About Connect Better inc.
we strengthen human skills through incremental improvements
Hi, I’m Emily Nichols.
I founded Connect Better Inc. to restore and rebuild the human skills we (still!) need in an increasingly technical world. The concept is simple. With so much tech to learn and the constant pressure to do more with less, we all need an occasional reminder:
Success is a team sport.
The human skills – like connection, communication, and creativity – these are (still!) essential skills for organizational success and individual satisfaction. That part is simple. What’s not so simple? Helping your team really hear this message.
That’s where I come in.
Human skills weren’t always my focus. For years, I prioritized technical competence at work – I even went back for a second engineering degree! I was so busy calculating and simulating, I nearly missed the memo: even the best optimization schemes only work if you can convince people to try them. And some of the biggest productivity improvements aren’t technical at all – they happen at the interface between humans. It’s a timeless lesson:
Being able to plan, build, repair, and operate *together* is essential.
But in a world where technical skills + individual achievements are so celebrated, that’s easy to forget. When the human skills get rusty, innovation stalls, communication gets silo’d and client requests slip through the cracks. The fun factor evaporates. Before long, the agility you were so proud of transforms into calcified routines, and you’re back to “business as usual”.
It’s been a while since your technical people played in the sandbox, so they probably need a reminder. Maybe you do too. Let’s be real, your whole organization needs to hear this – and they can.
Help your team really hear the message.
Some audiences want to hear from me because I’m an engineer. Some because I spent 20 years in manufacturing. Some want to listen to me because I’m a TEDx speaker. And still others value the fact that I’m a farm kid at heart, with the work ethic and skills to match.
Whatever their reason, I’m excited to meet them, connect with them, and help them Connect Better – to themselves and each other.
From one human to another,
Emily’s Credentials
P.Eng., B. Sc.(Eng), M. A. Sc. (Eng)
s.e.n.s.e (of humour)
Engineering
Emily holds a B. Sc. in Systems Engineering (University of Guelph) and a M. A. Sc. in Chemical Engineering (McMaster University). She is licensed to practice professional engineering in Ontario, Canada and is a member of the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE). Emily summarized her master’s thesis in five Dr. Seuss rhymes.
Manufacturing
A professional engineer with decades of experience in manufacturing and innovation, Emily has worked with organizations like PepsiCo, PPG, Janssen, and Henkel, improving products and processes from breakfast cereal to automotive paint and electrical steel. Her willingness to lace up her safety boots and really dig into a problem sets her apart from many speakers and engineers, and she always unearths new perspectives as she walks a mile in a client’s or employee’s shoes.
Agriculture
Emily grew up on the family farm in southwestern Ontario, where her early jobs included hoeing beans, grading onions, picking rocks, and making boring tasks fun for her sisters. She has stayed close to agriculture and agri-food processing over the years – her masters research used near-infrared spectroscopy to detect “oats in the groats”. Sounds like a Seuss rhyme, right?
Speaking
An accomplished speaker, Emily has presented to audiences of 5-300 in some of the most unusual and challenging settings a speaker can speak. That includes busy warehouses, overstuffed training rooms, lecture halls full of tired students, a volunteer base camp in the Peruvian desert, even a mall food court in South Africa. She has also appeared on celebrated stages such as the Château Frontenac ballroom in Québec City and the TEDx stage in Hamilton, Ontario.