Michael Baroff
Facilitator Coach Author
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Talking with Each Other: The Key to Organizational Effectiveness
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With 40 years experience serving the human resource, training and organization development needs of a wide-range of business, government and nonprofit organizations, I have come to focus my practice on helping clients to "talk with each other." Sounds pretty basic, right? Well, if you are experiencing performance issues within your organization, I imagine you think, "yes, that's it" and "easier said than done."
Facilitation, by definition means "to make easier" and that's what I do. The challenge, of course, is to first to get "buy in" from people and then to establish trust, an inclusive, participative, and flexible engagement to elicit candid conversation, question assumptions, and clarify expectations. In my role as a coach I offer cogent insights, observations and actionable feedback that is intended to promote individual and group awareness and growth and performance improvement.
I am the author of The Inner Work of Work Coaching Yourself for Improved Performance series (Being Your Best; Getting Along with Others and Contributing to Your Company's Success (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2000) and subsequent process-oriented guidebooks. I served as the 1992 President of the Los Angeles Chapter American Society for Training and Development (now known as the Association for Talent Development) and on the boards of the Professional Coaches and Mentors Association, and have taught at UCLA Extension Department of Business and Management and the Esalen Institute.
Subsequent to receiving a BA in Sociology from UCLA, and before I started my consuling practice in 1984, I worked as a research assistant at the UCLA School of Public Health contributing to the development of information systems in the areas of health and social policy evaluation, then with System Development Corporation providing systems analysis, customer service, marketing communication and training development support for a world-wide network of scientific information databases. My career-long professional development includes training in coaching, group process, mediation and dialogue facilitation from the Institute of Cultural Affairs, the Process Work Institute, Dispute Resolution Services, the Mediation Training Institute, Esalen Institute, the Center for Collaborative Management, and the Center for Dialogic Communication.
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How Can I Help You?
Performance Coaching * Group Facilitation * Strategic/Operational Planning * Team Development
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Awareness * Talent and Competency Management
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| American Cable System |
| Amway / Nutrilite |
| Armstrong World Industries |
| Behavioral Health Services |
| BizLink Welfare-to-Work |
| Blue Cross of Southern California |
| Blue Shield |
| City of Gardena |
| Consumer Credit Counseling Service |
| Countrywide Wholesale Lending |
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| ENKI Health and Research Systems |
| Federal Express |
| First Interstate Bank of California |
| GE Consumer Finance |
| Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles |
| IndyMac |
| Internal Revenue Service |
| Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| Kaiser Permanente |
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Lakewood Community Hospice
United Way
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| Lockheed Federal Credit Union |
| Los Angeles City Fire Department |
| Los Angeles County Dept of Public Works |
| Los Angeles County Dept of Health Services |
| Los Angeles Teachers' Credit Union |
| Los Angeles Unified School District |
| Los Angeles Urban League |
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| McDonnell Douglas Finance Corporation |
| Metropolitan Water District |
| Museum of Tolerance. |
NAACP |
| National California State University Pomona |
| Nissan Motor Corporation |
| PacifiCare/Secure Horizons: |
| Prudential Insurance |
| Rio Hondo Area Latino Education Council |
| Santa Monica College Manager’s Forum |
| Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District |
| Security Pacific National Bank |
| Small Businesses: AdImpact; AM Ortega Construction; San Fernando Dental |
| Social Model Recovery Systems |
| Southern California Gas Company |
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| Southern Calif Human Resource Consortium |
| State of California WorkSource Centers |
| Taco Bell |
| National Conference for Community and Justice |
| Thrifty/Big 5 Sporting Goods |
| United States Air Force |
| University of California at Los Angeles |
| Xerox Corporation |
| Zenith Insurance |
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Results of the intervention were seen not only in improvement in production and quality, but also in a dramatic decrease in the length of time it took to get these numbers. -- Pat Lewis, Manager Claims Systems, Prudential Insurance
The expertise and professionalism you brought to the project team was a major factor in the success of the program. -- Karen Slade, Marketing Manager, Xerox Corporation
Your design for the group meetings and training contributed significantly to the meaningfulness and success we achieved. -- Rosalind Schwartz, Director, UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations
The relaxed friendly way you went about facilitating enabled the group to reach consensus. -- Pat Esquivel, President Board of Directors, Lakewood Community Hospice
Thanks for all the hard work; we could not have gotten this far without your dedication to the project. -- Gustavo Crosetto, Manager, Global Mortgage Training, GE Consumer Finance
Michael is exceptionally good with people and can smooth out the roughest bumps in a project, always keeping in mind corporate objectives and budget constraints. He makes a special effort to see that the right people are assigned to the right tasks and is perceptive, diligent and thorough. -- Joe Wilson, DataTrain.
Thank you for the tremendous time and effort you contributed which has set an exemplary Strategic Plan in motion. I appreciate your dedication and commitment to making this an open and inclusive process. Your unique talents and expertise have created a solid base from which we can move forward. -- John Deasy, Superintendent, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.
Michael has always delivered very thought-provoking and illuminating approaches to organizational issues and situations. His delivery methods and demeanor brings out deep feelings and drivers for those issues. He has a soft-spoken, laid back approach to leading people to discover their own truths and solutions to the presenting problems, and even some hidden ones. I have valued and learned from every interaction with him, both as a teacher/consultant and as a friend. -- Suresh Radhakrishnan, SPHR, Human Resources Program Manager, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Michael has considerable experience working with hundreds of people who have expressed how much his work has helped them in their careers. He has enthusiasm and empathy for his participants and is a powerful facilitator. -- Pauline Field, CEO, International FieldWorks
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Michael Baroff
Santa Monica, California
MBaroff@iwow.biz
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