strategies, and her ability to coach and mentor all levels in the business, has provided us the management tools and behavioural traits to create and manage a high performing team that is operationally and strategically aligned. Through the entire process, Jenny has been highly focused, engaged, open and honest, and constantly looking for new opportunities to improve the business, showing passion and drive in every facet of her role. It has been a pleasure working with Jenny and our business would not be in its current position without her involvement and coaching, an asset for any organisation.
Jenny Brice was recommended as an excellent facilitator for a conference we were planning to have. She was someone who had a strong and relevant HR background coupled with the facilitation skills required to reach our objective in the time given. We also have a staff with a broad age range (from 22- 62!) so the facilitator needed to be able to bridge that gap and provide an environment for all staff to meet and achieve our objective.After meeting with Jenny I felt very confident in her abilities and I appointed her to the task. Jenny impressed me with her confidence in the planning phase and with the suggestions for the session that she bought to the table. Clearly, here was a person who had vast experience in achieving outcomes as a facilitator with groups of all sizes and backgrounds. Jenny also impressed me with her focus on the physical aspects of the event, ensuring the room, the technology, the room configuration and even the timing of catering was all well planned. The review of our vision and values was indeed a success. The day was both entertaining and thought provoking. Jenny prepared the team with a humorous but pointed exercise that underlined the difference in our individual values in the context of agreeing to set of team values. This set up the ensuing discussion well and the way Jenny was able to relax the team ensured they were comfortable to contribute.Personally I was surprised by their enthusiasm for the subject (at 9.00am on a Saturday morning after a rather big night of socialising) and I credit Jenny’s personality and her delivery to this success. We completed the session with a new and very well developed set of values. We’re now following through with another team gathering to present and committ to our Values and agree on a revised Vision. This has been an excellent experience for the whole team and one which is clearly bringing the team even closer together. Full credit to Jenny Brice for assisting us to achieve our objectives.
I have worked closely with Jenny over the past 18 months as we implement transformational initiatives throughout our organisation. Jenny has brought a balance of strategic direction blended with a personable approach to assist the organisation. This has enabled Jenny to develop deep into our organisation to facilitate positive change.
Jenny’s experience in training and development is clearly demonstrated by her ability to quickly read the room and influence people towards desired outcomes.
I would highly recommend Jenny as a valued asset to any organisation and look forward to working with her again.
I have been working with Jenny for a number of months now as my leadership coach. Jenny brings an experienced and business focus to the issues that I have been grappling with as the Acting CEO of Cardno. Jenny is prepared to test and challenge assumptions and tactics while encouraging me to look for deeper insights about situations and problems that I have been addressing. I have found my sessions with Jenny to be enormously helpful and I would be happy to recommend her coaching and consulting services to anyone looking to address the current complexities of leading organisations.
Jenny recently facilitated a team strategy and planning day with the ACI Executive at a critical point in the evolution of our company, With an unparalleled understanding of our challenges within the context of our industry and the broader Australian economic landscape, Jenny helped facilitate our strategic planning session to arrive at the end goal of re-defining our acquisition and customer targets, our economic partners and our team macro and micro structures.In addition to the need to keep us on track given the amount of content we needed to cover, Jenny enabled us to cover all bases and stay with each topic, digging further when required and challenging us to consider different (and all) propositions.
As with most outstanding Leadership teams, our Executive come from a wide range of backgrounds offering differing perspectives. Jenny skilfully garnered everyone’s personal areas of expertise creating an environment to allow the conversation to arrive at meaningful outcomes. Jenny is a strong and effective facilitator and has been instrumental in the evolution of our second phase business model.
Without Jenny’s leadership on the day, I have no doubt we would not have achieved the outcomes we reached
Jenny’s diverse background and experience in working with senior management and staff at all levels across a number of industries gives her a unique insight and perspective on the many challenges facing executives today and how these translate into opportunities for my organisation and my own leadership development. She has a highly disciplined but supportive approach, focussing on the issues that are most relevant to me and my role as an executive and legal adviser within a constantly changing international business environment.
Jenny facilitated a workshop with the staff that produced instant positive results. She thoughtfully listened to what I wanted to achieve and structured the day to challenge staff regarding how they were going to demonstrate our core values. The staff felt uplifted as Jenny masterfully provided learning opportunities for them to discuss behaviours that are aligned with our mission and goals. During the day, staff were able to name those actions that would hinder them from achieving our vision. Jenny empowered staff to critically reflect upon their personal responsibility in creating a positive work environment. The staff thoroughly enjoyed the day and were fully engaged. The professional development provided by Jenny, was a wonderful foundation for the year ahead.
