BARRETT HORNE

Testimonials

"Stepping in to facilitate a challenging conversation is never easy, but doing so with little notice in the chaos of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic was definitely a tall order. Barrett Horne of Onfoot Consulting managed to do just that. With his calm, thoughtful approach, Barrett facilitated several fruitful, well-organized, on-time strategic sessions using technology that was new to most participating tourism stakeholders who were reeling from the sudden and devastating impacts of global travel and gathering restrictions on their industry. Barrett helped us find a path forward that contributed to the development of Yukon’s 2020-2023 Tourism Relief and Recovery Plan."

~ A senior public servant (Whitehorse, YT)

"I had the pleasure of working with Barrett on an intensive 10 month project that involved a group of 18 co-creators. He is unfailingly positive and productive. I have to admit being hesitant that an older white man was going to co-lead a participatory action research project with feminists from around the world. Wonderfully, Barrett is an excellent creator and facilitator of meaningful (in this case, virtual) spaces- everyone really appreciated his approach, and him. His approach facilitated true collaboration and was central to the success of the project. I would recommend Barrett without hesitation and would be happy at any time to serve as a reference. "

~ Jacqueline Hart, PhD, Women’s Refugee Commission (New York, NY)

"Barrett is the wisest professional I know. On every level of working with others and their organizational struggles, he demonstrates mastery sought after by many. In his ability to create the conditions in which hearts and minds can come together to solve the thorniest organizational and team situations, he has few peers. With his keen sense of human dynamics coupled to a deep understanding of the many undergirding literatures on theory as well as the practices of other masters and his own, Barrett long ago joined this pantheon of “wise counselors” at large. Consequently, he is called upon by leaders at all levels to bring coherence to the toughest challenges we human beings get ourselves into. I’ve seen his work personally and can attest. My number one recommendation for my favorite and most effective professional in his field of developing people and their collective actions into effective results is Barrett Horne."

~ Bob Polk, Ph.D., Retired Military Officer (USA) & National Level Senior Project Director (Washington D.C)

"I worked with Barrett on a conference to develop government innovation in Yukon. Barrett is a dynamo. He never seems to tire of thinking of new and intelligent ways to tackle wicked issues, and has a particular knack of bringing together disparate but complementary thinkers and doers to unlock new pathways forward. It was both a challenge and a pleasure to be part of a team that Barrett had put together to deliver a truly unique event, and to inspire change within a vital but complex organisation."

~Dr. Robin Pharoah, Founder, Encounter Consulting (London, UK)

"Barrett's deep empathy, generous humanity, and immense curiosity manifest in every interaction such that clients and colleagues alike are transformed by his presence and process. Bringing a sense that all things are possible - plus the wit and know-how to help clients achieve their goals - endows Barrett with a powerful and rare combination of strengths. Smart clients tap into those facets of him immediately. Barrett draws on a wealth of diverse experiences from cultures around the world, from various industries, from organizations hither and yon, and from leaders of every stripe. His clients and colleagues benefit from these travels as if they were with him every step of the way, but particularly for the moments of deep insight and learning. His wisdom, in that sense, is time-honored, its application is generous and inclusive, and to participate in it is to dip a toe into a pool of contagious joy."

~Bennett Bratt, CEO and Founder of The Team Effectiveness Project and author of The Team Discovered. (Seattle, WA)

"At the time I asked Barrett for help, I led a team of young professionals to complete several strategic, complex, and publicly visible projects for a critical public utility. Even though we, as a team, had delivered some projects, we were not a great team. It was obvious that some elements of good teams were missing, because it did not seem that anybody in the team was satisfied. Work efficiency, quality of work, collaboration and well-being of the team members suffered. It felt as if we, as a team, were in a dark and long tunnel. It was painful and frustrating.

"Barrett proposed and, with Shannon Patterson, designed and facilitated a structured team effectiveness exercise that helped my team grasp the root causes of our problems, figure out a comprehensive solution, design action plan to implement the solution, and follow up on the success of the action plan. The key to the success of the exercise was that all the team members participated equally, drew on their own experiences and wisdom, and owned the proposed solution. The outcome was beyond my expectations.

"After the successful team effectiveness work, Barrett helped my team define norms of team behavior. Again, all the team members participated equally in defining the norms and owned them. The agreed upon set of norms read as a simple constitution that could be applied to a broad range of problems. Our “constitution” was like a small miracle. For example, difficult conversations suddenly became less strenuous.

