Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Duerre.
Hi Lisa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Thanks for the chance to share my story. I’m based in the Portland area, and I lead RLD Group with offices in Portland and San Francisco. I co-founded the firm with my husband and business partner, Randy Duerre.
I’ve always been drawn to the human layer underneath execution: what’s not being said, where tension is building, where teams are working hard but not moving together. I’m wired to tell the truth with care. I help leaders name what’s real, lower the noise, and rebuild shared clarity—so teams stop spinning and start compounding.
A personal wake-up call made this work non-negotiable: I hit a wall with severe burnout. My doctor called it “Silicon Valley-itis.” That experience changed how I led and what I would no longer normalize. It’s also where the language of “reboot” became real for me – resetting priorities, rebuilding capacity, and redesigning the conditions that sustain high performance.
What I learned is that the real lever isn’t more effort—it’s better alignment. And alignment has to work at three levels:
I (the leader’s judgment, energy, and clarity under pressure),
WE (how the team makes decisions, handles tension, and stays aligned),
Us (whether priorities, guardrails, and learnings actually travel across the enterprise).
Our work is strengths-based, and it starts with self-awareness at the I level because how a leader shows up under pressure sets the tone for the team and the system.
We founded RLD Group to help leaders reconnect the I–WE–US layers so that execution compounds rather than splinters – especially as AI accelerates and amplifies whatever leadership system already exists.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
One of the biggest challenges I’ve navigated is leading in environments that reward speed and certainty – while staying committed to truth, humanity, and results. Under pressure, teams can close down, make assumptions, and confuse intensity with effectiveness.
I learned this lesson the hard way. I hit a wall with severe burnout (my doctor called it “Silicon Valley-itis”), and navigating chronic illness reinforced that burnout isn’t a character flaw – it’s system feedback. It forced me to get serious about capacity, boundaries, and designing leadership that works for real humans and not just roles.
On the business side, relocating from the Bay Area to Oregon in 2018 and then navigating the pandemic shortly after were their own leadership tests. We were building a new local network while running and growing the firm through a disruptive, uncertain time – and like a lot of families, we were also parenting through it.
That experience also clarified something I now see everywhere: when the pace gets intense, silos start running the show and leaders get pulled into reaction instead of strategy. That’s when overwhelm rises and progress stops compounding.
I’m grateful for my Silicon Valley roots – and I love living and working in the Pacific Northwest. That combination shapes how I lead.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about RLD Group, LLC?
RLD Group is a WBENC-certified, boutique strategic leadership consulting firm, founded in 2017 with offices in Portland and San Francisco.
We help leaders, teams, and organizations strengthen leadership alignment, reduce friction, prevent burnout, and build collaboration that holds when pressure rises – by reconnecting alignment across I (leader), WE (team), and US (enterprise). Our work is strengths-based, and it starts with self-awareness at the I level – because how a leader shows up under pressure sets the tone for the team and the system.
We lead with strategic consulting and facilitated working sessions; coaching is used where it accelerates follow-through and strengthens leadership presence.
RLD Group is built as a Collective. We bring a trusted team of experienced consultants and coaches who’ve led inside organizations and understand what our clients are dealing with—especially when the pace of change outstrips any one leader’s capacity.
Our engagements typically include:
– Strategic consulting to clarify priorities, guardrails, and operating rhythms
-Facilitated working sessions and off-sites that move teams from conversation to traction
-Executive coaching, which accelerates follow-through and strengthens leadership presence
Most clients call us when change fatigue and overwhelm are high, and the pace is pushing the organization into reactive mode. Teams can start pulling in different directions, even when everyone means well.
We help reconnect clarity, trust, and shared operating rhythms so leadership alignment holds, priorities and guardrails are understood, and learnings travel across the organization so execution compounds.
If this brings someone to mind, I’d welcome an introduction.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
AI is showing up everywhere right now. An interesting question isn’t “can we use it?” It’s “can we lead through it well?”
What I love about this moment is the upside: when humans and AI work well together, we get better thinking, faster learning, and more time for the work that requires judgment, creativity, and care.
Alongside real progress, there’s also real uncertainty – layoffs, role shifts, and fatigue. If leaders don’t name that reality, people fill the silence with fear.
Speed matters, but leadership alignment, critical thinking, and clear human oversight are what make progress sustainable. When teams are explicit about what humans own (judgment, risk, customer trust) and what AI augments (speed, pattern recognition, decision support), they move faster without losing trust or control.
What we’re hearing in our 1:1 insight interviews and executive conversations is consistent: organizations are moving fast under pressure, and silos start running the show. Guardrails vary by team, “what good looks like” isn’t shared, and leaders get pulled into reaction instead of strategy.
The leaders gaining momentum without losing trust tend to:
– Model visible AI use in real work and share what they’re learning
– Create “safe-to-try” zones so teams can learn out loud without increasing risk
– Clarify usable AI guardrails teams can trust
– Redesign workflows so AI becomes part of how work gets done – not an extra layer on old processes
The practical path forward is simple mechanisms so leadership alignment holds at I (leader), WE (team), and US (enterprise) – so priorities, guardrails, learning, and trust travel instead of splintering.
AI will scale whatever is already happening inside the system – clarity or confusion, trust or friction.
Pricing:
- Our work is co-created and isn’t menu-based. Pricing depends on scope, timing, and how many leaders/teams are involved. We support everything from smaller, focused engagements to large, multi-workstream programs at the enterprise level.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rldgroupllc.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rldgroup/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaduerre/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTaOQaSwfqa0sif8RvG556w
