VPFA R.I.S.E. – October 2024

Marina Darling, Human Resources Organizational Development and Learning

Marina is the Organizational Development (OD) Consultant in Human Resources Organizational Development and Learning (OD&L) team. She was recently celebrated as a recipient of the Kingston Young Professionals 40 Under 40 awards.

Please tell us about your role.

As the OD Consultant, I work with teams across the institution to support them in achieving their goals through organizational design and development services, team training, and change management support.  In May, I celebrated two years in this role and five years at Queen’s.

I am also involved in several committees including the Queen’s Women’s Network Logistics Committee, the Wellness Champions Advisory Committee, and an Ontario-wide community of practice for Organizational Development professionals.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

My work in OD&L is project focused, and no two projects are the same! I love the variety and enjoy meeting folks from across the university. I really enjoy building new offerings, usually in the form of workshops, processes, or even visualizing information in a way that is user-friendly and human-centric.

What project have you recently been involved with that you’re most proud of?

Throughout late 2023 and 2024, I had the wonderful opportunity to support the Queen’s University Library in revisiting and expanding their values to advance a priority of their strategic plan: “We will map the library’s values onto the university’s values to guide our actions and behaviors in our workplace. We will define and implement this process in 2023 and widely communicate these values within our organization.”

I am proud of this project because it is a notable example of collaboration – both between OD&L and our embedded HR partners, but also across multiple groups in the library itself to create a link between values and the larger values of the university community.  

Please tell us about your career journey.

My career journey has been full of twists and turns. After completing my undergraduate degree at Queen’s, I dove into the innovation and entrepreneurship space, working as a consultant specializing in marketing and creative services. During this time, I also traveled extensively, living, and working in New Zealand for about a year.

A few years after completing my undergraduate degree, I came back to Kingston and to Queen’s to complete my Master of Management Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Smith School of Business.

Shortly after, I took a contract at the Centre for Social Impact (now the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Social Impact) at Smith School of Business as a Program Assistant and later moved into the Program Manager role for Certificate Programs there.  

Not long after that, COVID happened, and life looked quite different! 

While being cooped up at home, I took the opportunity to revisit topics I was passionate about from my experience as a consultant and during my master’s degree and engaged in a lot of professional development, notably change management, corporate innovation, project management, and organizational systems.

It was serendipitous that a couple of years later, I joined the Organizational Development team in Central HR as the Organizational Development Consultant.

What motivates you?

I’m driven by passion for learning and working through complex problems. I am motivated by the challenge of learning something new and being able to apply it in my work and in life too. A lot of the work I do involves theory on behaviour change, leadership, and approaches to problem solving that apply in many contexts

What have been some of the most important lessons you’ve learned throughout your career?

I’ll boil it down to 3 important lessons: 

1. Take Leaps: My career journey has been far from linear, and I imagine I will encounter more twists and turns, but I wouldn’t be in this role today if I had not trusted the process of taking a leap out of my comfort zone (more than once!).
2. Embrace Failure: Making mistakes and learning from them is powerful. Failure can be a scary thing, but I do think we have incredible capacity to learn from our mistakes and translate that learning into well-informed lessons learned.
3. Build Relationships: I cannot emphasize this one enough: take the time to build real connections with people around you, and not just your immediate colleagues. Get out and meet people from all levels of the university and even further into the community if you can! Approach networking with curiosity and genuinely learn about people, their journeys, and their goals.

What would you like to tackle next?

I am currently working toward certification in Project Management through the Project Management Institute (PMI) and will be extremely happy when it’s done! Project Management is an evolving field and I’m excited to integrate my learning and knowledge further into my organizational development work. In addition, I am excited for the coming year of workshops in the HR Learning Catalogue and will be facilitating several workshops ranging in topics from project management to delivering business presentations!  

What are your future goals/where do you see yourself in five years? 

I’m continuing to build my skills in my areas of practice – I’m an enthusiastic fan of continuous improvement and enjoy finding new research or techniques to support the work I do at Queen’s, particularly in facilitation techniques, frameworks, or creative ways to approach challenges.

What’s one thing on your bucket list? 

Before the pandemic hit, I was preparing for several open water swimming races. If you’re unfamiliar with open water swimming – it’s exactly what it sounds like…competing in a race in a lake or other body of water instead of in a pool. In the years leading up to 2020, I was competing in 1.5 km – 3.0 km races in the summer. A big bucket list item of mine is to complete an ultra-marathon race, which is 15 km of swimming. 

What do you do for fun?

As a proud mum to a toddler, most of my free time is family-focused – there’s a lot of joy and excitement in watching my son explore the world around him. That said, I have several hobbies I’m passionate about and schedule where I can – including swimming, horseback riding, photography, and agility with my dog.

When it comes to exploring Kingston – there is SO much to do. This little city has so much to offer, especially if you love nature. I love spending time by or on the lake or exploring trails just outside of Kingston. One of my favourite places to get outside is Little Cataraqui Conservation Area – it has a variety of trails and terrain.

What book/movie/show has made an impact on you and why?

The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmonson is a  great resource on psychological safety, backed up by research and data from organizations. We refer to Amy Edmonson and psychological safety in our work within ODL – it’s worth a read.

Originals, How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant is another book I read years ago and have it on my list for a re-read! It explores concepts on how ideas are generated, put into action, and even tackles myths on creativity and innovation. I really admire Adam Grant as a researcher and thought leader!

If you could choose one word that sums up Queen’s, what would it be and why?

Expansive! Queen’s is such a vast and complex place to be and work. Having done my undergraduate and Master’s degrees here, I feel like I have learned a lot about the intricacies of the institution from the student and staff side. It is an incredible ecosystem with lots of opportunities to connect with colleagues, share best practices, and lean into different career areas.