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Clarity

Erika Knudsen

Tacoma, WA

Founder, Petals and Seed – consulting firm helping leaders and teams adopt AI, drive cultural transformation, and scale leadership impact. Ex-Microsoft leader. Built global culture movements. Presented at SIOP & The Conference Board. Advisor to execs & startups on org change and high-impact leadership.

$1.67/min

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Community Engagement Community Building Leadership Development Change Leadership Change Management Strategic Communications Community Development Corporate Communications Culture Change Organizational Leadership

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Leadership & Transformation Consultant

I help leaders and teams unlock their full potential through proven strategies in leadership development, team building, and organizational culture. As Founder of Petals and Seed and a former Microsoft leader, I’ve designed and scaled global culture programs reaching 2,500+ leaders across 40 countries, blending coaching, organizational effectiveness, and AI adoption strategies to drive measurable impact.

My training in leadership development, organizational psychology, and change management equips me to work with executives, cross-functional teams, and emerging leaders who want to:

- Strengthen leadership skills and confidence

- Build resilient, high-performing, cross-functional teams

- Shift organizational culture to embrace innovation and adaptability

- Harness AI and modern practices to accelerate growth

Clients can expect clear strategies, practical tools, and actionable steps, not just theory or a classroom training. My passion is helping leaders cut through complexity, engage their teams, and lead with clarity, confidence, and impact.

Culture Transformation & Community-Led Change Strategist

I specialize in helping organizations shift culture through scalable, community-driven approaches. At Microsoft, I founded Operation: Maverick — a grassroots cultural transformation effort that grew to 1,200+ employees across 40 countries in just 18 months with only 20% of my full-time role. Later, I adapted the approach to engineering teams in the Developer Division, designing cohort-based peer learning experiences that reached 900+ developers, PMs, researchers, and designers in the first year.

My expertise combines organizational psychology, neuroscience, behavior design, and community activation to create change that sticks. I work with leaders and teams who want to:

- Drive cultural transformation from the ground up

- Activate grassroots communities that accelerate change

- Build cohort-based peer learning programs for scale

- Empower employees as change agents, not passive participants

Clients benefit from a proven playbook for embedding change that blends behavior experiments, social learning, and peer accountability so transformation becomes sustainable, not just a one-time initiative.

Early Career Hiring & Engagement Strategist

I help organizations attract, engage, and retain top early-career talent through strategic university branding and immersive hiring programs. At Juniper Networks, I led the university branding strategy to reposition the company as attractive to new grads. Juniper was seen as legacy, while competitors were pulling ahead with emerging technologies — we needed to compete for top engineering talent.

I partnered with EVPs, managers, and alumni to run authentic roadshows at top universities, bringing multi-level employee squads to humanize the brand and showcase innovation. The results speak for themselves: we tripled new grad hires in the first year and achieved a 40% intern-to-hire conversion, directly reversing a downward talent trend.

I work with talent teams, HR leaders, and hiring managers who want to:

- Strengthen university branding and employer reputation

- Design engaging internship and early-career programs

- Build authentic employee-led recruiting experiences

- Improve conversion and retention of early-career hires

Clients gain actionable strategies and proven playbooks to attract the best emerging talent while building long-term, high-impact early-career programs.

Manager Effectiveness & Excellence

I help managers and their teams unlock their full potential through practical strategies in leadership development, team effectiveness, and accountability. As Founder of Petals and Seed and a former Microsoft leader, I’ve designed and scaled manager development programs reaching hundreds of managers across global organizations, blending coaching, peer learning, and behavior-based interventions to drive measurable impact.

My experience in leadership coaching, organizational effectiveness, and cohort-based learning equips me to work with managers who want to:

Strengthen leadership skills and confidence

Improve team performance and engagement

Build consistent, accountable management practices

Develop actionable strategies for coaching and leading teams

Clients can expect clear guidance, practical tools, and frameworks they can implement immediately. My passion is helping managers lead with confidence, inspire their teams, and drive measurable results.

Startup-to-Growth Culture Transformation

I help founders and leadership teams unlock their full potential by transforming startup culture into scalable growth-mode operations. As Founder of Petals and Seed and a former Microsoft leader, I’ve guided teams through cultural evolution, aligning people, processes, and leadership practices to enable sustainable growth while preserving agility and innovation.

My experience in organizational change, cross-functional alignment, and culture design equips me to work with startup leaders who want to:

Strengthen leadership capability as teams scale

Build resilient, high-performing, cross-functional teams

Embed behaviors and practices that support sustainable growth

Align culture, strategy, and operations for scalable impact

Clients can expect actionable roadmaps, concrete frameworks, and hands-on guidance. My passion is helping startups evolve their culture strategically, so growth doesn’t come at the cost of engagement or innovation.

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Member since September 2025