And if I'd stayed on the career path of environmental education in public schools, no one would wonder about why I'm positioning myself now as a useful consultant. 

 

I took a different and better path, once I led a seminar in grad school titled something like this:  The #1 Environmental Issue is Nuclear Disarmament.  People in the seminar tended to agree, and several of us changed our career paths.  When you get into working with peace and justice groups, you've basically abandoned a career in the usual sense.  On the other hand, it doesn't just help the world.  Working on big, tough problems every day, often with skeptical groups, gets you out of those huge comfort zones all adults have developed.  Moves you back toward your real nature -- to notice problems and try to resolve them constructively.

 

My blend of experience comes from having worked in so many different jobs, and at different levels in different types of organizations.  I learned a lot in school, more than anyone I know, because the learning was driven by interest, not grades or diplomas.  Outside of school of course even more learning has taken place, especially about what stymies organizations and individuals.  In school districts alone, I've been a teacher aide, teacher, assistant teacher, bus driver, lunchroom supervisor, sub, and guest speaker. In colleges I've had other roles, including instructor, but mainly custodian.  In business, I had the Toyota experience, helping make decisions on mini vans and early SUVs,  had my own painting business, worked for the best shoe company in the U.S., worked in a small hardware store and for a huge home improvement retailer, etc.  I've written five novels (published two), numerous essays, some marketing and ad copy, and a lot of group newsletters.  One spring break in college I worked on a factory assembly line, for $1.10 an hour.  That was an eye-opener.

 

Maybe the most useful aspect of my life is the number of years I've worked at the "bottom" -- roughly twenty years where necessity dictated I work as a custodian or retail worker or assistant teacher to pay the bills and support a household.  I tried at various points to shift back into professional jobs, but ran into little glass ceilings, or couldn't afford to go back to school two semesters.  It worked to my advantage, this long haul in low-paying jobs,  as far as understanding workplaces and economics. You cannot get that same experience in a sociology class, or talking every day with low wage-earners.  You don't know hear everything people say in the break room or walking across campus.  One can't be in tune with the daily realities of choosing between the first grader's shoes or new car tires, when both are of high importance. We don't know what $11/hour feels like, fully, until we've done it for two decades.  It also put me in a better position to get a concrete sense of the lives of maybe 5 billion people in the world, who do not have the opportunities available to a person making $11/hour in the U.S.

 

Most organizations strive to treat the bottom half of employees well, try to take their thoughts into account.  But few do it as well as they believe, and most waste the important intellectual resources of that bottom half.  It's night and day, in different workplaces, how they benefitted or didn't by soliciting our thoughts, or ignoring that resource.

 

Why can I help turn an organization around?  Because a theme in my life has been not to miss the basics, things like these: always get enough sleep, never miss a meal, never miss a class in school, always look for the easiest (most efficient) way to do something, love people, notice bad habits early on and drop them, act with integrity, notice and maintain what's going well, fix problems while they're small, and stay away from drugs, including socially approved ones like beer or ibuprofen. To miss a basic thing is to make a poor decision over and over, to routinely ignore common sense.  Eventually this type of poor decision looks like a decent one, or a good one.  This clouds the overall view of what a good decision looks like. 

 

I have no beliefs.  Beliefs get in the way of problem solving, or even noticing problems.  I focus on what's really going on, and how we can make improvements.  Once you let yourself see what's going on, needed changes are sometimes obvious.  I've listened not only to tens of thousands of people -- co-workers, friends, acquaintances, authors, children.... -- but often listened to them well.  Information and better points of view are all around us.  I'm an informal scientific thinker (as all humans naturally are), taking an approach that looks right and then testing it, re-testing it, making adjustments, making sure it's actually the easiest way.

 

We might add that I'm none of the things people generally look for in a consultant they esteem: not poised, don't have a voice that makes people listen, clothes don't look good on me, not an expert in a specific technical area, no impressive resume, not well known, and haven't worked in your field or industry for four decades.

 

I'm results oriented.  That's a cliché, to be sure, but true.  Lots of people can talk energy efficiency, have an impressive command of jargon, and can get work in the field.  What I have is a home that ranks in the top 1% in heating and cooling bills, but got there with less investment of money and time than others put in.  It can be emulated by people who don't have much money to put into their houses. If you prefer more credentials and weaker results, I'm not your guy.

 

I know what I can do.  I want you to get great results.  In our free exchanges I will try to think of the person who can help get you there.  Most of the time it won't be me, because no one's that good.  What some of you will then do is help grow my business.  "He was very helpful, it was free, and it seems clear he won't take any of your money if it's not going to save you a greater amount of money."

 

If your challenge looks unsolvable -- too big, too depressing, too complex, no human has a chance at it -- bring it to me.  Doesn't cost you anything to lay it out.  I won't feed you any beliefs, such as the notion that bipolar disorder or attention deficit disorder are legitimate diagnoses with science behind them, or that the caffeine in coffee provides energy (as we all know, energy comes from calories), or that you'll do just fine if you stay composed and don't sweat or cry very much.  I can at least listen for a few minutes and remind you how good, strong, and smart you are.  And suggest some groups or books to help.  It may not be the key info you need, but it shouldn't hurt your prospects at meeting the challenge.  Then again, we might figure it out, and help you turn a big corner.  I have been involved in helping people meet very tough challenges, ones everyone around them said couldn't be met.  For more about my consulting services, click on Services.

 

Where do I have little experience or skill?  Lots of places.  Graphic design and engineering are two examples.  Intricacies of taxes or accounting or investment finance are not in my wheelhouse, though in college I tended to do better in accounting, economics and finance than the top students in those majors.  I'm very good with budgets, very good in helping organizations save money, in being a big picture guy who is very practical.  So you may benefit a lot from using me for an hour in addition to help you get from accountants and other more conventional experts.  Or, you may find that for $1000 I can help you in ways that no one else would have, even for $100,000.  I'm a very ordinary person who never gave up on the real potential of humans.