Cassandra Rambo
Manager

TRADITIONAL BIO
Cassandra has 10 years of subject matter experience in organizational transformation with a focus on improving the employee experience. Through her experience working in both industry and consulting roles, Cassandra has developed a unique perspective on transformation strategies, behavioral change management, organizational effectiveness, and talent management strategies.
Prior to joining Thought Ensemble, Cassandra worked at Accenture where she helped clients conduct organizational readiness assessments, develop strategic communications, and implement tactical change plans. She also has extensive experience in the healthcare industry designing and implementing employee programs aimed at increasing engagement and retention.
Cassandra has a BA in History from the DePaul University and an MA in Middle East Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
In her spare time, Cassandra enjoys quilting, teaching yoga, and supporting her husband’s hockey team.

Achiever, Competition, Context, Strategic, Learner

Extraversion, Intuition, Feeling, Judging (ENFJ)
THOUGHTFUL BIO
Having had 19 addresses in 4 states and 3 countries means I’m no stranger to change. Most of my early moves were the result of the economy rather than personal choice (no teenager wants to move during the middle of high school); nevertheless, at a young age, I found a rhythm in moving and adapting. While not always easy, finding new friends and changing routines was certainly stimulating.
When it came time to pursue higher education, I was drawn to study the Middle East, which led to more travel, more cultural experiences, and the introduction of new, vastly different perspectives.
Today, I help people going through major change in their organizations. I partner with clients across industries to design, unify, and implement change strategies and initiatives. I approach all of my work with the simple adage of “walk a mile in their shoes” to draw attention to the human experience of staring down change.
Change may be the only constant in life, and yet the journey people go through is highly personal and often emotionally charged. In fact, implementing a change strategy often reveals challenges that were already there. I love being able to help clients iterate and evolve their efforts to improve their culture.
Some of my favorite challenges include:
- Bringing in design thinking techniques to shake up how we are approaching a problem (especially if it’s an old problem!)
- Partnering with teams to define their strategic organizational capabilities and functional competencies
- Collaborating on cultural transformations to create a new vision/mission and define values and behaviors
Cassandra’s Thoughts
The Magic of Mortals
Daily we wake up to new developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Across sectors and industries, automated solutions prove highly successful in surpassing the capacity of the human brain for certain tasks, improving...
Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home
Leaders have been trying to crack the code on talent development for years. Recent studies have shown, however, that strength-focused leadership [read: intentionally elevating the qualities that already come naturally to us] is the clear winner for developing talent...
Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One
Listen to any earnings call or executive presentation and you will likely hear the terms “top line” and “bottom line.” These are words used to describe a business’s performance. According to Investopedia, the words are defined as follows: Top line refers to the...
Your Personality Is Showing
There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization's SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting. Search terms related to "MBTI" — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel...
Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change
Hello. My name is Monique, and I’m a change manager who hates change. After years of receiving “consulting therapy” from various mentors, I am now able to say these words out loud and proudly. But for a long time, it felt more like an admission of guilt. I mean, who...
Creativity as a Cure
The topic of creative solutioning has been front and center these days as we talk more and more about organizational adaptability in the face of dynamic and uncertain times. For example, I recently read about a project that got me thinking about specific priorities...
Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?
Big news over here as we close out the year - we have been acquired by Pariveda, a 750-person consulting firm in 12 markets across North America! We are now “Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company” and I’ll be serving as the Managing Vice President continuing to lead...
Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!
Dallas, December 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pariveda, a leader specializing in solving complex technology and business problems, announces the acquisition of Thought Ensemble. With the addition of Thought Ensemble, Pariveda now provides holistic business strategy,...
Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act
It was about a year ago that we first started hearing about Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB19-085) and I knew it was going to be national news. We’d just gotten past the “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, and our lovely state was trying to break new ground...
Disruption Is the New Normal
By nature, disruptors are not popular. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win, then they copy you.” We have all heard some version of this quote, and we have all seen it play out in real life. We've seen it with building...
What Would You Say You Do Here?
“I deal with the … customers so the engineers don't have to! I have people skills!” That famous Office Space quote from Tom Smykowski cracks me up every single time. I know Toms. I’ve been Tom. Change the quote to say, “IT Team” instead of “engineers,” and there’s a...
A Technologist, Technician, and a Technology Specialist All Walk Into a Room, Who Do You Choose?
I’ve always found the question, “What do you do for a living?” challenging to answer. And as frustrating as that deadpan question is, I’ve had an equally difficult time answering the second most common question one gets in in their life, which is, “Where do you see...
What’s in a Name?
In today’s impression-obsessed, content-rich, never-ending-narrative-building climate, there is a surplus of articles that exacerbate the importance of developing a strong competitive BRAND for your organization. But what about your company’s name? What about the...
What Is Ted Lasso Teaching Us?
Featuring Dave Allston For me, it started about six months ago… “Do you watch Ted Lasso?” This question pops up on Zoom calls. References often show up deep within the heart of important meetings as a form of verbal punctuation and most certainly are a mainstay of...
Calling Everyone Back to the DEI Table
It is no secret that 2020 put a glaring spotlight on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our everyday lives. As our communities reckoned with difficult questions and conversations around racial equity and justice, those topics found their way into...
We All Have Something to Learn From the Business of Fantasy Football
Some can smell it in the air. Some know the exact number of days since the last game was played (212). Some know EXACTLY how many weekends we will have once it begins (23). It is football time in America! NFL football represents a lot of things in America, but to many...
Did We Just Fall in Love With Hybrid Meetings?
Last week, we held a two-day training session for our extended leadership team. We’d been planning it for months — the meeting room, the dinner activity, the team building exercises … the works! This was, as I’m sure you’re picking up on, more than just a meeting,...
From Deck Builder to Storyteller: Five Tips to Make an Impact With Your Next Presentation
Did you know that roughly 35 million PowerPoint presentations are given each day by an estimated 500 million users worldwide? And that’s just PowerPoint — I haven’t even factored in other mediums like Prezi, Haiku Deck, or Pitcherific (look for our review of all the...
“The Great Resignation” Has a Really Good Publicist
Mass resignations are a big deal right now. Yes. Is it surprising? Absolutely not. People leaving for greener pastures is not a new concept. How many of you — given a choice between two situations — would choose the one that LEAST benefited you? If a better option...
The Human Quotient: Heuristics and Bias in Analytics
As individuals, we all have a unique set of heuristics and biases that show up in our daily lives, whether we notice them or not. This means that for a lot of the decisions we make, whether personal or professional, there is an underlying, subconscious process that...
Why Keeping It Real Is a Winning Strategy
If I had to sum up my pandemic year, I might say it was the year I got to spend each day of an entire summer with my daughter. It was also the year that I significantly altered my career path by taking the brilliant advice of my coach: to lead with my values (keep it...