Jenny recently facilitated a strategy weekend retreat for our team at her amazing facility in Eumundi.It was a significant time for our business as we were navigating through an unprecedent level of change and the establishment of a new, executive leadership team.
Jenny took the time to understand the challenges we were facing and assisted us in shaping and defining a strategy and vision for our business.Over two days, Jenny facilitated an extremely productive workshop and as a team we walked away energised about our journey ahead and with a shared understanding of the key activities, values and principles needed for us to be successful.
Jenny provides pragmatic insight into complex business problems and can effectively challenge a team whilst maintaining a supportive and inclusive environment.As a result of Jenny’s facilitation, we were able to cover an incredible amount of content and I was thrilled how we were able to immediately start aligning to our new strategy and implementing learnings from the weekend into our business.
I have had the privilege of working with Jenny twice now – once when Jenny was the General Manager of Human Resources at Fuji Xerox where she developed and ran what I would call one of the best leadership development programs, and second time more recently when I engaged Jenny to be an executive coach for two of my direct reports with great results. Jenny’s immense experience and knowledge on the subject matter as well as her engagement style tailored to meet individual needs means she excels at being an executive coach and I have no hesitation in recommending Jenny to anyone who is looking to be challenged with a view to develop further as a leader and a better person overall.
I thoroughly enjoyed learning from Jenny Brice as she talked to us about the future of work.She really made me reflect about how we, as leaders of companies, need to ensure that we “do the right thing” as we have the responsibility of people’s lives and livelihoods.I particularly liked her Responsibility Map and I hope that Jenny gets to influence bigger “captains of industry” as the face of the world of work changes and people are in danger of being left behind or cast aside as no longer relevant.
In my role as Head of Strategy at BOQ, my manager gave me the opportunity and support to work one-on-one with a coach (of my choosing). I did extensive research in the sector and while there are a myriad of talented coaches, Jenny was my first choice. Jenny knows what it is like to sit at the executive table, she is not afraid to call out an elephant in the room and she has specific and personal advice for female executives.
Jenny is open, honest, generous with her time and advice. She made me realise that you need a plan and that you also need to act on it with conviction and self-belief. And that you sometimes need a bit of a push or shove to get past an obstacle!
She was my biggest supporter and my personal cheer squad. Her sage advice in the tricky area of office relationships was invaluable and her counsel wise and experienced.
I would recommend Jenny to any executive looking to make their next career step and I know they would be delighted and rewarded with her refreshing approach.
I had the privilege to receive personal coaching from Jenny over the past year, her depth and breath of knowledge and experience is truly remarkable.
I came from an entrepreneurial background and through an acquisition found myself having to navigate the corporate structure which was quite foreign.
The work with Jenny was like lifting a vail on the world, I was more able to understand the situation and how best to handle issues and opertunities.
I have a new perspective one with much greater clarity.
Jenny – thank you so very much for facilitating such an informative, thought provoking session on The Future of Work which was right on target and very topical for the team at Tandem Partners.To get people thinking about the future and how that might impact on us all was definitely worthwhile.
The day was absolutely ‘7 star’ – running the session on your beautiful property (a short drive from Noosa) with state of the art conference facilities, accompanied by the wonderful catering and of course having the company of Bacci, your beautiful dog, was hands down better than any hotel conference room.
We would not hesitate to call on you to facilitate future topical sessions, especially around the Future of Work, for which you are so well researched and knowledgeable, not to mention having the opportunity to do so from your conference facilities on the property amongst nature.
The simple fact of the matter is that people listen when Jenny speaks. Jenny has an amazing ability to rise above the noise and to engage you in thought provoking conversation. Her intelligence enables her to be a thought leader
and her experience allows her to articulate and open minds to the future of work.
I met Jenny Brice when I was a speaker on a conference panel and Jenny was the facilitator for the session.
I was impressed with Jenny’s eloquence, engagement with the speakers and audience and her inclusive approach. Jenny also drew upon her own real life experiences to bring a warmth and authenticity to the discussion. Jenny had a knack of making the speakers feel at ease and bond quickly.
Since then I have had the enjoyment of continuing to work with Jenny and enjoy our thought provoking conversations. Jenny encourages me to think differently. Jenny is a true thought leader.
“]
I first worked with Jenny Brice as a futurist and educator when she was a senior executive at Fuji Xerox and instrumental in forging a preferred future for that international organisation. Her enthusiasm and energy was contagious resulting in great commitment to move people forward to higher achievements. Jenny later attended the University of Melbourne, Melbourne Business School’s ‘Futures Thinking and Strategy Development Program’, where I was the Program Director, and she developed the concept of the ‘Virus Analogy,’ a concept she later published in the ‘Journal of Futures Studies’ (Journal of Futures Studies, November 2004, 9(2): 77 – 82).
