Nate Eklund, president and founder, Eklund Consulting; J. Forrest, owner, principal consultant, Employee Strategies
Nate Eklund and J. Forrest aim to help leaders and organizations tame workplace chaos with their Goat Rodeo series conversations with leaders about their challenges and breakthroughs.
The conversations will feature interviews with leaders from various sectors and audience questions.
The Goat Rodeo stems from two years of leadership team development Forrest and Eklund did with Surly Brewing Co. beginning in 2015 as Surly expanded from 20 to nearly 400 employees after opening its Minneapolis brewery.
The 21 "goat ropers" who took part have become Surly's management team, leading based on values defined with Eklund and Forrest. One result is employee turnover dropped to 31 percent, below the 73 percent industry average.
The Goat Rodeo embraces a "fun, silly and rigorous" approach and uses employee interviews to identify company values. Eklund and Forrest, however, also stick to core principles about managing people, making decisions, and communicating.
"We want companies and organizations to be successful and profitable but we want to do that via militant adherence to employee engagement and satisfaction," Eklund said.
Eklund, a former high school English and humanities teacher who wrote a book on educator burnout, has worked with more than 300 schools nationally since launching Eklund Consulting in 2010.
Forrest founded Employee Strategies in 2006, focusing on creating great workplaces.
