Meet Dr. Jim
Jim has over 30 years experience as a strategic planner in the public and private sectors, is a best-selling author and specialist in influence psychology, former professor of International Law, labour relations mediator and a change agent with an enviable track record of accomplishments. He has held high-profile engagements as a public sector dispute conciliator, hospital ombudsman and provincial supervisor of a large urban school board. His career achievements include executive posts in academe, consulting services and the international marketing communications industry.
Having spent four decades as an educator and businessman, and having provided his strategic counsel to over 600 organizations, Jim is convinced that surviving and thriving in today’s rapidly changing competitive environment requires a different way of thinking, operational naiveté and the ability to reframe problems into opportunities. In short, they require a transformational thinker. He has demonstrated his uncanny ability to simplify complex problems, reconfigure resources, engage people and design business strategies for the 21st century.
Jim is often called upon to provide advice on such vexing organizational issues as ensuring the existing corporate culture and senior management team are equipped to respond to the challenges of the new/innovation economy, the compelling dictates of strategically designed and managed change, and the absolute necessity of motivating and unleashing the enormous creative potential of the 21st century workforce. His work typically deals with issues of organizational effectiveness – ranging from restructuring and executive alignment to facilitating conflict management and developing protocols for enhanced working conditions among the key internal stakeholders.
Holding a doctorate in educational theory, Jim spent 18 years as a senior academic administrator at two Ontario universities. He was managing editor of a professional educational journal for over a decade, served as an evaluator of new educational technologies for the federal government and has been nationally honoured for his career in the field of adult learning.
He has conducted a number of sensitive organizational performance reviews and audits and was instrumental in the reform of Ontario’s Community Care Access system. He has also worked for dozens of hospitals of every size on a variety of difficult issues, ranging from enhancing governance effectiveness to the mediation or resolution of disputes among internal stakeholders and constituencies.
Jim’s primary specialization and interest is in the fields of organizational performance, conflict resolution, cross-cultural communications, influence psychology and the dynamics and consequences of complex change. He has conveyed his views to hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life through his seminars, books, business columns and Internet-based programs. Thousands of testimonials confirm his ability to “connect” with his students and encourage meaningful change in their lives.
Jim’s various professional development programs and courses have been formally recognized for “excellence in the design and delivery of lifelong education” and are offered at universities and professional associations across the country as well as on an in-house basis. On a contractual basis, he has designed numerous advanced-level, residential learning programs for government, industry and professional groups. He developed the world’s first Internet training program on negotiating skills for the University of Alberta and has published three best-selling books on conflict management.
A Canadian by birth, father of four and grandfather, he now resides at his farm in the Grey Highlands of south-central Ontario where he spends his precious recreational time building his extensive gardens and tree plantations.
In 2008, Jim launched smartleaders.ca as a way of dialoguing with his students and others who are similarly interested in the subjects of change, innovation, conflict resolution and leadership. The interactive features of this web site are intended to encourage new thinking on these topics.