We’re excited to share that the “we” at Helping Improve is no longer just Jake & Paul. Allison Pollard has joined us as the third member of the Helping Improve team.
“The Official Bio”
Allison Pollard is a coach, consultant, and trainer who brings the power of relationship systems intelligence to go beyond tasks, roles, and frameworks to create energy for change. She engages with people and teams in a down-to-earth way to build trust and listen for signals to help them learn more and improve. Allison focuses on creating alignment and connection for people to solve business problems together. Her experience includes working with teams and leaders in energy, retail, financial, real estate, and transportation industries to help improve their project/product delivery and culture.
Allison currently volunteers as program director for Women in Agile’s mentorship program. Her agile community focus is championing new voices and amplifying women as mentors and sponsors for the next generation of leaders. Allison earned her bachelor’s degrees in computer science, mathematics, and English from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), a foodie, and a proud glasses wearer. Allison is a prolific speaker at professional groups and international conferences, including Scrum Gatherings and the Agile Alliance Agile20xx conferences. Allison is a co-owner of Helping Improve LLC.
Why Are We Excited?
Jake: “I find it hard to even explain how great it is to have Allison on the team. You can certainly see from her bio that she has a ton of experience, expertise, and passion for helping people, teams, and organizations reach new heights and break through challenges. She brings a wealth of practical knowledge about agile, scrum, and kanban. However, none of that captures why she is amazing. She has a passion for people, finding new perspectives, and truly caring about creating something better. She takes this passion and makes working together challenging, interesting, and fun. She will always surprise you in different ways that cause you to rethink what you were doing or how you were doing. And she does all of this in a way that creates trust and comfort – which is challenging to do well – yet she makes it look easy.”
Paul: “I’m excited to work more closely and frequently with Allison. Over the past few years, she’s helped me level up my coaching and consultant skills. Our experiences are similar enough that I can relate to hers and different enough that she helps me notice things I would otherwise miss. When I start making things overly complex, she helps me get grounded and address things in the pragmatic, approachable way we strive for at Helping Improve. I know that together, she, Jake, and I will take Helping Improve to the next level. The conversations we’ve already had about work we want to do together have me eager to start.”
Allison: “I’ve known Jake and Paul for nearly a decade, and as I reflect on that time, their journeys have enriched mine [and vice versa]. I get goosebumps as I reflect on our past collaborations. The three of us share a drive to keep learning and getting better so we can help others. My coaching approach is to notice what’s present in our current reality, explore options, and find a resonant choice to move forward. Like bumper cars at an amusement park, there’s jostling and excitement and a little trepidation in the experience. My hope is to help people surpass their own expectations.”
What Does This Mean for Helping Improve?
We like to think that Helping Improve will be “the same, only better.” We’ll still be offering the same core Agile/Lean training classes and coaching services that we have been. Those will be enhanced with the additional experiences and tools that Allison brings. She’ll also be contributing to our growing collection of articles on the Helping Improve website and to our Learning Labs (the ongoing free, interactive training sessions we offer to our past customers). In the near term, we’re planning to offer a revised version of the Change Leadership and Management training we debuted in 2022. And you can expect to see a new leadership offering in 2023. What exactly will that look like? We’re excited to find out.
