‘They Just Don’t Get It!’ Changing Resistance into Understanding

Learning Objectives:

• Learn a process for building mutual understanding and shared commitment instead of perpetuating resistance and misunderstanding;
• Learn five key behaviors of communication that promote understanding and accountability;
• Learn how to coach organizational leaders to deliver important messages and facilitate conversations that promote engagement.

Session Description:

This highly interactive session will engage participants in exploring how to communicate and interact in ways that engage others. And how create conditions under which individuals advance themselves under their own motivation and propel the organization in the intended positive direction with the least amount of energy lost to resistance and the struggle of power.

Biography:

President, Catalyst Consulting Group, Inc.

Leslie is a paradox. She was born an old soul who, while in her early mid-life, maintains a perpetual state of Peter Pan – gotta fight, gotta fly, gotta crow. She is a fountain of ideas, but concerned with the smallest detail. Her comfort for risk taking is extreme yet, regarding her role in life and her concern for others, she is overly responsible. She relishes rituals and symbolism, yet cannot resist a spontaneous adventure.

Leslie values leadership, loyalty and trust in relationships. Some of her role models include: Mother Theresa, Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Viktor Frankl, Eleanor Roosevelt, Joseph Campbell, and Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers.

Leslie’s measure of her success as a business leader and consultant is that she applies to herself first all the consulting principles in which she engages her clients. In her work as an organizational development / change management consultant, her goal is not to be positioned as an expert but rather as a trusted advisor. She is a voracious learner and places a high value on her own journey of discovery.

Leslie earned her Master of Science in Organizational Development at Case Western Reserve University after graduating cum laude from Wittenberg University with a Bachelor of Arts. She founded Catalyst Consulting Group, Inc. in 1987. Her philosophy is simple: People are basically good, well intentioned, courageous, and able to learn. Her job is to provide a framework in which people can draw on their own inner resources to find creative solutions.

Leslie has taught at John Carrol University, Baldwin Wallace College and is on the faculty at the Weatherhead Dively Center for Executive Education.

Like children, Leslie’s work is now play. Leslie lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio. When she plays she likes to play in Australia and Europe. Her list of favorite play includes fly-fishing, scuba diving, cattle drives, Community Theater, swimming with dolphins, and time spent with family and friends.

Leslie is co-author of the bestselling 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work and the author of the Fun Works: Creating Places Where People Love to Work. Leslie’s third book entitled Beans: Four Principles for Running a Business in Good Times or Bad was published in 2003. Leslie’s new title in 2005 is They Just Don't Get It Changing Resistance into Understanding. Leslie has two new books in 2007 Motivation in the 21st Century: Beyond Kicks and Carrots and the second edition of the best selling Fun Works: Creating Places Where People Love to Work.