The Mesh Strategist
Jen Kelchner
Jen Kelchner
Jen Kelchner is a disruptor and deconstructor who is passionate about building a better world. With a superpower of systems thinking, Jen is able to see the unseen and bring structure to chaos. She asks the right questions and challenges assumptions, reducing resistance to change and empowering people along the way.
As a curious and forward-thinking leader, Jen offers transformative experiences and is a dialogue partner who activates and initiates new ways forward. She uses both fact and intuition to transmute one thing into something entirely new, transforming creative energy into practical expression. Jen is one of the future-shaping leaders in her field, and her work has the power to truly make a difference.
Hello! I'm Jen
Why people choose Jen as a partner:
We input ~20 feedback quotes on our work into ChatGPT and asked for those to be summarized and put into bullet points.
Here are the results of why people choose to partner & collaborate with us.
- Quickly identifies the most effective approach to problems
- Ability to explain complex concepts in a clear and actionable way
- Unique ability to cut through complexity and identify areas for improvement
- Ability to have wide-ranging conversations that lead to solid outputs
- Expertise in applying principles of open source projects and movements to drive innovation
- Inspiring and transformative approach to organizational development
- Highly recommended for organizations looking to improve their culture and leadership practices
- Deep understanding of organizational culture and leadership development
- A pleasure to work with
- Highly recommended for organizations looking for a partner to help them think through complex challenges and drive positive change
"They have artful interpersonal skills and easily engage with all stakeholders to draw out answers."
If you're seeking someone who's working on the cutting edge of organizational culture and leadership development research, then you'll want Jen Kelchner to speak to your team. Jen helps audiences understand clearly how principles derived from open source projects and movements translate directly into actionable processes and practices your organization can tap to become more innovative.
They engage with people they have never met before and have great interpersonal skills. They can work with a difficult or guarded audience to tease things out of them and get a good outcome. This is a real art - how they engage people and get concepts across.
Selected Experiences
PMO & Engagement Leadership for matrixed projects:
- M&A Due Diligence in multi-campus hospital acquisition
- TSA Reviews
- Post-Merger Integration
- Operational Efficiency
- New hospital expansion strategy
- Joint Commission compliance projects
- Joint Commission data integrity projects
- Project Management
Project Execution & Experience:
- Acquisition Confidential Information Memorandums
- Documentation, Reporting & Presentations
- Workflow Engineering
- Trapped & Untapped Value Analysis & Release Engineering
Content Creation & Facilitation:
- Communications & Business Writing
- Multi-cultural, cross-functional learning lab
- Future-Ready Government Conference for LATAM
- Workplace of the Future Masterclass for European Commission
- Seamless Government: Anticipating Citizens Needs Workshop Series
- Future-Ready Government Masterclass for EMEA
- & many more trainings developed and facilitated
Leadership & Leadership Development:
- Executive Coaching
- PMO & Engagement Leadership
- Concept Exploration
- Dialogue Partner
- Performance Improvement
- Forbes Coaches Council founding member
Various tools and diagnostics have been created which are available behind the scenes to clients or are published in the book Mesh.