.As Jenny wrote “The Virus analogy or metaphor is a useful frame- work to help people in organisations influence and accelerate the desired change. The principle is how you can infect as many people, as quickly as possible, so the change that is introduced is effective and sustainable.” This was a significant breakthrough and my colleagues and I have used this analogy in our teachings ever since. I recommend Jenny highly.
I had the pleasure of hearing Jenny present at the The 4th Women in ICT Leadership Summit in Brisbane, in November 2016. Jenny combined her experience, new research, and reflection to build a presentation that was genuine and insightful. I am now looking for ways to engage Jenny to work with my colleagues so that they too can benefit from her authentic approach.
I have worked with Jenny over a number of years and engaged her as a facilitator, coach and advisor. Jenny’s skills as a speaker, challenger and sounding board are exceptional. She has deep domain knowledge in Strategic HR as well as a passion and wealth of knowledge in how work will be delivered in the future and the impact of this on leadership, employees and organisations.
Jenny has been instrumental in injecting insightful thinking and action within my department in relation to the future of work.
Her research and ability to translate this into meaningful and organisational relatable content has been outstanding. Following our workshop and work with Jenny, we’ve been able to prioritise our strategic workforce planning agenda and are bringing our business leaders along on the journey.
I highly recommend Jenny’s services for HR professionals and executive leaders
In equal parts confronting, revealing and inspiring, Jenny’s leadership development program at Fuji Xerox was at the cutting edge in terms of design and superbly executed. A decade on, the program remains the best program of its type that I have encountered and the learnings even more relevant today than they were then
Whilst I was at Fuji Xerox, I was privileged to have had the opportunity to attend an in-depth 15 month Leadership Program that was developed and facilitated by Jenny Brice. The program was exceptional and unique in terms of its breadth and scope. All participants completed the program with a fresh perspective not only on leadership qualities, but also on their own position and influence in the workplace. It is hard to believe that I attended the Program almost 10 years ago, as the learnings and experience I gained are still pertinent in my professional and personal life
I reported directly to Jenny for approximately 4 years in her role as General Manager, Human Resources. Jenny was a compelling role model, encouraging me to always take my career to the next level. I learnt a tremendous amount in watching Jenny successfully navigate ambiguity within the organisation, as well as her determination when faced with complex issue resolution. Jenny’s “moral compass” does not waiver, which quickly earns her the respect of both leaders and employees alike.
Jenny’s impact on either an individual or a team will be both immediate and long lasting. She has an uncanny ability to drill down to the crux of an issue whilst encouraging self-reflection. If you are looking to accelerate your career, or simply want to challenge the status quo, then I can’t recommend Jenny highly enough.
Jenny Brice was referred to me what I had an all-too-familiar business dilemma where with business growth, staff that were once generalists needed greater role definition meaning they had to let go of some areas of work and to have a focus on where their expertise best lies.
I worked with Jenny for the month leading up to our adventure to JB’s Conference centre. Supportah is a workplace advocacy firm that deals head on with the results of the changing workforce, from dismissals to discrimination. Jenny was uniquely qualified to facilitate our day, which began with a bus ride from Brisbane.
On the bus trip to Eumundi Jenny had my team deeply engaged as they learned about what happens inorganisations that leaves people behind and what the changing workforce means to the work that we do. There is not two ways about it, Jenny is a thought leader in this space. The feedback from the team including “Amazing”; “Wow”, “She must have cost a fortune, thanks boss”; and “That trip felt like 20 minutes.
At the conference centre, JB facilitated our team looking at their legacy and Supportah’s legacy while strolling through the beautifully rejuvenated native acerage, culminating in us putting a jig-saw together of all our moving parts of the business. We finished with an exquisite lunch, the likes not seen at the finest of restaurants.
The benefits of Jenny’s time have had lasting impacts on our team. Indeed on a daily basis, the jigsaw pieces are used in our workflows and accountability reports.
Jenny is a gifted facilitator, thought leader and conferences centre host. I really cannot image using anyone else for the next stage of helping my team grow with the business.
Jenny has a fantastic way of engaging both audiences and individuals in though provoking, meaningful discussion. Her breadth of experience and knowledge is impressive and her ability to quickly gather facts and diagnose situations is second to none. Jenny is an absolute delight to work with and I can guarantee that your time spent with Jenny will remain one of your career highlights.
I had the great privilege of attending a workshop where Jenny was the facilitator. The workshop had several senior participants (including the most senior global executives) for a large, publicly listed business. It was a challenging group of participants, with big personalities and plenty of political agendas.
