For when common sense is not common
Good leadership starts with reading the room correctly.
HumanSense is Aly McKinster's consulting practice for leaders, boards, and teams who want the real diagnosis before the workshop — built on behavioral science and two decades spent watching how people actually behave under pressure.
Why "HumanSense"
"Frameworks tell you what a healthy team looks like. They don't tell you why yours went quiet in the last meeting. That takes actually sensing the room — and knowing what to do once you have."
— ALY MCKINSTER, FOUNDER
About
The person behind HumanSense
Aly spent her most recent corporate chapter as Senior Manager of Organizational Performance at Wipfli LLP, leading culture transformation, leadership alignment, and workforce strategy work for clients ranging from regional Community Action agencies to youth and children's nonprofits. She built a national speaking platform inside the firm and started Wipfli's first profitable Business Resource Group from scratch.
Before any of that, she was working — on stages, on sales floors, behind bars, and in ballrooms.
Aly started working at five years old as a musician and performer. Long before her corporate career, she put in years in hospitality: dishwasher, server, bartender, host, manager, event planner. Then came a career in sales and business development — Predictive Index, Caxy Consulting, Aunalytics, Brafton — building relationships across nonprofit, finance, manufacturing, construction, and national association sectors from the Midwest to Denver to DC.
That path is exactly why HumanSense exists. Reading a room isn't a slide in a deck — it's a skill built behind a bar, on a stage, and in a hundred sales calls, then sharpened with the behavioral science (Predictive Index, Human Synergistics) to back it up. Aly describes herself as funny, scrappy, creative, a self-described master problem solver — and proudly untraditional about how she got here.
Services
Where the work actually happens
Five ways HumanSense works with organizations, teams, and the people inside them — pick the entry point that matches where things stand today.
01
Organizational Development
- Brand conceptualization
- Brand, marketing, and sales strategy
02
Board & Leadership Team Development
- Leadership retreats
- Mission, vision & values work
- 5 Functional Team Skills workshops
- Generational divide workshops
- Team alignment & cohesion workshops
03
Relationship Development
- Conflict resolution
04
Individual Development
- Personal branding
- Networking coaching
- Confidence coaching
- Burnout coaching
- Shadow side coaching
05
Public Speaking & Keynote
Talks and keynotes built around the topics leaders actually ask about:
Get in touch
Let's talk about what's really going on.
Based in Chicago, working with boards, leadership teams, and individuals wherever they are. Tell me a bit about what's going on and I'll follow up personally.