About Us

Creating the Space for Human Potential to Emerge

Edgewalkers.ca is a leadership, coaching and engagement initiative that focuses on assisting leaders and aspiring leaders to develop and strengthen their leadership practice. This site has been developed by engagement and coaching practitioners who take risks inside and outside of their organizations. We constantly scan the horizon for emerging trends and potential barriers and risks, while at the same time discussing and developing best practices in response to what we see. Our engagement and leadership practices are part of the very fabric of how we relate to the world around us.

We originally rallied under the flag of the National Managers’ Community (NMC), a centralized body within the Canadian federal government that was created to support managers by developing networks across the country. Part of this support mechanism was to introduce managers to new ways of engaging and coaching their employees.

Though we disbanded from our work with the NMC in 2014, out of this community arose a small contingency of practitioners who continue our leadership practice, sharpening our skills and following the mission to create a space for human potential to emerge. We have an ongoing vision of a community of engagement practitioners who can facilitate new and improved processes in our organizations.

As iron sharpens iron, so also do leadership practitioners sharpen other leadership practitioners. For this reason, Edgewalkers.ca is committed to strengthening the engagement and coaching community of practice. Through podcasts, virtual and in-person workshops and discussions, we link leaders together to build relationships and supports collaboration that will result in continuously improving leadership excellence. Edgewalkers.ca brings established and emerging leadership practices to the forefront for continuous discussion and improvement. Edgewalkers.ca is in a state of continuous improvement. Our main focus is and always must be to create the space for human potential to emerge.

 

Donovan Mutschler, MA, MC

 

Donovan Mutschler is the founding member and CEO of Edgewalkers.ca. He is a consistently high performing leadership practitioner with more than 30 years of experience with the federal and provincial public service and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada throughout Western Canada. He possesses an acquired and demonstrated knowledge of leadership and engagement strategies that improve relations with internal and external stakeholders. His five core values are spirituality, faith, teamwork, success, and truth. You can see these values in action as he nurtures highly successful teams that possess a strong sense of integrity. He is the recipient of multiple awards for leadership excellence, including the Health Canada Deputy Minister’s Awards for Team Excellence and the National Managers’ Community Regional Honours Award. He is a subject-matter expert on processes that will guide individuals, teams, and organizations.

Donovan graduated with a BA Psychology from the University of Regina in 1993, focusing on Psychopathology and behavioural cultural patterns. In 2005, he graduated with a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from Briercrest Seminary. His studies orbited solution-focused processes, systems theories, and narrative therapy. He later obtained his Masters Certificate in Leadership from the University of Regina.

Donovan’s first career was a professional church worker for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) from 1987 to 1998. During this time, he developed and encouraged church growth in youth, young adult and parish ministries in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. He served from 1995 to 1998 as the Dean of Campus Life at LCBI High School in Outlook, Saskatchewan.

In 1999, Donovan changed careers from professional church work to public servant, joining the Government of Canada at Health Canada, First Nations and Inuit Health branch (now Indigenous Services Canada). From 2010 to 2014 he served as the Saskatchewan Regional Coordinator for the National Managers’ Community. During this time, Donovan discovered his passion for leadership, and learning development. His work as the Regional Coordinator focused on developing engagement and coaching skills training workshops for himself and other middle managers across the federal public service. He encouraged the development of a network of workshop participants into a community of practitioners who could support each other when they began practicing their new skills. He continuously surrounded himself with phenomenal regional, national and internationally known leaders and mentors, sharpening his own skills by learning from highly skilled professionals. While developing and delivering engagement and coaching workshops, Donovan was often called upon by federal and provincial departments, agencies and ministries to facilitate team building, strategic planning, problem-solving and change management processes.

In 2015, Donovan transitioned from the federal to provincial government in Saskatchewan, joining the Ministry of Education’s Strategic Policy and Planning Branch as a Planning and Reporting Consultant. Since November 2019, he has been serving as a Senior Consultant for Business Improvement, supporting ministry and education sector partners by bringing a focus on strengthening systems and processes. He continues to avail himself to federal and provincial departments, agencies and ministries, bringing processes that support continuous improvement.

History

In 2010, a thriving community of practitioners was forming in the Government of Canada public service. We were a fierce think-tank, collaborating how to teach engagement and coaching practices to middle managers. Our end-goal was stronger organizational discussions on trends and change management, and improved processes while training practitioners to lead those processes. Our focus was on teaching, and not so much on practicing. However, some of us found ourselves in positions of leadership and were called upon by organizations to practice the tools we were so committed to teaching. We strengthened a community of practice in order to collaborate and co-facilitate as we tried new ways of engaging our organizations. This community of practice has continued to develop through changing environments with the edge-walking nature at its core.

In 2014, our community almost completely stepped away from the teaching component of its work. Save for a few individuals who continued to teach the tools and practices to small teams within our organizations, the community of practice essentially powered-down, waiting for the next opportunity to re-engage. These few individuals continue our practice off the corner of our desks and have made a name for ourselves within and beyond our organizations. We have never lost sight of our vision.

In 2019, new discussions emerged in Saskatchewan with the intention of re-engaging a larger population in new ways for the purpose of finding Edgewalkers and encouraging them to build their practice. This is the foundation upon which Edgewalkers.ca is built and continues to evolve, staying ahead of the change curve of corporate culture and learning and development in Canada.