Jenny handled the workshop with incredible skill and facilitated a meaningful outcome for the team. She ensured that everyone had an opportunity to participate and contribute their ideas, and she did this with incredible tact, diplomacy and by utilising her extensive business acumen. Jenny brings incredible integrity and focus and is quickly respected and trusted by those she is working with. I would rate Jenny as one of the best facilitators that I have worked with globally and I will absolutely utilise her expertise again in the future.
Jenny was a guiding light during a tough and critical juncture in my career – as a coach and a mentor. Work-life balance was something I thought was a myth as I started to climb the corporate ladder, but Jenny helped me identify the balance so that I can be truly effective. She also armed with the tools to future-proof my career, and invest in my self-brand. The sessions with her provided me with the confidence and skills to communicate effectively with executive management, and sharpen my personal leadership skill.
Jenny has an elegant insight into people that enables them to pause, think, and engage in a way that expands their knowledge of themselves and their businesses. Her facilitation of the recent Women in Leadership forum was top drawer. Her light touch and relaxed professionalism was instrumental in an enjoyable and engaging day for both the speakers and the audience.
Jenny worked for me, the CEO of Fuji Xerox Australia, for 5 years as the GM of HR. During that time she made a major contribution to changing and developing the culture of our Company.She achieved this by working very closely with our Executive Team and implementing a complete HR strategy that required the total involvement and commitment of the management team.
The legacy that Jenny left was a complete HR framework and series of training modules that could be delivered throughout the organisation on a decentralised basis. As a consequence there is no question that during her time with FXA we saw a complete transition to a performance and people based organisation that was clearly reflected in our market place and financial performance.
Her most valuable attributes were knowledge and personality based. Not only was she a highly experience and successful HR professional but she had an extremely powerful and determined personality. She was always prepared to express strong views to both myself and my management team on all aspects of their leadership and management styles – even if her views were not necessarily well received in the first instance! Very rarely did her views turn out to be ill founded and in most, if not all cases, management were prepared to listen and to implement her recommendations with enthusiasm – and success. As a consequence her contribution was truly tranformational.
Jenny is one of the few people, in my experience, who is able to make a very significant difference to an organisation in a short time frame changing managers into leaders and employees into fully contributing members of the team. In any Jenny Brice organisation the “whole” will very quickly become greater that the “sum of the parts”. I could not imagine any HR Manager making a bigger contribution to the performance of a small or large organisation.
Jenny worked with me as General Manager Human Resources on two executive teams over a five year period. It was a period of significant restructure, which included significant downsizing expansion and growth. Jenny’s ability to influence the executive team to invest significantly in a comprehensive HR strategy played a major part in the successful transition of the business.
Jenny was instrumental in the development of a series of training programs, including leadership development for various levels of management, resulting in a shift in management style from a focus on managing towards coaching and mentoring. Our aim was to convert the knowledge of our people into productive skills.
Jenny in her leadership development has the unique ability to get managers and executives to recognise the impact of their actions and behaviour on the people around them and encourage them to modify or reinforce their behaviour towards a more productive outcome.
Few managers and executives would not benefit from spending time with her reviewing their leadership style.
Over the course of 9 months, Jenny provided me with Executive Coaching that not only met my development goals, but also provided insights into the Executive world, that I have found to be invaluable
I now have an Executive “toolbox” to reference and utilise in everyday situations whilst dealing with Project Stakeholders, who are all C-level Executives.
Jenny’s coaching on Strategic versus Tactical, and the manner in which she pushed me to continually think outside my comfort zone/default mode, has allowed me to view my role of Project Governance from a new perspective that benefits the Groups’ PMO
I just wanted to pass on that I thought you did a brilliant job of facilitating the all male panel session at the summit today. I was also impressed by the way you handled the situation where the speaker was delayed. Great story. Well done.
I was Jenny’s Boss at Orica and I reported to the CEO as the Corporate TQM and customer service Manager. I first met Jenny at a conference that we were both presenters at. Jenny was presenting a case study on her strategy on how a division of TNT was successful at implementing TQM. So successful in fact, five truck drivers presented in Singapore about their experiences.
Jenny I sat next to each other at the conference dinner and I decided there and then I wanted her to employ her. At her initial interview I told her she had twelve months to influence the general managers and the CEO that she was capable of making a significant impact in the organization by TQM. If she was successful she would get my job. If not she had no job….Guess what she got the job.
Not only that she was asked by the current CEO at the time to help him improve his presentation skills and she went to several presentations with him coaching him in how to present more effectively.
The reason Jenny has been so successful is she gets to the core of issues quickly and uncovers practical tools that people can really use. Jenny is THE ACE at interpreting data such as existing situations, case studies, and other metrics and makes it practically meaningful and converts it to strategies and personal actions that WILL make an immediate and profound difference. Jenny can help turn leaders from mediocre performance to high performance.