STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT ADVISOR | LIZ MCMILLAN ADVISORS
Liz McMillan
Liz McMillan is a Strategic Alignment Advisor and Keynote Speaker who works with CEOs, COOs and People Executives to eliminate the friction that limits business growth – and replace it with the kind of alignment that creates exponential value.
Her credibility is built on doing, not just advising. Liz has led two businesses through complete transformation -Dictionary.com, a 24-year-old digital giant with 90 million monthly users, and Teach Starter, an edtech platform considered unsellable when she arrived. Both exited at 2.5 times their prior valuations. Those experiences became the foundation of her proprietary methodology – The 3 Transformations of Alignment.
Liz spent the earlier part of her career as SVP of Corporate Development at IAC Publishing, overseeing the acquisition and integration of a global portfolio of digital brands including Investopedia and About.com -giving her a rare combination of operational, cultural and commercial expertise across the full business lifecycle.
She now works with leadership teams to identify where misalignment is quietly limiting their organisations, and to build the structural conditions that allow strategy to actually become results.
At the heart of her work is a simple but powerful truth: most execution failures aren’t delivery problems. They’re alignment problems. And business analysts – with their unique visibility across strategy, people and delivery – are uniquely positioned to be the alignment architects inside their organisations.
Liz is based in Brisbane, Australia.
Workshop: The Alignment Advantage: How to Become a Strategic Force Multiplier
Most strategy failures aren’t execution problems. They’re alignment problems.
Business analysts sit at a unique intersection – between strategy and delivery, between what leadership intends and what teams actually build. You see the gaps others miss. You feel the friction when effort doesn’t translate into results. And you know, better than most, that when something isn’t working, the answer rarely lies in better methodology or more rigorous requirements.
It lies in alignment.
This workshop introduces a practical framework for understanding the relationship between desire and capacity – the two forces that determine whether strategy accelerates or stalls inside an organisation.
You’ll learn to recognise four distinct states that leaders and organisations move between: Shaper, Struggler, Sleepwalker and Survivor. You’ll see how the gap between ambition and capability quietly shapes culture, performance and delivery outcomes – and why the instinctive response to that gap almost always makes things worse.
Most importantly, you’ll leave with a new lens for your work – one that positions you not just as a delivery professional, but as a strategic force multiplier: someone who can see where alignment is breaking down across leadership, culture and strategy, and help organisations build the capacity to fulfil their ambition.
This session is built around real-world case studies, interactive reflection, and a diagnostic framework you can apply immediately – whether you’re working inside a single team or across an entire organisation.
If you’ve ever felt the cost of misalignment – this session is for you.