Lisa Jasper

Vice President

TRADITIONAL BIO

Lisa has over 20 years of consulting experience focused on the intersection of organizations and technology. Her specialties include leadership alignment, strategy, organizational design, process improvement, and technology planning. She has worked with mid-sized to large companies spanning many industries, with deep experience in insurance, retail, energy, and information services. Lisa co-founded Thought Ensemble in 2008 and has served as its CEO since 2018.

Prior to co-founding Thought Ensemble, Lisa was the Managing Vice President of Pariveda Solutions’ Denver office, as well as a national developer and leader of their IT Strategy practice. Her consulting career includes technology and strategy roles with Accenture (Andersen Consulting), The Boston Consulting Group, and Tactica Technology Group. She has an MBA from Duke University and a Computer Science degree from Trinity University. Lisa is an active member of EO (The Entrepreneurs’ Organization), serves on the board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters Colorado, serves on the CEOs for Women on Boards committee of the Women’s Leadership Foundation, and also serves on the Board of Visitors for Trinity University.

Along with work, Lisa enjoys playing golf, practicing piano, traveling, and spending time with her husband and two sons.

Futuristic, Relator, Focus, Discipline, Analytical

Introversion, Intuition, Thinking, Judging (INTJ)

THOUGHTFUL BIO

My parents think it all started when I was two and spent hours on end reorganizing my Fisher Price people. Maybe so, but it officially came together about twenty years ago when I found myself helping with an organizational strategy project for a large IT organization that needed to transform amidst major industry change. I finally knew what I was going to do when I grew up. I had enjoyed my career up to that point in systems development, but this strategic work was the perfect combination of business and technology, systems thinking, and big ideas.

Since then, I’ve served in leadership positions at a variety of consultancies, including systems integrators and strategic consultancies, but I’ve focused almost entirely on the intersection between organizations and technology. I’ve gotten to know hundreds of CIOs, CTOs, and CEOs and worked closely with dozens of them through organization, process, and technology transformations. My early IT strategy experience was focused on the traditional CIO and IT organization, but since starting Thought Ensemble, I’ve also worked extensively with CTOs in companies where technology is the product or service sold to the end customer. I’ve now helped many technology organizations make the transformation into a more strategic organization focused on delivering technology solutions to external stakeholders.

What I appreciate most about Thought Ensemble is our inclusive approach to problem-solving.  I love the way we work together and with executive leaders as a little think tank that generates big ideas and solves big problems for their organizations.

 Some of my favorite things include:

  • Helping leadership teams understand each other to work together better
  • Surfacing questions that reveal big insights
  • Watching and helping technology transform businesses and industries to improve people’s lives
  • Designing solutions that consider organizational systems, including all the interdependencies between strategy, processes, people, culture, and technology
  • Making strategy actionable with unique approaches to ensure that the great ideas don’t end up on the shelf
  • Never forgetting a favorite quote: “Culture eats strategy for lunch every day”

If you know me, you know my eyes light up when I get going on how people and organizations can transform. You know how deep-seated my belief is that teams working together can solve really hard problems and make a big difference. I’m grateful for the chance to do what I love, with colleagues and clients who challenge my thinking every day.

Lisa’s Thoughts

Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

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...

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Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

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...

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Did We Just Fall in Love With Hybrid Meetings?

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,...

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Moving Forward From the Home Office

Moving Forward From the Home Office

It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve gone into an office five days a week. In that time, I’ve progressed in my consulting career from a Senior Manager, to a Principal, to a VP, to a Managing Partner, to a CEO. I barely remember what it’s like to “go to work” and to...

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The Leadership Dog Years

The Leadership Dog Years

As a business leader, I feel like I’ve been living in dog years — so much has happened that this year feels more like seven. In the spring, our company — like many others — had to throw out our annual plans and quickly pivot to new ones. In the summer, we increased...

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Thought Ensemble’s Purpose — Inspired in 2020

Thought Ensemble’s Purpose — Inspired in 2020

I recently wrote about how company purpose is being tested and inspired by all the events of 2020. This topic is very real for us at Thought Ensemble. We’ve been thinking a lot about what really matters as we’ve navigated the challenges of this year. While we’ve had...

