At our September lunch, Venture Connectors was pleased to welcome dynamic speaker and coach Lisa Zangari! Lisa is President and CEO of the Zangari Consulting Group and Executive Coach-in-Residence at the Leadership Louisville Center. Through stories from her own work with some of the world’s most innovative companies, she shared four steps toward shaping organizational culture through innovation. First, by articulating your company’s innovation ambition; then by establishing shared behaviors, tools and processes; next by creating and protecting your team’s psychological safety; and finally, by making your customers real for your people. She talked about the importance of building trust, and nurturing curiosity across your organization, and why culture can be a company’s greatest competitive advantage.
For 20-plus years, Lisa has been a strategist, coach and consultant for companies around the globe. She is a frequent speaker at events and conferences, with talks focusing on topics such as high-performance teams, psychological safety, leading through communication and women in the workplace.
Before moving to Louisville, Lisa worked in New York City as a management consultant and innovation strategist, where she partnered closely with Fortune 500 executives to develop new products, launch new ventures and nurture more innovative corporate cultures. This work gave her the opportunity to partner with leadership teams in the Americas, APAC, and EMEA. She also led executives on TopDog Study Tours to learn how Google, Facebook, Method, Southwest Airlines, Kind LLC, Four Seasons and others build and sustain a culture of innovation.
Some of her clients have included: AARP, Abbott Pharmaceutical, American Express, Citigroup, Citizens Union Bank, Coca-Cola, Disney, Farm Credit Mid-America, Hasbro, Johnson & Johnson, Mars, Nutrisystem, PepsiCo, Pfizer, RSA Canada, Texas Roadhouse, The Hershey Co. and others.
Lisa serves on the board of Kentucky Performing Arts Foundation, and has been a consultant and coach for social impact organizations including New Roots (food justice) and the Smoketown Family Wellness Center. In 2017, Lisa was recognized as one of Business First’s 20 People to Know in Career Development. She holds an MBA in marketing from the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University.
