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 brings her 2x entrepreneurial experience and 25 years of leadership experience inside private sector companies, government agencies and not for profits to their work.  

Kim is a 13 FACTORS workplace trainer, workplace leader coach and culture development advisor.  Kim uniquely blends a business growth strategy background with deep evidence-based research, knowledge and understanding of the interplay among the factors and influencers impacting manager and employee daily experience, workplace 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 has studied the science of motivating behavioural change for the last 15 years, beginning with her consulting work in addictions and health promotion marketing.  

She brings to her work an undergraduate degree in communications and an MBA, plus certificates and certifications from varied institutions.  Kim is a dedicated lifelong learner.  She believes in the power of self-directed learning and evidence-based research as the best path to stay innovative and current. 

Kim is a Certified Psychological Health & Safety Advisor through the Canadian Mental Health Association, and certified in Mental Health First Aid.  Her training in mental health and psychological safety includes the Mental Health Commission of Canada's The Working Mind Manager program, Workplace Mental Health Crisis Response, Psychological Health & Safety Champion Advisor, Trauma-Informed Leadership and Motivating Health-Related Behaviour Change.  

Kim is a champion of workplace change with a specific focus on helping leaders build workplaces of inclusion, psychological safety, belonging and shared contribution.  She is a community leader in #changingthewaypeoplethink about #mentalhealth and #mentalillness and 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.  

Krista is a practicing lawyer with a specific focus on bullying, harassment and discrimination.  She is currently serving as a senior lawyer in the Policy and Research arm supporting the Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission and Inquiry into the tragic deaths in Nova Scotia in April 2020.  

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 and the law.  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 initiatives to bring equitable services to students. She was a founding organizer of the 'dissolve msvusu' campaign which sought to reset a negative group culture and build a new union from scratch. From these experiences she has frontline knowledge of how harmful behaviour can grow within otherwise good organizations, diminish psychological safety and discourage speaking out. 

Emma brings strength in policy review and analysis from an anti-oppression informed lens.  In particular she brings a research based ability to support the positive changes you want to make to existing policies and practices that may be impacting your goals to improve inclusion, diversity and retention. 

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 works in partnership with like-minded trainers, consultants and company partners. Specialties include anthropology, behavioural, industrial, social and occupational psychology, cognitive science, data storytelling, workplace mental health, stress management, law, mediation, policy and process improvement, and occupational health and safety. Are any of these areas your specialties? We would love to meet with you too. 

Coming soon!