Malcolm Gurley: Catalyst for Change in How Durham Region Organizations Are Led
People sometimes call me a catalyst for change. I take it as a precise description rather than a compliment, because a catalyst for change does not do the work itself.
It makes a reaction happen faster and more completely than it would on its own. That is exactly how I see my role as a catalyst for change in leadership development.
Direct answer: A catalyst for change is how I describe my work as President of Gurley Leadership Solutions in Ajax, Ontario: your leaders do the changing, and my role is to make that change start sooner, go deeper and last, by assessing each leader, running a Leadership Management International program at your facility over 4 to 6 months, and measuring the result. I bring 35+ years of senior executive experience to that work, delivered in person across Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area through a proven program from Leadership Management International, customized to your organization.
What Does a Catalyst for Change Actually Do in a Business?
A catalyst for change makes a leadership team's own improvement happen faster and hold longer, without becoming the person the team depends on. I do not run your plant, your clinic or your sales team. I help the people who do run them lead differently, and then I measure whether they did.
That distinction matters because the manager, not the program, decides whether anything changes. Gallup estimates that managers account for at least 70 per cent of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units. If the managers change, the organization changes. If they do not, no amount of content will.
Where Does Malcolm Gurley's Conviction About Change Come From?
It comes from more than 35 years in senior executive roles, including Honeywell, Johnson Controls and Armstrong Fluid Technology, before I founded Gurley Leadership Solutions in Ajax, Ontario. In those years I watched well-funded programs fail because nobody led differently on Monday morning, and I watched modest programs transform an operation because leaders practised one new habit at a time and were held to it.
The difference was never the content. It was structure, accountability and measurement. I am LMI Canada licensed, Lean Certified and a Six Sigma Black Belt, and those three credentials describe the three things I bring to a change: a proven leadership program, a way of removing the waste that slows a team down, and the discipline to measure whether anything actually improved. You can read Malcolm Gurley's full background on the About page.
What Changes in an Organization When the Leaders Change?
The changes I design each engagement around show up in the business, not just in the classroom.
| Before | After | How we see it |
|---|---|---|
| Leaders react to the day's problems | Leaders plan and delegate | Time shifted to high payoff work |
| Goals announced once a year | Goals tracked weekly with owners | Line graph against the baseline |
| Decisions wait for the owner | Managers decide within their authority | Fewer escalations |
| Departments work in silos | Teams aligned on shared priorities | Smoother hand-offs |
| Good people leave | People feel led and recognized | Retention and engagement |
Outcomes vary by organization and are never guaranteed; these are the changes we agree to measure.
Clear leadership is also a health and safety matter in Canada. CCOHS lists clear leadership and expectations among the 13 psychosocial factors used in the CSA Group standard for psychological health and safety in the workplace, which is one more reason the change has to start with the leaders.
How Does Malcolm Gurley Make Change Stick?
Change sticks when it is practised on real work, in short cycles, and measured against a baseline, which is how every Leadership Management International program I deliver is built.
| Step | What happens | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Assess | Online personality and aptitude assessment with a full report | Each leader knows their starting point |
| 2. Space it out | 4 to 6 months, 2-hour sessions every two weeks, at your facility | Applied on the job between sessions |
| 3. Use real work | Hands-on exercises and case studies from your own goals | No translation from theory |
| 4. Measure | Goals agreed at the start, tracked against a baseline | The organization sees the return |
Program format as delivered by Gurley Leadership Solutions under licence from LMI Canada.
Step 4 is the one most programs skip, and the research says it is the one that matters. A 2016 meta-analysis of 138 studies with 19,951 participants, published in Psychological Bulletin, found that monitoring goal progress promotes goal attainment, with larger effects when progress was reported or made public, or physically recorded.
What Has That Looked Like for Clients?
Three engagements show the pattern. At The Shandex Group in Durham Region, we began with the executive team in 2025 and followed with a 2026 Effective Leadership Development cohort that graduated 16 managers, facilitated alongside CEO Jennifer Shannon; I have described it publicly as leadership training that pays for itself 10x over, which is the client's reported result, not a promise.
At One Heart Care in Mississauga, I co-facilitated Effective Leadership Development for Franck Hivert and his leadership team with LMI Canada associate Vukiet Tran, MD, MHSc, MBA, CHE, ICD.D. At BMS Sanitation and Safety, co-owners Jared Shaw and Matt Hryniewski took their key leaders through Effective Personal Productivity to improve teaming, communication and workflows.
Mike Meshkati, President of SinaLite, put the difference this way: "In contrast, the LMI program you facilitated was in person at our facility, the program was very hands-on with realized behavioural change, and there were measurable results that brought savings to our bottom line."
