Chris Houston

Biography

Chris Houston is a seasoned consultant who helps his clients bring about fundamental change in the organizations they lead. He loves this work and brings a creative mind, passion for results and a caring heart to his clients and the issues of business strategy, leadership development, organization and change management. Chris serves by challenging and strengthening to build “hopeful realists” – both leaders and their organizations.

Chris graduated first with a B.Sc (hons)., and then an MSc., from the University of British Columbia, specializing in fish physiology and fisheries management. After a successful ten years as a field biologist and manager, he took his MBA (Gold Medallist) at the Ivey Business School in London, Ontario in 1987.

In 1987 Chris joined the General Management practice in the Toronto office of Woods Gordon, the Canadian consulting affiliate of what was then Arthur Young International and is now, Ernst and Young. As a principal, Chris led and participated in variety of strategic planning and organizational change assignments for a number of large clients in retailing, natural resources, health care, and research and development.

In 1990, Chris joined Change Lab International where he was a director in the Toronto practice for four years. In 1994, he and a colleague in Toronto, formed The Change Alliance and since then, he has worked primarily as a ‘sole practitioner’, often partnering with colleagues ‘inside’ his client organizations.

Chris brings a unique combination of intellect and character to coaching leaders and their teams as they define and execute strategy, create and lead successful organizations, often navigating very turbulent conditions. Chris has successfully built strong and many lasting client relationships with senior executives in companies such as BMO Financial Services, Risk Management Solutions, Eastman Kodak, Guy Carpenter, Flextronics, Marsh Inc & Marsh Canada, Ogilvy & Mather, WPP Pon North America, WebMD, the Coca Cola Company, and what was Sterling Winthrop Pharmaceuticals. In addition, he has also worked with KPMG, the T. Eaton Company, Stikeman, Elliott, the Bank of Nova Scotia, AOL Time Warner, the Canadian Banking Institute, Levi Strauss & Co., Allstate Insurance, Reuters, the Auditor General of Canada, Dupont Canada and the G. Heileman Brewing Company as well as others. Some assignments in the not-for-profit sector have included the Stratford Festival, Canadian Automobile Club, the Institute for Corporate Directors, Upper Canada College, Inter-Varsity and Goodwill Industries. He has taught strategy and change management in the senior management programs of the Institute for Chartered Accountants of Ontario. His experience spans 20 years as a consultant, coach, mentor and facilitator of senior leaders across North America and Western Europe and now in Asia.

Chris is a ‘natural’ consultant. It is a calling, a craft and a passion. He loves the intricate and often intensely personal process of helping leaders and their organizations grow and thrive, even in extremely challenging conditions. Many of his consulting relationships last for years, transitioning through the natural stages of growth as needs and conditions change. For many clients, the benefits of an experienced ‘third party’, who remains close enough for relevance yet removed enough for objectivity, has proven to provide a valuable resource to help through challenging times and achieve pleasing results. In recent years, Chris and his wife Jeannie have opened a retreat and conference centre (www.theretreat.ca) that is an extension of their home and where rich and often transforming dialogue is made possible.

In addition to his consulting practice, Chris has been a director of Jefferson Partners, a Toronto-based venture firm specializing in ‘new-economy’ technology companies. He currently chairs the Board of a software company also served as a director of a hi-tech public company for three years through and after its IPO process.

Close Up

What am I passionate about?

I love this work - a calling that I have stumbled upon rather than sought out. Like so much good strategy in these times, this business is not so much the product of long-horizon linear thought, but of agile and opportunistic use of core talents, adapted relentlessly to the constantly evolving needs of the marketplace. It's been a strategy of 'showing up' and delivering superbly well today to earn the right to serve tomorrow and my client relationships have lasted years and attest to long-term creation of value.

The focus of all my work is growth: intentional, personal, business growth. I just love to grow things. It used to be fish, it is always gardens and now it is mostly the dreams and capacities of my clients. Years ago, I became convinced that my best consulting work was not easily leveraged through others and that I was called not to build a business institution of my own, but to serve others in their aspirations and visions to grow. As one client said, "Chris, you get hooked on our vision," and so I do, when it is compelling and worthy. And I have put my money where my dreams are and built a special place for my clients, a place to think and work and grow. It is called Nassagaweya - the Retreat.

What is my personal focus?

As I look back over more than ten years in this business, I see a pattern in three successful types of services to my clients:

1) The design and facilitation of dialogue between people who have some business problem to solve or opportunity to exploit.
Typically, this takes the form of workshops and retreats often for one to three days. Into these events, which must also be part of some continuum, I weave two main strands of thinking and relating: the former to challenge and by creative thinking to define a plan; the latter to build trusting relationships sufficient to support cohesion within the group required for successful implementation.

2) Individual meetings with leaders to encourage their hearts and challenge their minds. I believe both elements are important. Each leader must grow personally if the organization is to grow. But each leader is a unique person and must be served as such.

3) Acting as a catalyst of significant change on behalf of leader clients. One senior executive said just recently, "Chris, I am comfortable with you loose in my organization." Such trust does not come lightly but time after time I find that I am sent to help initiate some change or create a shift in attitudes and actions, consistent with the growth of the whole enterprise, often at key leverage points. These deployments require that I build trusting relationships throughout the organization and then wisely cajole and advise toward the client's goal.

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