Belle Walker

Belle Walker is the Founder and Lead Consultant of Belleview Consulting.  As the only Organizational Efficiency Engineer she knows, Belle takes her clients from Friction to Function™ by ensuring that their structures and processes are aligned with strategic goals.  She works with clients in industries ranging from Tech to nonprofits and from professional services to cannabis to recapture lost efficiency and engagement.

Belleview consulting focuses primarily on Operating Models and Process Optimization, both of which are key to unlocking effective growth.  Proactively designed and clearly communicated Operating Models (roles and responsibilities for individuals, scope and accountability for teams, cross team dependencies, and a unified terminology) enable and empower employees at all levels of an organization.  Process optimization work centers around clear documentation, which drives alignment, reveals opportunities for improvement, and smooths onboarding for new employees.  With the right operating model and effective processes, organizations can focus on expanding their product and service offerings, confident that they are ready for scale.

Prior to turning full time to consulting, Belle spent her career building and optimizing teams that were responsible for everything from complex operations balancing safety and efficiency to the cutting edge of AI and autonomous driving.  Belle honed her skills at multi-billion dollar companies such as Google, where she managed the initial Street View vehicle rollout and built a nationwide aerial photography operation, and HERE Technologies, where she built the team responsible for both the operational creation and resulting quality of the HD maps created for use by autonomous vehicles.  Merging project managers, data scientists, software engineers, systems engineers, and more, for HERE Technologies offered ample opportunity for Belle to hone and refine her organizational design and leadership skills.  She also received a patent for the Quality Index, a mechanism that allows digital maps to be incorporated more effectively into autonomous vehicle environmental models.

Belle has also built Product Management and Marketing teams for small, closely held organizations such as Future Ads and The Plan9 Group.  With a Mechanical Engineering bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a Systems Engineering master’s degree from the University of Southern California, Belle leverages the engineering problem solving process to design and build the most complex systems possible: those comprised of individuals.  

Topic: Build Hybrid Teams - How to be Effective with Both Remote and Co-located Employees 

PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills (1 PDU)

Abstract: Many leaders are eagerly awaiting the “return to the office” but most organizations are trending towards hybrid collocated and distributed teams - and underestimating the challenges they are about to face. Despite now having experience with full colocation and fully remote operations, blending remote and in-person interactions is more complex than “averaging” the two extremes. Ensuring that your People and Processes will thrive in a hybrid state requires targeted planning. Fortunately, companies with satellite offices have been building best practices on hybrid operations for years pre-pandemic. There is plenty of opportunity for smaller teams and companies to stand on the shoulders of giants as they plan for, or dive into, this new way of working. Starting with concepts like “structured informality”, this is a talk about the potential contradictions of hybrid operations and how to leverage them to your best advantage. 

Learning Objectives:

• Co-located, remote, and hybrid teams require different norms to function effectively 
• Hybrid can be *harder* than either colocated or remote collaboration 
• Three best practices for building and leading effective hybrid teams 

Social Media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bellekwalker/