Ordinary sucks

You know it, they know it, ordinary sucks. And you shouldn’t have to put up with it where you work. We help companies and nonprofits leverage their organizational culture to turn ordinary employees into high performers. We believe that everyone is happier, healthier and more engaged when they knock it out of the park every single day. So we give you and your team the tools you need to shift your culture yourselves. Then you get something more powerful than buy-in from your employees. You get ownership.

“Ken’s energetic and honest approach has gained him the respect of an entire organization. The early iterations of SHIFT made a series of challenging conversations easy due to his sincerity, curiosity and willingness to learn about our organization.

“Our project is the better for his leadership.”

—Beth Gignac, City of Calgary

Recent Articles and Videos

Video Blogs

Recent Blog Posts

111 – You Really Need To F-ing Listen To HR with Lisa-Maree Blumenfeld

February 11th, 2025|Categories: Uncategorized|

In this episode, Russell sits down with Lisa-Maree Blumenfeld, founder of Retain, LLC, to explore the critical role of HR in helping businesses scale effectively. Lisa-Maree is a seasoned HR leader with experience across startups and Fortune 500 companies. Her passion for supporting early to mid-stage startups led her to create Retain, a firm dedicated to helping founders build strong HR foundations while providing managers and executives with dynamic training, Enneagram coaching, and executive coaching.

109 – Breaking F-ing Barriers to Mental Health with Tiffany Petite

January 14th, 2025|Categories: Uncategorized|

In this episode of I Need to F**ing Talk to You*, Ken and Russell sit down with Tiffany Petite, CEO and Co-founder of Virtuous Circle Counselling. With over 15 years of experience as a registered clinical social worker, Tiffany is on a mission to redefine how mental health services are delivered. She shares her journey of co-founding Virtuous Circle Counselling and how her evidence-based, client-centered approach is breaking down barriers to mental health care.

108 – The F***ing New Year Edition: Remembering the Icons of 2024

December 31st, 2024|Categories: Uncategorized|

In this special F-ng New Year Edition of I Need to F***ing Talk to You, Ken and Russell take a moment to remember and celebrate the lives of four figures from the world of show business who passed away in 2024. From comedy legends to music pioneers and media visionaries, they reflect on the impact these individuals had on their respective industries and on popular culture.

Coming Events

Read Nicer Book Club

Wednesday, January 20th, 2021 |  4:00pm – 5:30pm

Partnered with MeetUp group, ‘Calgary Business Success Network’ of over 1300 members, Work Nicer hosts a monthly book club meeting for an opportunity to discuss the chosen business book and explore it’s concepts, ideas, theories, and just to overall re-connect over conversation.

The next meeting will be held at Red Mile in Boardroom 9 &3/4. The book for discussion is “I Need To F%^$ing Talk To You!” by Work Nicer member Ken Cameron and Russell Stratton, which provides a practical and easy-to-use guide to prepare and successfully navigate a ‘difficult’ workplace conversations.

Even if you have not read the book or cannot complete by the next session, you can absolutely still join the conversation! It’s an opportunity to learn from others, share ideas and meet new people!

I Need To F***ing Talk To You

The Art Of Navigating Difficult Workplace Conversations.

Date TBC

Let’s get one thing straight off the top  “I need to f@#%ing talk to you”, is a bad way to start any conversation, let alone one with a co-worker.

So why is this commonly happening in the workplace? Usually, it’s because some issue has been festering for weeks or months. Too many managers approach a conversation in which they must challenge difficult behaviour with a lot of trepidation. The result is we aren’t direct, we beat around the bush, or we ignore and let unproductive behaviour go unchallenged until we can’t take it anymore and we just f@#%ing lose it.

“Sometimes conversations suck, but you need to have them, and this book lays out how. Russell and Ken have put together and road-tested simple, up-front, and thoughtful approaches to awkward and difficult workplace conversations.”
Andrew Phung, CBC’s Kim’s Convenience

Zoom Zoom! – from “Adaptive Technology” to “Creative Solution”

FacX online (formerly Facilitation Exchange)
Wednesday, October 21st 6:00 MST 
 

In the wake of the pandemic, our flip chart stands and facilitator tool kits are in the cupboard collecting dust. As facilitators, we don’t go out much any more.  Instead, many of us struggle to do our craft over an online platform like Zoom. In this session, we will think about the way we think about using on-line platforms. We will see what we can harness from each other that helps us move from “adaptive” mode to “creative” mode.  

Ken Cameron of Corporate Culture Shift is one facilitator practitioner among us actively exploring creative solutions. He will lead our session of idea sharing and discovery using some of the tools in his new, on-line tool kit.  He’ll be accompanied by Philip Cox of PlanNET who is still trying to adapt, but asking questions.   

Meet some of our amazing clients

Do you prefer to learn on your own?

Start right now by ordering your copy of our new book, I Need to F***ing Talk to You: The Art of Managing Difficult Conversations. It outlines all the techniques we use in our I Need to F***ing Talk To You workshops so you can tackle the ordinary immediately.

$25 | Available now on Amazon