"In addition to successfully helping the team get an insight into team elements and finding workable solutions to problems, Barrett led us to bridge cultural and generational differences. He also supported the team members to have their voices heard.

"I am very grateful for his willingness to go above and beyond expectations in sharing his broad knowledge and rich experience about teams, organizations and human nature."

~Goran Sreckovic, Ph.D., P.Eng. (Whitehorse, YT)

"We engaged Barrett Horne – Onfoot Consulting -- to develop, guide and facilitate ‘discovery’ sessions with our advisory Board. The main objective of the sessions was to map out a strategic foundation that would identify the critical questions, pressing challenges, promising opportunities with the flexibility to identify anything else that might impact the emerging ‘new normal’ for the tourism sector in Yukon. Barrett was tasked with designing, facilitating, and reporting on the sessions which involved pre-session interviews with our Board members and the Government of Yukon Department of Tourism and Culture. Our board is comprised of highly engaged individuals from across Yukon’s communities and economic sectors - we knew it would be a challenge, in the time we had, to coalesce consensus on concrete strategic insights and direction. Barrett designed sessions that were focused and relevant that defined and identified critical considerations. Key to the success of the sessions was Barrett’s ability to adapt the session ‘on the fly’ as important new issues arose that deserved discussion. Reporting was concise and timely delivered. We look forward to working with Barrett again in the development and facilitation of strategic planning and consulting projects.”

~Denny Kobayashi,Independent Chair,Yukon Tourism Advisory Board (June 2020, Whitehorse, YT)

"I’ve had the privilege of working with Barrett a number of times - both one on one and as a strategic facilitator with my teams. Barrett’s eclectic and extensive experience, matched with his relentless creativity and innovation, are tremendous assets to individuals, teams and organizations hoping to achieve brilliance in whatever task or process they are committed to.”

~Ben Y, Yukon Government. (Whitehorse, YT)

Barrett has been my mentor and friend for more than 20 years now. He introduced me to the concepts and practices of organizational development, change management and large group interventions. Over the years, Barrett successfully coached me in various organizational development and strategic planning processes that I, as Director of Training, facilitated for nonprofit employees, executives and Board members in Eurasia/Eastern Europe. Each process was custom tailored to the needs of stakeholders and to the sensitive contexts in which my organization functions. Collaboration with Barrett helped my organizations increased its capacity to change and achieve higher effectiveness.

~Olena Welch, Director of Training, IFES Eurasia (Kiev, Ukraine)

“Barrett demonstrated a deep ability to understand people, accept them where they are at and help them develop and grow personally. He had a gift to insightfully analyze the problems in relations between people (especially in international teams) and help to sort them out. Observing Barrett in such processes (which were sometimes really tough) helped me grow personally as well. It was thrilling to participate in the growth of our NGO - from its birth until a national director grew up enough to take it over. And even now CCX-Ukraine is probably the strongest student organization throughout the Eurasia region.”

~Misha Gusev, Customer Success Manager. (L’viv, Ukraine)

“Barrett has worked on a number of assignments with Yukon Energy assisting a number of our teams with team building and communication. His thoughtful approach and application of leading tools such as Team Elements® have helped us optimize team performance across the organization.”

~Andrew Hall, President & CEO, Yukon Energy Corporation (Whitehorse, YT)

“I worked under the supervision of Barrett Horne for about 5 years. He was the founder of our organization in Ukraine. I was among the first staff workers of the organization.

"Barrett uncovered a new concept of what it means to be a leader – servant leader. My understanding of leadership was grounded on the experience we had during the Soviet time – an authoritarian boss: leading from the top, taking complete control and ruling with an iron fist; a person was a project to achieve a position and a vassal without the voice.

"Barrett was an example of a leader who had a vision for the organization and knew the steps how to reach it, helping staff to catch this vision and be inspired by it. He took us from where we were in our limited vision and led us to a bigger picture. Moreover, he really developed us as staff: he saw our strengths and weaknesses, saw our potential and helped develop it. He was serving both the organization and people in it.

“Barrett also encouraged his staff to achieve beyond their comfort zones. He was motivating his staff to embrace change that would help them to grow and would help shape the future success of the organization. He created a culture where staff were able to participate in the decision-making process. Staff had the opportunity to have their voices heard and be part of solving problems within the organization.

"Barrett helped to establish an organizational structure that was very new to any organization in Ukraine. This organizational structure operates to this day, serves the organization, and provides an opportunity for the staff to achieve their full potential."

~Irena Huseva, Training and Development Coordinator, CCX Ukraine, (L’viv, Ukraine)