Our Partnership Team

13 FACTORS For Business Growth was founded by Kim MacDonald as a company focused on mental health, workplace culture and psychological health and safety at work.  

Kim and Krista, who founded Root & Branch, met early on in their company launches and joined forces to help companies take on some of workplace's biggest challenges.  Their partnership is built on Industry 5.0 human-centred design thinking.

Kim is 13 FACTORS workplace training, leader coach and culture development lead. Kim uniquely blends a business growth strategy background with deep knowledge and understanding of the interplay among the factors and influencers impacting the daily lived experience, climate, behaviour and cultural norms within organizations.  She is steeped in the science of the people side of change, adult learning and psychological health and safety. She brings a motivating, experiential learning approach to the virtual and in person classroom and places great importance on creating a safe, supportive and collaborative learning environment. 

Kim is a 2x entrepreneur, with 25 years of leadership experience inside private sector companies, government agencies and not for profits.  

Kim has studied the science of motivating behaviour change for the last 15 years, beginning with her consulting work in addictions and health promotion marketing.  Kim is a lifelong and self-directed learner.  She has three Alma Maters plus certificates from varied institutions providing a diverse and deep educational background. Along with psychological health and safety training, Kim is certified in Mental Health First Aid, as well as training in The Working Mind, Workplace Mental Health Crisis Response, Psychological Health & Safety Champion Advisor, Trauma-Informed Leadership and Motivating Change.  Kim serves on the Board of Trustees of the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia.

Krista is 13 FACTORS strategic partner and subject matter expert in workplace conflict investigation, evidence and root cause analysis.  Some might call her a reformed lawyer.  We call her your ally in organizational people-centred, holistic and healthy workplace change.  She believes not in serendipity but that 'chance favours the prepared mind".  She believes organizations can best introduce positive change when presented with solid information gathered through a valid and reliable process, executed with empathy.  

Krista provides advice to organizational leaders on preventing, navigating and recovering from workplace challenges and crisis.  Her work as a conflict mediator and advisor focuses on early interventions to reduce the harm and cost of internal conflicts. Krista, with Kim, also leads our workplace conflict prevention workshops. 

Krista's approach acknowledges individual lived experience in the workplace and the restoration of a future-focused relationship.  She works on practical empowerment of each individual to meet their needs in the workplace relationship and encouragement of all participants to share responsibility for creating a workplace environment that allows everyone to flourish and experience inclusion and belonging.

Krista is a certified workplace investigator.  She practiced corporate labour and employment law for ten years before moving into transformative mediation and restorative justice.  She launched Root and Branch-Workplace Conflict Resolutions in 2020 and we are excited to have her as a partner on our team.

Emma is a researcher for 13 FACTORS, helping our team deepen and connect recent organizational behavioural science, workplace culture, health and safety.  She is a recent graduate of Mount Saint Vincent University with a bachelor of arts in history focusing on women's political participation, inclusion and diversity. Emma has worked in a variety of industries as a precarious worker and brings that experience to her understanding and interest in equity and social justice within the workplace.

In university Emma worked on a variety of committees to bring equitable services to students. She was a founding organizer of the 'dissolve msvusu' campaign which sought to reset the culture that had become toxic and harmful and build a new union from scratch. From these experiences she has a deep knowledge of how toxicity can grow within organizational structures leading to a lack of psychological safety. 

Emma uses an antiracist, intersectional feminist and trauma informed lens in her work. In particular she seeks to decouple neoliberal ideology from discussions of personal responsibility among marginalized workers and feminism in the workplace. She plans to study employment law in the future. 

We are looking for entrepreneurial-minded people who want to bring their talents to workplace change and help clients create exceptional workplaces.  If you are interested, we would love to talk to you!

13 FACTORS also works in partnership with like-minded trainers, consultants and company partners. Specialties include anthropology, behavioural, industrial, social and occupational psychology, cognitive science, human resources, workplace mental health, occupational therapy, diversity, equity and anti-oppression specialties, stress management, law, mediation, project management and analytics, policy and process improvement, and occupational health and safety.  Are any of these areas your specialties? We would love to meet with you too.