Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Timeline
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Sam Spurlin

New York

Summary

Consultant and leader specializing in human-centered, adaptive, and effective organizational practices. Expertise in complex systems theory, positive psychology, and progressive methodologies fosters partnerships with leaders to enhance team responsiveness, clarity, and autonomy. Proven track record at The Ready includes guiding organizations through large-scale transformations, facilitating leadership development, and crafting structures that promote business performance and human flourishing. A unique blend of strategic thinking and cultural insight empowers clients to navigate complexity, embrace innovative practices, and cultivate resilient organizations.

Overview

13
13
years of professional experience

Work History

Partner

The Ready
09.2015 - Current
  • Led teams delivering complex transformation programs for Fortune 500 clients, enabling shifts toward distributed authority, and adaptive operating systems using complexity conscious and people positive principles.
  • Generated and closed $1M+ consulting engagements, co-designing custom proposals that addressed strategic org design, culture change, and ways-of-working evolution for senior executive sponsors.
  • Designed and facilitated immersive org-wide interventions for audiences ranging from 10 to 300+ to catalyze mindset shifts and systemic change.
  • Coached executive leaders and cross-functional teams through ambiguity and resistance, helping them build capacity for tension-driven change, participatory governance, and transparent decision-making.
  • Served as a thought partner to Heads of People, COOs, and CEOs, translating complex theories of organizational development into actionable strategies for team autonomy, accountability, and resilience.
  • Built and iterated on proprietary IP and frameworks, integrating learnings from live experiments with clients to continuously evolve The Ready’s point of view and consulting tools.
  • Spoke publicly on the future of work, delivering keynotes, podcast interviews, and client presentations to amplify The Ready’s philosophy and provoke new ways of thinking in the broader ecosystem.
  • Co-hosted The Ready’s podcast, At Work with The Ready, helping design, plan, and deliver a top 100 management podcast with thousands of downloads per episode.

Strategist

Undercurrent
07.2015 - 08.2015
  • Facilitated workshops and coaching for Fortune 500 clients on “Responsive Ways of Working.”
  • Used positive psychology research and principles to help develop Undercurrent’s organizational design philosophy.
  • The company was part of a botched acquisition that resulted in its destruction three weeks after I moved across the country to join it.

Research Lab Lead & Coach

LeAD Labs
08.2014 - 06.2015
  • Strategically guided and set the research agenda for LeAD – a leadership development, assessment, evaluation, and research consulting firm embedded in Claremont Graduate University.
  • Met with lab members on a regular basis to set goals, review progress, and support individual development.
  • Coordinated, planned, and led biweekly meetings with the research lab members.
  • Communicated with external stakeholders regarding ongoing lab research and activities.
  • Conducted research on leadership development, self-leadership, and the process of meaningful work.
  • Coached multiple museum executives from around the world during the 2014 Getty Leadership Institute program.

Teaching Assistant

Claremont Graduate
09.2012 - 12.2014
  • Assisted Drs. Jeanne Nakamura, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi with their Foundations of Positive Psychology graduate level class by answering student questions, holding regularly scheduled office hours, assisting in curriculum development and grading submitted work.
  • Assisted Dr. Becky Reichard with her Organizational Behavior and Positive Organizational Psychology graduate level class by answering student questions, holding regularly scheduled office hours, assisting and giving feedback on curriculum, refining assignments prior to beginning the class and helping students do well with their assigned class projects.
  • Worked one-on-one and with small groups of students during scheduled office hours to clarify concepts, develop research papers, create academic poster presentations, and develop organizational interventions to be delivered in class.
  • Collaborated with two other teaching assistants to develop in-class discussion sessions.

Education

Master of Arts - Positive Organizational Psychology & Evaluation

Claremont Graduate University
Claremont, California
05.2013

Bachelor of Science - Social Studies Education

Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio
05.2009

Skills

  • Organizational strategy development
  • Organizational development
  • Cross-functional team leadership
  • Team leadership strength
  • Goal setting
  • Process improvements
  • Change management
  • Teamwork and collaboration
  • Team leadership
  • Employee motivation

Timeline

Partner

The Ready
09.2015 - Current

Strategist

Undercurrent
07.2015 - 08.2015

Research Lab Lead & Coach

LeAD Labs
08.2014 - 06.2015

Teaching Assistant

Claremont Graduate
09.2012 - 12.2014

Master of Arts - Positive Organizational Psychology & Evaluation

Claremont Graduate University

Bachelor of Science - Social Studies Education

Bowling Green State University

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