ing brinck
Leading from the middle
Middle management is getting crushed. Many employers erroneously believe that thinning or eliminating middle management will increase the speed of innovation and growth. The problem isn't that a middle exists, it's that the middle has been neglected in favor of chasing the next great leader.
I've spent 20+ years in middle and senior management roles in small nonprofits, complex government bureaucracies, and a big tech company with over a million employees. Regardless of the organization’s size or sector, bad management and leadership have the same harmful effects: disengaged people, low morale, high turn-over, increased costs, and lower revenue.
Many leadership development frameworks focus on individual-level behavior change. That makes sense because we can only change ourselves -- not others. However, even if someone is willing to change, it doesn't mean they can.
I help managers transform their strategies and systems to guide people to optimal thinking and behaviors, so they're not dependent upon personality changes.
Ing is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and has taught different aspects of management and leadership to hundreds of people including new and experienced managers, executives, and undergrad and graduate students. She was awarded an instructional fellowship from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Government Excellence and her coaching, training, and consulting clients include Yale University, Global Energy Monitor, Results for America, the City of Seattle, and the City of San Jose.
She has taught in the Doctoral Public Policy program at UNLV and been a guest speaker at the UW Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. Ing is a sought-after expert in developing effective management systems that deliver remarkable results for organizations of any size and in any sector. If you’re looking for someone to catalyze excellent management within your organization, team, or yourself, contact Ing now.
Meet Ing Brinck
Ing Brinck has over 20 years of experience leading and managing people, teams, and complex projects and operations in the social, public, and tech sectors. Until she learned a specific management system, she often struggled to understand how to effectively lead and manage, especially when organizational priorities were unclear or frequently changed. After adopting a structured management system, she and her teams were able to deliver high-value results more quickly.
Her passion for helping others led her to the stage and the classroom to share her model for building and sustaining a high-performing management system and activating leadership in everyone.
Leading from the middle: Why we need great managers and how to become one
For decades, business has celebrated leaders while sidelining managers. Middle managers are frequent targets of layoffs, despite being the backbone of daily operations and employee engagement. This 50-minute keynote will challenge your thinking about middle management and teach you how to transform yourself, your people, and your management system to continually deliver incredible results.
THE TALK
Calm the Chaos: How to build and sustain a resilient management system
This is an uneasy time to be a middle manager. Middle managers comprised 30% of white-collar layoffs in 2023 and 2024, up from 20% in 2018. This workshop teaches managers, and those who lead them, a proven framework for continually developing yourself and your people and delivering greater value for your customers.
THE TRAINING
Testimonials
“Before Inger’s talk, I hadn’t thought about the differences between leadership and management. I finally feel like I understand my role and can have greater impact.”
“Inger Brinck is the real deal. She can navigate facilitation and training like no other. When I have a difficult service to untangle or some management challenges, she is my first call.”
Sandra Ball, Sr. Manager, City of Seattle
Brian Elms, author of Peak Performance and CEO and Founder of Change Agents Training
"Inger trained my team, along with several other departments in structured problem solving. She’s an exceptional facilitator who helped a diverse group come together around a complex challenge that spanned three separate, siloed city agencies. She created a process that kept people engaged, built shared understanding, and led to real progress.
What sets Inger apart is her ability to combine empathy with rigorous analytical thinking. She is kind, caring, and genuinely listens to people, while also being able to unpack complex issues through inquiry, data, statistics, and continuous improvement methods. She moves comfortably between the human side of change and the technical side of solving difficult problems. I would gladly hire her again."
Leah Tivoli,
King County Executive
"I had the pleasure of working with Inger Brinck as a consultant supporting me on an HRIS project. She was a great partner who brought insight, patience, and a strategic perspective to the work. Inger helped us think ahead, strengthen our change management approach, and identify ways to measure user adoption.
Her recommendation to establish a survey baseline early in the project gave us valuable insights and helped us track progress over time. She is a thoughtful listener, collaborative, calm under pressure, and brings practical strategies to help move projects forward.
I would gladly work with Inger again and highly recommend her for any project management or consulting engagement."
Monika Frankowski,
HRIS Analyst
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