"To be vital, an organization has to repot itself, start again, get new ideas, renew itself.”
Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric

Marian J. Thier:

Expanding Thought, Inc.
3180 Westwood Court
Boulder, CO 80304

303-440-1278(voice)
440-1279 (fax)

email
mjthier(at)xtho.com
 
   
 

Careers:

Consulting/Coaching:  1984-present.  President, Expanding Thought that focuses on achieving business results by affecting leadership practices, increasing original thinking, improving communication, developing teams, and changing the organizational climate.

Higher Education: (1972-1984).  Taught drama, writing, was department-head and developed Learning Center.  Coordinator of Academic Support Services responsible for library, Learning Center, counseling, developmental education, faculty development, non-traditional and adult learning and several grant-funded programs.

Television: (1964-1972).  One year in commercial and seven in public television.  Wrote, produced and hosted three shows and was liaison between station and community.

Developed:

  • Book, Coaching Clues:  Real Stories, Powerful Solutions Practical Tools, NB Publishing, May, 2003.
  • THINK TANK:  The Game of Creative Problem Solving¨, board game that provides problem solving methodology, explores creative and linear thinking, and fosters teamwork.
  • "The Genesis Creativity Audit," tool to assess the climate for organizational creativity and innovation.
  • The Journey, a Fable, fanciful story of change.
  • Thought Expanders¨, 365 day CD ROM that increases observation skills and stimulates fresh ideas.
  • Game for  Ghost Writer, a Children's Television Workshop Production.
  • Dozens of activities, programs and interventions custom designed for clients.


Examples of typical projects:

Facilitated large-scale change program for senior executives. Eight-day feedback-based leadership program, three two-day follow up sessions and year-long task teams.

Coached five executive task teams to:  develop employee database for managers, increase company-wide innovation, teach/learn empowerment, communicate strategic direction, and identify mega-processes for improvement.  

Coached individuals and teams of executives to develop, communicate and implement corporate strategy and lead change.

Coached global team of high potential executives for one year.  Role was to increase team effectiveness, problem solving techniques, individual leadership, and ability to analyze global business models.

Developed questionnaire to assess the nature and quality of communication that occurs within a department. Based upon the findings, coached department to improve their communication.

Designed, developed and delivered program to generate new ideas about high cost, high risk, complex engineering problems.  Focused on shifting both the problems and ways of looking at them to come up with new, innovative ideas for solving the multi-layered problems.

Assessed and analyzed the climate for innovation/creativity and made recommendations about how to make the culture more hospitable to new ideas.
Used idea generation tools to develop new products.  Resulted in a new product, which increased market share.

Member of three-person team working with credit card division at its inception.  Started with under 200 employees to create a customer-focused culture (from being product-driven to relationship-lead).  When we turned the work over to the company to continue, there were almost 2,000 employees and the credit card was in the top five and climbing.  It won the Baldrige Award for service.

Developed program to teach trainers to become internal customer service consultants.  Coached trainers until they were ready to take on new consulting roles.

Sampling of Clients:
Aera Energy, American Express, Avon Products, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Community College of Philadelphia, DuPont, GE, GM, Harris Bank, Hughes Electronics, IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Kraft, Mars/Masterfoods, Maryland Commercial Insurance, Merck, Metropolitan Life, Occidental Petroleum, Odyssey of the Mind, Outward Bound, Pfizer, Raytheon, The State of New York

Education:  Skidmore College, BS, Drama; Penn State University, MA English (equivalency); Temple University, MA Adult Development; University of Toronto, Adult Learning Certificate; The Forum Corporation, Master Facilitator Training; Mediation Training, Harvard University; Graduate Business and Human Performance courses from multiple sources; Assessment instrument certifications

Membership: Creative Education Foundation; Innovation Network; International Business Consortium, International Coaches Federation, Master Certified Coach;

 

©2006 Expanding Thought, Marian J. Thier