In early 2013 I was attending a conference in the United States, and on the man-made beach at the hotel resort was introduced by one of my readers to her boss. It became evident fairly quickly that my interest in user adoption and collaboration strategy was commonly held between the three of us, and after getting back to New Zealand I was invited to present a one-day workshop based on my user adoption book for their clients. That happened in June of that year. The next year it was October (and the workshop was presented twice). The year after that was June again (and presented twice again). And while there was no workshop last year (due to my unavailability mid-year), I helped the firm with its positioning to do more in the user adoption and change management space across a wider geographical footprint. And when we met in person again during my September visit last year, we started talking about a more regular and formalised collaboration in 2017.

Net-net: With thanks to Roland and Effy, I’m joining Silverside as a Research Consultant for PACE, Silverside’s implementation methodology for change management. I will be working from New Zealand most of the time, with a couple of visits scheduled to work with my new colleagues (including the first in a couple of weeks to IBM Connect in San Francisco).

It’s pretty cool how business relationships that start small can flourish into something much larger when the people stuff is done right. In our highly connected world, I’m grateful for readers, friends, colleagues, and advisors across the globe, and I look forward to making a contribution in a changed way in 2017.