Breakout Speaker
Presentation Details
"Why Not the Collaboration Corps? A People-Powered Model for Connection, Alignment, and Culture Change"
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Most organizations want stronger collaboration, deeper connection, and culture that bridges silos—but few have a practical, scalable model to make it happen.
At Arizona State University’s Enterprise Technology, we built one. The Collaboration Corps (/kôr/) is a cross-functional, employee-powered culture network that equips representatives from every functional area to activate culture from the inside out. What began as a grassroots experiment has evolved into a strategic culture engine—bridging teams, building shared language, informing leadership decisions, and strengthening psychological safety across more than 650 employees.
Co-presented by Danielle Batol Steele, architect of the Corps, and Amy McGovern, a Corps representative and practitioner, this session blends design and lived experience. Together, they will share how the model scaled from small experiments to an enterprise-wide system shaped by employee feedback, Culture Check-Ins, and real-time organizational needs.
This session challenges leaders to move beyond “Why a Collaboration Corps?” to a more urgent question: Why not?
Participants will leave with a practical, people-powered framework for activating culture through structure, shared ownership, and measurable action.
Participants will leave ready to:
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Design a people-powered structure that activates culture across teams and functions.
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Scale grassroots culture initiatives into sustainable organizational systems.
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Strengthen alignment, connection, and psychological safety through shared ownership.
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Apply a practical framework for driving measurable culture change.
Speaker Bios:
Danielle Batol Steele is the inaugural IT Director of Organizational Development & Culture for Arizona State University’s central IT organization, Enterprise Technology. She architects the structures, relationships, and cultural systems that enable more than 650 team members to deliver with excellence in support of the university’s mission.
With two decades in higher education, Danielle blends enterprise IT leadership with organizational development expertise. She has led mission-critical technology implementations and large-scale culture initiatives that strengthen alignment, connection, and capability across complex environments. In 2025, she mobilized Enterprise Technology’s Collaboration Corps to achieve the organization’s highest-ever engagement survey participation rate of 78%, reflecting deep trust and shared ownership across the team.
Grounded in a values-based philosophy, Danielle believes thriving workplaces are intentionally designed through consistency, care, and co-creation. She shares practical, scalable approaches to building culture that drives performance without sacrificing connection.
Amy McGovern is a Program Manager within Arizona State University’s Enterprise Technology (ET) division, where she serves as a representative and active member of the Collaboration Corps (/kôr/)—a people-powered, cross-functional network designed to strengthen connection, culture, and collaboration across a 1,000-person organization. In her role supporting the T4 Leadership Academy and participating in ET’s transformation initiatives, such as Culture Weavers, Amy brings a practitioner’s lens to culture work: grounded in real behaviors, cross-team dynamics, and the day-to-day interactions that shape how people feel, work, and belong.
As part of the Collaboration Corps, Amy represents the lived experience of ET’s employees—practicing and modeling culture-building skills inside the Corps and translating them back into her “home” Core. Her work includes facilitating team dynamic exercises, contributing to Culture Action Plans, supporting Corps-level learning (including psychological safety, change navigation, collaboration design, and appreciative inquiry), and serving as a bridge across multiple functional teams.
Amy co-presented at the 2025 Network for Change & Continuous Innovation (NCCI) annual conference, showcasing the Collaboration Corps as a replicable model for cross-functional culture transformation.
Her perspective connects the “why” and “what” of collaboration with the “how”—highlighting the on-the-ground realities of implementing culture change in a complex, distributed institution.
Amy is passionate about designing workplaces where people feel seen, connected, and empowered to lead from their role, regardless of title. Her work focuses on building safe, intentional structures that help teams move from awareness to action—and from silos to shared success.