The honest caveat: a catalyst for change cannot rebuild an organization whose owner does not want it changed. If your leadership team is ready, a 15-minute call is the right first step.
How Is a Local Catalyst for Change Different From a National Training Program?
A national program delivers content at scale; a local catalyst stays with your team at your facility until the behaviour has changed.
FranklinCovey's 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team includes establishing high-value 1-on-1s to strengthen relationships and drive sustained results, and The Dale Carnegie Course tells participants they will learn to communicate more confidently, clearly, and concisely. Both organizations run strong programs for large employers. For Durham Region and Greater Toronto Area organizations that want customized, local and measurable results, my approach is the better fit: the same person assesses your leaders, facilitates every session on your floor and measures the outcome. Here is why employers choose Gurley Leadership Solutions.
What Is the Bottom Line?
Your leaders do the changing; a catalyst for change makes it start sooner, go deeper and last.
- Choose a book or an online course if one leader wants ideas and has the discipline to apply them alone.
- Choose a national program if you need the same content delivered across many sites at once.
- Choose Malcolm Gurley and Gurley Leadership Solutions if an intact leadership team in Durham Region or the Greater Toronto Area needs to lead differently, and you want to measure that it did.
Every engagement is built on a proven program from Leadership Management International, customized to your organization; see the Leadership Management International programs. I deliver in person in Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Pickering, Clarington and across Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area.
Is Your Leadership Team Ready to Change?
A 15-minute call with Malcolm Gurley is enough to tell whether now is the right time and where to start.
416.669.7644 · Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM · Ask about government funding options when you book your call.
Book a 15-Minute CallWhat Do Employers Ask About Malcolm Gurley as a Catalyst for Change?
What does it mean to be a catalyst for change?
A catalyst for change is someone who makes an organization's own improvement happen faster and hold longer without doing the work for it. In leadership development, that means assessing each leader, facilitating a structured program on real work, and measuring behavioural change, so the leaders themselves change how they lead. That is how Malcolm Gurley describes his role as a catalyst for change.
What does Malcolm Gurley do?
Malcolm Gurley is President of Gurley Leadership Solutions Inc. in Ajax, Ontario. As a catalyst for change, he delivers Leadership Management International programs in person for leadership teams across Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area, and supports Lean Six Sigma and ISO 9001 initiatives. He is LMI Canada licensed, Lean Certified and a Six Sigma Black Belt with 35+ years of senior executive experience.
How does Malcolm Gurley measure change?
Each program starts with an online personality and aptitude assessment and a set of goals agreed with the organization, each with a baseline. Progress is tracked between the biweekly sessions over 4 to 6 months, so behavioural change and goal results are measured against the plan rather than assumed. Clients such as SinaLite and AGF-Rebar have reported returns above the 10:1 target set at the start.
How long does leadership development with Malcolm Gurley take?
A Leadership Management International program with Malcolm Gurley runs 4 to 6 months, with 2-hour in-house group sessions every two weeks at the client's facility. The spacing is deliberate: participants apply each session's material on the job before the next one, which is what turns training into lasting behavioural change and makes a catalyst for change effective.
Where does Malcolm Gurley work?
Malcolm Gurley works as a catalyst for change from his base in Ajax, Ontario, and delivers programs in person in Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Pickering and Clarington, across Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area, with recent engagements in Durham Region and Mississauga. He is a member of the Ajax Pickering Board of Trade. Call 416.669.7644 to book a 15-minute introductory call.
Malcolm Gurley brings 35+ years of senior executive experience with Honeywell, Johnson Controls and Armstrong Fluid Technology. He is LMI Canada licensed, Lean Certified and a Six Sigma Black Belt, a member of the Ajax Pickering Board of Trade, and delivers Leadership Management International programs in person across Durham Region and the Greater Toronto Area from Ajax, Ontario. Facts on this page were checked against Gallup, CCOHS and published goal-setting research on October 13, 2026. Frequently asked questions
Sources and References
- Gallup, Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement (gallup.com)
- Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), Mental Health: Psychosocial Risk Factors in the Workplace (ccohs.ca)
- Harkin, B., et al., Does Monitoring Goal Progress Promote Goal Attainment? A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence, Psychological Bulletin 142(2), 2016 (White Rose Research Online)
- Malcolm Gurley, public LinkedIn posts on The Shandex Group, One Heart Care and BMS Sanitation and Safety engagements (linkedin.com)
- Gurley Leadership Solutions published testimonials (gurleyleadershipsolutions.com)