Open behaviors and Open Index diagnostic
Contribution Tendencies
RBBL – Removing bias, barriers & limitations
PENCIL – understanding the cycles of change
Personal Agency
TUV – Trapped & Untapped Value
Thrivability during chaos – worksheet
Signal Strategy – outreach to customers based on decision making dimensions
Authored:
Mesh: A human-centric organisational design for a decentralised world. Hamilton & Kelchner. Interchange Publications., 2022 | Online Book Retailers in US, Canada, UK, Europe, & Australia
The Open Organization Leaders Manual, 2nd Edition, Red Hat Inc., 2018 | Print Copy or PDF
The Open Organization Workbook, Red Hat Inc., 2017 | Print Copy or PDF
The Open Organization Maturity Model, The Open Organization, 2017 | Github
The Open Organization Definition, Red Hat Inc., 2017 | Print Copy
In The Open [Column], opensource.com, 2016- | View
Featured in:
HuffPost, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CMO.com, Enterprisers Project, Opensource.com, Linux Today, LXer, Red Hat News, Red Hat Open Innovation Lab blog, The Open Organization, Linux.com, All Things Open, Red Hat Summit, Open Health News, GovLab, GovLoop, FedScoop, Google Cloud, CTO Universe, ICA-IT.org, Digital Transformation People, Forbes, Forbes Coaches Councils & Forbes Council Education Channe, International Association of Women, Lausanne Global Workplace Forum
Key citations:
Government Leaders Guide to Culture Change (Latin America); Red Hat, 2022
The Heart of Transformation: Build the Human Capabilities that Change Organizations for Good, Michael Leckie, Kogan Page, 2021
Government Leaders Guide to Culture Change (Europe); Red Hat, 2020
Government Leaders Guide to Culture Change (North America); Red Hat, 2019
The Open Organization Leaders Manual, 2nd Edition, Red Hat Inc., 2018
Social transformation is a prerequisite for achieving digital transformation; Obaidly Al-Obaidly, Al-Alayam Publishing, February 2018
Value Creation through Executive Development; Solomon Akrofi, Routledge, 2018
Emerging Tenants of Change Management: The Six Secrets of Actual Organizational Change; Michael Leckie, 2018
The Open Organization Workbook, Red Hat Inc., 2017
Gender Equality at Work, Dr. Nitasha Ramparsad, 2019
Red Hat Summit, Open Culture, Boston, 2022
Red Hat, Open Leadership Community of Practice, 2022
Microsoft, CELA Europe, Open Collaboration, 2021
Red Hat, Future-Ready Government, LATAM Conference, Open Culture, 2021
Wyoming Governor’s Council Developmental Disabilities Conference, 2021
LearnTech UK, Open Futures Panel, 2020
GlobeGuides HR Summit, Wrangling the chaos of a paradigm shift, 2020
EdNC, Policing Free Speech Panel, Open Culture, 2020
53rd ICA-IT Conference, Seamless Government, Romania, 2019
Red Hat Government Symposium, Open Culture, Washington D.C., 2019
Lausanne Global Workplace Forum, Open Collaboration, Manila, 2019
OpenFirst DC, Open Culture, Washington D.C., 2019
Red Hat, Community-Powered Innovation Events, Open Organizations, 2019
Red Hat Summit, Open Culture, San Francisco, 2018
All Things Open, Open Culture, Raleigh, 2017
Redeemer University, Open Collaboration, Ontario, 2019, 2020
Fresno Pacific University, Open Collaboration, 2019
Duke University, Open Organizations, 2018
International Association of Women, Building Futures, 2017
Berry College, Leadership Event, 2017
Tennessee DECA, 2015, 2016
Georgia Agape, Executive Retreat, 2014, 2015
The Open Organization Ambassador (2017-2022)
The Open Org TV – Producer, Editor & Project Maintainer
The Open Organization Leaders Manual
The Open Organization Workbook
The Open Organization Maturity Model
The Open Organization Definition & Characteristics
Open Organization Ambassador & Community Architecture (January 2017 – March 2022)
Forbes Coaches Council, Member (August 2015 – October 2017)
Way of Hope Women’s Shelter, Chair (2012)
People’s Choice Award, OpenSource.com (2018)
Emerging Contributor Award, Opensource.com (2017)
Forbes Councils, Invited as Founding Member (2015)
Outstanding Performance Awards, Deloitte, (2006, 2007, 2008)
Jen Kelchner is an engaging thought leader, ardent about revealing hidden work, removing limitations, human behaviors and pioneering the future. She has over 25 years of experience advising teams and senior leadership on performance improvement, architecting future pathways, releasing trapped and untapped value, and developing environments for high performing teams.
During her career at Deloitte and beyond, she has focused on workflow architecture, PMO leadership, M&A integration projects, operational cost opportunity, implementation strategies, concept models, executive coaching and team transformation.
She has created assessments and practices on open behaviors, removing limitations and on contribution tendencies which includes defining the human-centric components of Mesh; and, co-created the Open characteristics, Open Organization books and resources as well as assisting in architecting the global knowledge community, The Open Organization.