Hello!“I‘m honored to assist, as your Org optimizes the Flow of Attention and Innovation”

I most sincerely appreciate my invite into your organization.   I’m honored to assist your Teams as they optimize their connection with Customers.  My assist is similar everywhere I go.

I am a consultant on a mission to help people witness and thus naturally honor their connection with each other.

Unfortunately, over the years I’ve witnessed a lot of people hurting.  Knowing there are more people I might be able to assist, compels me to trek on.   The solopreneur lifestyle isn’t for the faint of heart.

My Assist:​​​​​​​

Wh​​​​​​​at:

I help you optimize the Flow of strategy aligned with a compelling org mission.   I help you find practical and reliable ways to include all your talented people in shared decision making towards inspiring strategy formulation.

Why:

Knowledge workers in this digital era have a natural desire to deliver.  But they must be included in the continuous exploration to better understand customer needs and to influence the evolving solution.   Self-responsibility and love for the Team, replace a need to find ways to “hold others Accountable”.    Those who deliver the plan should plan on their own behalf.   Responsibility comes from direct understanding of desired outcomes and why that matters to everyone.   In my experience, I rarely find people who “don’t care – it’s just a paycheck”.

I am a consultant on a mission to help people witness and thus naturally honor their connection with each other.   We invest approximately 2/3rds of our life awake working.   I’d like that to feel inspiring and meaningful.   Unfortunately, over the years I’ve witnessed a lot of people hurting.  Knowing there are more people I might be able to assist, compels me to trek on.   The solopreneur lifestyle isn’t for the faint of heart.  : D​

How:

I have found that knowing your connection and contribution within the entire Value-flow system results in honoring that dependency on others.   Trust and willing vulnerability are the result.   These are the building blocks for Teams who love the org mission and their customers.  It is quite freeing to know you are safe within a work culture that expects and welcomes an admission of “I don’t know” and nurtures practical ways to free people up to experiment and confirm together, what they now know better.

What’s in it for our Organization?

The opportunity and challenge is similar for most organizations … visualizing the org’s capacity and throughput rate so that we can better prioritize strategic initiatives (experiments) at a sustainable pace that creates inspiring experiences for both employees and the customers.   People serving people.  It’s all about welcoming and expressing the ideas we all have on how we can improve our support of society, attributing the experiments with traceable, objective outcomes.   Justifying ongoing investment, knowing when to celebrate with Teams, becomes trivial and fun.  Doing so in a way that is respectful to everyone – customer, employee, stakeholder, and shareholder.   Managing expectations throughout the planning system in a balanced manner that respects our personal lives and interests outside of the organization.

Career Summary

• 10 years in Manufacturing of tangible goods (Auto, Office Furniture), serving in Operations Finance and Technology liaison roles
• 10 years in dedicated Technology roles modernizing infrastructure and Service models, within Dealer Network Services (logistics), Education (K-8), Insurance (Property, Life, Casualty), Taxation and Municipality Services
• 13 years in Product Development helping clients realize the benefits of Lean-Agile leadership by leveraging frameworks like Lean, Scrum, Design-Thinking and their coordination using SAFe.   The last 7 years I’ve done so in a consulting mode.   Those clients span many industries (ex Financial Services, Logistics, Cloud Mgmt, Insurance, Construction and Agriculture Tech, Event coordination, Gaming, SaaS and PaaS vendors serving HR, Billing, CRM, and several other specialties) and all sectors (private, commercial, government).

View my Corporate Portfolio here.
This contains longer term engagements, excluding <2 month Advisory and Tune-up engagements.

More about me:

I have helped organizations through significant culture adaptation over the last 33+ years, in their desire to co-create a culture that feels like this.  It may help to know some of my past roles and responsibilities, making me more relatable as I try to assist you in your current or evolving Agile role.

I was a dedicated practitioner and selective follower in Finance, Tech and ProdDev.   I sought inspiring examples of leadership.   I learned much from unfortunate examples and painful org strife.   I served as a financial analyst, a business analyst, a database admin, a data architect, and a web architect.

I tactically supported people in the pursuit of their plans as a Project manager and Portfolio manager (within traditional and Lean-Agile cultures).  It helps to have experience “on both sides of the tracks”, helping people transition at large scale, as an employee.

I have strategically supported org missions as a Finance Controller with a $250M top-line and led Financial Planning and Performance for a $500M operation.  I experienced the honors and the pain of launching 1st time Business Intelligence platforms as a Sr. Director in Technology.   I concluded my career as a VP of Product Development (Pms, Pos, Engineering, QA, DevOps) for an operation with ~800 people.

I enjoy helping organizations recover from severe issues.   I’ve served on amazing leadership Teams that helped two organizations avoid what seemed to be certain closure.  I’ve helped young private start-ups to scale and and become official Corporations, priming for IPO and tripling their impact.   I’ve helped R&D teams with carve outs (people, infrastructure, focused innovation) to expand into new industries.  I’ve helped orgs through Merger and Acquisitions, leveraging frameworks like SAFe to realize a unifying culture and more inspiring reality for all.   I’ve helped one org to stabilize and scale the finest leadership incubator I’ve ever seen.   I’ve also been privy to painful, large-scale realizations, in some cases too much to adapt to and entire towns affected.

I’ve seen the origins of expedited success and also unfortunate failure.   I’m honored to help you identify and avoid such pitfalls, leveraging your strengths and care for each other to succeed.

Still want to see more?

If you’re interested in learning more about my experience with Enterprise Culture Change and Adaptive Leadership mentoring, please view this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnAlQd5XSms&

Wish to know more about my career as a practitioner and senior leader?    Thank you for your interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxQZ_I8d4Uk

Fun Facts

• I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, EST.  My heart rests in the Great Lakes region and the Appalachian range.
• Nature is my inspiration.   I’m into hiking, camping, and canoe trips.  I love the path less traveled.
• I use much of my spare time attempting to heal people from injuries, as a Corrective Exercise Specialist.   I’m the guy you go to when you PT money runs out, or if you feel under served.  I don’t like to see people hurting.   I’ve had tons of injuries over my lifetime.   I’ve healed all issues myself.
• I was a semi-pro musician in cover bands (drummer in my 20s, keyboardist in my 40s).   Yep, I’m a band geek, since junior high.
• I am blessed to have married my literal best friend Jennifer and we have an amazing daughter Ashley who has blessed us further with three cool grandkids as of 2023: Ethan 17, Leigha 11, Parker 9.
• I’m likely one of the easiest going, happy people you’ll run into.  If I seem aggravated it’s never personal – its usually because I want people to have a Group breakthrough moment sooner.   Life is short.   Let’s enjoy it!
• I’m dang grateful to be here.  : D