About Me

I work at the intersection of change, culture, and strategy.

I’m Kevin McCann, Head of Innovation and Strategy, Canada, at NATIONAL, an integrated communications and public affairs firm. I’m based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and work with clients across Canada and beyond.

Much of my work involves helping leaders and organizations figure out what to do when things are changing, the answers aren't obvious, and people don't necessarily agree on the problem.

I'm a strategist, facilitator, and communications advisor. I've spent much of my career helping people make sense of complicated issues, develop a shared understanding of what needs to happen, and then figure out how to make it happen.

That work takes me into strategy, communications, advocacy, technology, and leadership. I've learned that the best strategy in the world won't get far if people don't understand it, believe in it, or see their place in it.

What I do

At NATIONAL, I serve on the Canadian Leadership Team and lead the firm's innovation and strategy work, including AI adoption.

My work includes:

• Strategy development and strategic planning
• Leadership and change communications
• AI adoption and its implications for knowledge work
• Advocacy and public affairs
• Narrative development and reputation management
• Facilitation

I've worked across public affairs, marketing, technology, higher education, energy, healthcare, and the not-for-profit sector. Much of that work involves executive teams, boards, and groups of people who need to make difficult decisions together.

In recent years, I've spent a great deal of time thinking about AI and what it means for organizations and the people who work in them. The technology is extraordinary, but figuring out how to use it well raises questions about leadership, organizational culture, the value of knowledge work, and how businesses operate.

Those questions interest me as much as the technology itself.

A consistent thread through my career has been helping organizations turn intentions into action, and communicate clearly with the people they need to bring along.

How I think about the work

Someone once told me I'm skeptical of hype and allergic to simple answers. That's probably fair.

I tend to ask a lot of questions, particularly about assumptions people have stopped questioning. I'm interested in second-order effects, unintended consequences, and the things happening inside organizations that don't always show up in a spreadsheet.

Data matters. Technology matters. So do judgment, context, and trust.

I started my career on the technical side of things, building websites, applications, and tools for online advocacy. Over time, I've become increasingly interested in the human side of that work: what people believe, what motivates them, why they resist change, and how language influences what they do.

As our work becomes more technical, I find myself paying even more attention to those questions.

What I write about

I write about AI, work, advocacy, communications, and organizational culture. Some recurring questions:

• How do people make sense of change together?
• What happens to the knowledge economy as AI becomes part of everyday work?
• How does technology change our relationship with work, identity, and meaning?
• How do organizations earn and maintain trust?
• What does it take to get people to act on something, rather than simply understand it?

My writing is often an attempt to work through questions I'm encountering in my own work. I also speak about these subjects and explore them in workshops with teams across Canada and beyond.

Career

I've been with NATIONAL for more than 15 years. I spent ten years as a Partner, five as Managing Partner for Atlantic Canada, and now serve as Head of Innovation and Strategy, Canada.

NATIONAL is the flagship firm of AVENIR GLOBAL, a Canadian-owned international communications group.

Over the years, I've led or overseen work in media intelligence, data visualization, web services, AI adoption, and strategic planning. Beginning in 2010, I worked with the firm's leadership to expand NATIONAL's presence into Newfoundland and Labrador. I've led the acquisition of a partner firm in this region, and led cross-brand and cross-office strategic initiatives.

A few career highlights:

• Leading advocacy initiatives on issues important to Atlantic Canada.
• Bringing together people and expertise from across the firm to tackle complicated challenges involving governments, businesses, and communities.
• Helping clients in healthcare, energy, tourism, higher education, and the not-for-profit sector develop strategies, whether they were dealing with a setback or pursuing a significant opportunity.

Before NATIONAL

I spent a decade living and working in Washington, D.C., mostly with Grassroots Enterprise, an advocacy technology firm. Think NationBuilder before NationBuilder.

My work was largely technical. I led deployments of the company's Multiplier platform and built hundreds of advocacy websites for products, causes, and ideas across the United States.

It was a terrific education in how people behave online, what motivates them to act, how technology products are built, and how advocacy campaigns work.

Edelman acquired Grassroots Enterprise in 2009. I was closely involved in the acquisition and helped integrate the technology into Edelman afterward.

Before Grassroots, I worked at two Washington startups serving the public sector. Neither exists today. Both taught me a lot.

And before any of that, I was a teacher in Newfoundland and Japan. Looking back, teaching, technology, advocacy, and strategy have more in common than I might have expected.

Work with me

I'm happy to talk about speaking, keynotes, workshops, or working together. You can reach me through the Connect page or find me on LinkedIn.