INSIGHTS
Susan Mackay’s writing brings together more than three decades of practice across organisational change, coaching, neurodiversity, creative facilitation and global health.
Published through professional and specialist platforms, these ideas explore one recurring question: how can people, organisations and systems work better together?
EXPLORE THE THINKING
Susan’s writing crosses disciplines, but returns to a shared concern: how people, organisations and systems can work better together.
How trust, conflict, courage and collective intelligence shape organisational life.
Moving beyond awareness towards environments where different minds can contribute fully.
Questions of responsibility, relationship, technology and the conditions for meaningful development.
How metaphor, hands-on thinking and LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® help groups explore complexity.
Insights shaped by participation, trust, behaviour, equity and implementation across international health systems.
FEATURED WRITING
LinkedIn · July 2025
What helps an organisation move beyond individual intelligence towards collective intelligence? This article explores coaching, conflict, psychological safety and the importance of trusted spaces in which people can speak openly, examine different truths and turn tension into useful information.
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June 2025Why neurodiversity should be understood as a strategic organisational capability—and why inclusive culture and workplace design are necessary for different thinkers to contribute fully.
As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in coaching, this article considers transparency, trust, cultural sensitivity, data responsibility and why technology must complement rather than replace human connection.
A reflection on facilitator responsibility, ethical judgment and psychological safety when a hands-on group process reveals more than participants—or the facilitator—expected.
PUBLISHED IN LSP MAGAZINE
Susan’s contributions to The LSP Magazine explore coaching, ethics, neuroscience and the unexpected learning that emerges through LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®.
Sharing and Caring · Summer 2025
Facilitator responsibility, ethical judgment and psychological safety when a hands-on process reveals more than expected.
Read articleCoaching and LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® · Autumn 2024
How hands-on methods can support listening, confidence, creative problem-solving and social connection.
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Unexpected Stories · Summer 2023
Susan’s personal introduction to the methodology and the discovery that structured play can create real insight.
Read articleEXPLORE THE LIBRARY
Showing 27 articles.
Reflections from Acasus’ World Health Assembly discussion on how adversity can accelerate local ownership, collective leadership, frontline investment and lasting health-system reform.
Frontline stories from challenging settings show how practical innovation, better data and empowered local leaders can turn vaccines into vaccinations and protect every child.
A clear challenge to the discredited vaccine-autism myth—and to the stigma, misinformation and fear that undermine both public-health trust and neurodivergent people.
Written for World Health Day, this piece asks how the health community can keep making progress for citizens at a time of shrinking budgets—and what participation, trust and courageous decision-making make possible in complex systems.
Why representative female leadership is essential to public trust, more responsive health systems and better outcomes for the women and children those systems serve.
June 2024An exploration of how cognitive diversity, belonging and genuine collaboration can help organisations unlock the collective intelligence already present within their people.
March 2025A challenge to move beyond deficit narratives and simplistic “superpower” labels towards a more human understanding of cognitive difference, belonging and systemic inclusion.
A reflection on conscious leadership, identity, belief and why inclusion must be embedded in organisational purpose rather than treated as an additional initiative.
Why values-driven leadership requires more than statements of intent—and how coaching can support courageous, inclusive action.
An exploration of coaching as a source of possibility, belonging and meaningful change during uncertain and divided times.
A personal and organisational reflection on moving from awareness to action by redesigning systems, strengthening psychological safety and enabling different people to contribute.
How conflict coaching can strengthen self-awareness, confidence and agency while helping people navigate difficult workplace relationships more constructively.
Why coaches and organisational leaders need to understand neurodiversity, challenge deficit narratives and create more flexible, psychologically safe environments.
January 2025A call for organisations to reconsider conventional assumptions about talent, capability, leadership and inclusion.
February 2025A reflection on neurodiversity as a source of innovation, inclusion and progress across business, policy and society.
May 2025A challenge to the idea of a single “normal” brain and an invitation to recognise the breadth of human cognitive variation.
The role of belief, strengths-based coaching and psychological safety in enabling neurodivergent people to recognise and use their potential.
September 2024How recognition, encouragement and meaningful support can strengthen confidence and create conditions in which different people can thrive.
April 2025An invitation to replace division with shared humanity, empathy and possibility thinking.
Why coaching ethics are more than compliance—and how trust, equity and respect for each client’s humanity must be expressed in practice.
A reflection on visibility, belonging and the safety required for people to participate without hiding important parts of themselves.
Why humility, curiosity and a willingness to remain present in uncomfortable conversations matter more than having perfect answers.
A reflection on empathy, early support and the difference that being present can make during formative moments in a young person’s life.
Susan’s personal introduction to the methodology and the discovery that structured play can create powerful opportunities for insight and connection.
An exploration of how building, metaphor and storytelling can help participants express ideas and connect with one another.
How hands-on methods can support listening, confidence, creative problem-solving, cognitive flexibility and social connection.
A practical exploration of how structured model-building can help families communicate, reflect, solve problems and develop shared understanding.
BROADER PERSPECTIVES
Alongside organisational writing, Susan works across international health systems, where participation, trust, behaviour and equity decide whether change actually reaches people. The same questions shape her work with organisations.
Turning Lemons into Lemonade: My ADHD Journey (opens in a new tab)
Institute of Neurodiversity · October 2024
Read article: Turning Lemons into Lemonade: My ADHD Journey(opens in a new tab)A Summer of Possibility (opens in a new tab)
Institute of Neurodiversity · July 2025
Read article: A Summer of Possibility(opens in a new tab)
On LinkedIn
Susan regularly shares new thinking on organisational culture, leadership, neuroinclusion, coaching and human connection.
Insights become useful when they help people see a challenge differently and take meaningful action. If one of these themes connects with work taking place in your organisation, let’s start a conversation.
LEGO, SERIOUS PLAY, the Minifigure and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorise or endorse this website.