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How 2020 Is Testing and Inspiring Corporate Purpose

How 2020 Is Testing and Inspiring Corporate Purpose

In August 2019, the Business Roundtable rewrote their statement of corporate purpose. I followed this with significant interest being that I have never forgotten the debates about corporate purpose in business school almost two decades ago. We were taught that the...

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Why Purpose-Driven Organizations May Struggle With Change

Why Purpose-Driven Organizations May Struggle With Change

I love working with companies who really want to make a difference, beyond just making money for their shareholders. I mean, making money is fun and all, but it is even more rewarding to join in on a just cause. Plus, as this HBR article explains, companies who have...

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Is a Good Career Accidental or Intentional?

Is a Good Career Accidental or Intentional?

I accepted a Zoom call with a college senior recently. He wanted to understand how I had navigated my career to reach the position I’m in today. He had looked at my LinkedIn profile and assumed I had made a series of calculated career moves to get to my current...

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How Do We Make a Difference?

How Do We Make a Difference?

  Leadership in 2020 Everyone is saying that nothing is going to be the same again after 2020. I’d add being a business leader to that list. I’ll never be the same. In the first few months of the year, I was already working on being more expressive with my...

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How We Are Using Scenario Planning to Navigate COVID-19

How We Are Using Scenario Planning to Navigate COVID-19

About six weeks ago, I couldn’t stop thinking about the scenarios that we as a company might be navigating later in the year and in the coming years. Back then (which seems like forever ago), we were in the midst of more immediate reactions to the current pandemic,...

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Scenario Planning: A Tool for the Times

Scenario Planning: A Tool for the Times

As we all make our best efforts, both personally and professionally, to move forward – despite the challenges we are facing with the pandemic and the economy – I’ve found myself thinking more and more about the value of scenario planning. I know it is tempting to just...

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Homeschooling Take 2

Homeschooling Take 2

A couple weeks back, I wrote in my post about homeschooling challenges that I’d post again once things got better. We have by no means figured it all out yet, but we have settled into a new routine. Our kids’ school has been trying to evolve to support family needs,...

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Thoughts for Colleagues of Parents Running Homeschools

Thoughts for Colleagues of Parents Running Homeschools

I love working from home. I love my kids. However, I do NOT love working from home while also homeschooling my kids. The last few days have been a huge challenge. I’m exhausted. I feel like I’m not doing enough. I feel like I should read this article again. And then,...

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Tips from a Veteran of Working Remotely

Tips from a Veteran of Working Remotely

Before I go into this post, I just want to acknowledge that I realize there are many people out there who do not have the option of working remotely. For an overwhelming number of people, their incomes and livelihoods are dependent on being able to go into their...

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Finding Courage Above the Tree Line

Finding Courage Above the Tree Line

Last weekend, my girlfriend and I met up at a spa in Arizona with the promise that we would “enter the healing of an award-winning desert sanctuary and leave chaos behind.” For months, I’d been anticipating total relaxation – laying by the pool, reading books (but not...

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Back to School and Work

Back to School and Work

Anyone else notice something different in the air at the office? It might be the first whiffs of the famous/infamous Pumpkin Spice Latte filling the air, or it might be the buzz of kinetic energy signaling that we have just started to enter the most productive few...

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Am I Really That Reliant on… Slack?

Am I Really That Reliant on… Slack?

I remember the day a couple years back when I was working at home and had no power but still had internet. It was a trade I was very willing to make - I am very aware of how reliant I am on my internet connectivity. This morning, Slack's connectivity has been spotty....

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How Golf Made Me Rethink Work

How Golf Made Me Rethink Work

For years, people have told me I need a hobby. (I guess building a company and raising a couple of kids doesn’t count). Regardless, I’m happy to report that I finally have one: I am absolutely obsessed with my golf game. And those people were right – it is good for...

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Business Transformation’s Parallel Universe

Business Transformation’s Parallel Universe

Early in my career, soon after I switched roles from software development to technology strategy, I worked quite a bit on business cases and strategic plans related to technology investments. I wondered why some of the best ideas, with the best-written business cases,...

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