Inner Work of Work

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.