Member of the Month: Aneta Key

The Member of the Month feature periodically highlights our amazing membership and the things they’re doing. If you know someone who should be featured as the Member of the Month, email our Communications Minion and we’ll make it happen! December’s Member of the Month is Aneta Key (MSc, MBA). Aneta is the Founder of Aedea Partners LLC. 

What kind of work do you do?

I am a systems science engineer turned banker turned McKinsey consultant turned a trusted C-Suite advisor, known for blending exceptional business problem-solving with a splash of creative flair. I help executive teams of innovative companies confidently navigate complexity, change, risk, and uncertainty by partnering with them to bring clarity and alignment on strategy, priorities, and execution. Clients seek me out to craft and facilitate executive offsites with unique team building, decision-making, and capacity-building objectives; to support longer strategy development, transformation, and change management initiatives; to design and deliver experiential leadership development programs; and to engage with individual executives as an independent thought partner. 

Why are you a NASAGA member?

First of all, the NASAGA game nights — which run to the wee hours of the night — are legendary and a true highlight of my year! On a more serious note, gamification is part of my professional secret sauce and family upbringing. I love to cross-pollinate ideas with peers from business and academia who share a passion for active methods of engaging people’s hearts and minds. NASAGAns are smart, playful, open-minded, generous, and humble. I love to engage with them outside the “official events” of the association, and of course, at the annual conference. 

As a way to contribute back to the NASAGA community, I have offered conference workshops, spotlighted members in  my own Mixer events, and even created and led the Pre-Conference Certification Program in 2021 “Next Level Virtual Interactions” (which explored online tools for teaching, collaboration, and gamification beyond Zoom and google docs).  

What’s your favorite NASAGA memory? 

I got to play my first Dungeons & Dragons game at one of the virtual NASAGA conferences. As luck may have it, I had to jump in first, so I did not get the chance to see how the game is actually played. My role was of a fairy bard who had to dance to distract an evil monster on my first move. With my improv hat on, I proceeded to share my computer’s sound and improvise a 2-minute dance with a scarf I happened to have on me… only to discover that you play the game by stating “so I dance” and then you roll the dice to see if your “actions” worked. Yup. That was pretty embarrassing but made for a nice story.

NASAGA’s theme for the 2023 Conference was “Space at the Table.” What do you do in your professional practice to integrate diverse points of view?

The core of my work is to guide leadership teams through a strategic decision-making process. Explicitly exploring diverse points of view — whether present in the room or not — is essential for overcoming cognitive biases and for making sound decisions.  I have developed various gamified approaches to interrogate business options and reveal perspectives, opportunities, and strategies.  Having diversity of thought and experience in the room vastly accelerates problem-solving and creates better outcomes.