Sara Gallagher
Sara Gallagher is the President of The Persimmon Group, an award-winning management consulting firm. Traveling the globe, Sara engages audiences with her unique speaking style, blending evidence-based management insights with humorous storytelling. Sara draws from her own experiences in the fields of project management and organizational effectiveness to test what we think we know about leadership. As a consultant,...
read the restSara Gallagher is the President of The Persimmon Group, an award-winning management consulting firm. Traveling the globe, Sara engages audiences with her unique speaking style, blending evidence-based management insights with humorous storytelling. Sara draws from her own experiences in the fields of project management and organizational effectiveness to test what we think we know about leadership.
As a consultant, trainer and speaker, Sara specializes in helping organizations get better at executing their big ideas. Sara has helped organizations and teams of all sizes _ from Fortune 500 corporations to small businesses _ to deliver results. In her dynamic programs Sara explores the art and science of effective teams—including how to “unstick” common execution obstacles like stifled innovation, convoluted decision-making and chaotic communication.
Sara is a Project Management Professional (PMP®) and Professional Scrum Master (PSM I). Sara holds a BA from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and has also studied at the American University in Cairo.
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Speaker Programs
You’ve budgeted for equipment, personnel, and other expenses, but have you considered the cost of fear? For far too many project teams, fear is a hidden line item with real costs—stifled innovation, poor decision-making, and ...more
You’ve budgeted for equipment, personnel, and other expenses, but have you considered the cost of fear? For far too many project teams, fear is a hidden line item with real costs—stifled innovation, poor decision-making, and slow, siloed communication. In this impactful program, project team dynamics consultant Sara Gallagher explains how fear (and its damaging cousin, silence) compromises team performance and agility. She shares how building a culture of psychological safety can overcome the hidden costs of fear and build a resilient team that can adapt quickly to the speed of change.
In this session, you’ll learn how to:
• Recognize the signs of fear-based silence on project teams
• Build a culture of psychological safety that encourages open communication, collaboration, and innovation
• Empower team members to take smart risks and make faster, better decisions ...less
“On time, on scope, on budget.” This is the relentless mantra of the project manager—but is our hyper-focus on tactical success hurting our bottom line? When project managers are more concerned about meeting a deadline ...more
“On time, on scope, on budget.” This is the relentless mantra of the project manager—but is our hyper-focus on tactical success hurting our bottom line? When project managers are more concerned about meeting a deadline than adding value, the answer is yes. As projects grow increasingly complex, organizations are recognizing that it takes more than a project manager to drive organizational success—it takes a project leader. Project leaders understand the big-picture dynamics influencing the project agenda, and aren’t afraid to recommend that projects be killed when they fall out of alignment with organizational strategy. And they’re poised to make their appearance in C-suites across the continent. ...less
The ink isn’t even dry on your Project Charter—but what if the seeds of project destruction have already been sown? The odds are not in our favor. PMI® reports that nearly 15% of projects are ...more
The ink isn’t even dry on your Project Charter—but what if the seeds of project destruction have already been sown? The odds are not in our favor. PMI® reports that nearly 15% of projects are deemed failures, while nearly a third don’t achieve their original business objectives.* Under the sheer weight of project initiation and planning activities, it’s all too easy to get distracted from the key objectives that can help you win the battle before it begins. After years of helping companies “unstick” troubled projects, Sara Gallagher knows that the first 21 days are critical. Learn how you can leverage them to beat the odds!
In this session, you will learn:
Why the first 21 days are critical to a project’s long-term resilience
The most common mistakes that project managers make in the first 21 days and, more importantly, how to correct for them
The critical objectives that must be achieved early related to project framing, planning, and infrastructure—and how to achieve them ...less
Imagine a world in which every team member feels secure asking for help, sharing ideas, or even directly challenging the group, without fear of punishment or ostracization. This is psychological safety—and research shows it is ...more
Imagine a world in which every team member feels secure asking for help, sharing ideas, or even directly challenging the group, without fear of punishment or ostracization. This is psychological safety—and research shows it is the key to building organizations that survive and thrive in disruption.
Yet a McKinsey Global Survey conducted during the pandemic confirms that only a handful of business leaders are demonstrating the positive behaviors that can instill this climate. In the face of what’s being called the “Great Resignation,” psychologically unsafe leadership can be disastrous for businesses that rely on long-term employee relationships for resilience, continuity, and growth.
In this session, we’ll tackle this issue head-on, exploring what it takes to build, protect, and participate in psychologically safe teams. You’ll learn specific behaviors that you can practice right away to safeguard your team’s most important resource—trust. ...less
Humanity is defined by its creative achievements—but when it comes to decision-making, we’re suckers for a bad idea. A growing body of research suggests that all of us are influenced by our brain in ways ...more
Humanity is defined by its creative achievements—but when it comes to decision-making, we’re suckers for a bad idea. A growing body of research suggests that all of us are influenced by our brain in ways we’re only just beginning to understand. Scientists refer to these unseen forces as “cognitive biases.” Like invisible germs carrying the flu, these biases spread throughout our teams and organizations, impacting our ability to think rationally, critically, and creatively. This presentation explores these predispositions and their unseen impacts on the way we do business, while identifying actionable ways to work with—rather than against—our brain’s natural impulses.
At the conclusion of this program, participants should be able to:
Discover why we so readily embrace terrible ideas, and the impact these biases have on our ability to effectively lead.
Identify the unseen ways your decision-making behavior is influenced by your brain
Implement actionable practices to help you and your team think rationally, critically, and creatively ...less
Trust is essential to effective communication across your team and your stakeholders—but how can you communicate trust when no one can see your face? This engaging session will examine how the four cores of trust ...more
Trust is essential to effective communication across your team and your stakeholders—but how can you communicate trust when no one can see your face? This engaging session will examine how the four cores of trust are impacted in a digital, global communication environment. Participants will be given the opportunity to immediately apply what they’ve learned to improve communication across their teams.
At the conclusion of this program, participants should be able to:
Analyze how the four cores of trust are impacted when digital or virtual communication is employed.
Apply specific tools and techniques to improve communication and convey trust even in digital and virtual settings. ...less
As leaders, we are not immune to conflict. In fact, conflict resolution is a popular requested topic for training and coaching, and most organizations make resources available to help us resolve it efficiently. But there ...more
As leaders, we are not immune to conflict. In fact, conflict resolution is a popular requested topic for training and coaching, and most organizations make resources available to help us resolve it efficiently. But there is another side to conflict, beyond working out individual disagreements (i.e., conflict de-escalation). When fear, resentment, frustration, and lack of accountability simmers, the impact on our teams, as well as individuals, can be devastating. Grace Under Fire deals with this issue directly. Using personal stories along with business case research, Sara weaves a story of how we can bring our humanity to work in a constructive way. When emotions run high, there are opportunities that can actually strengthen relationships and propel our teams (and ourselves) to new levels of performance. ...less
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