Michael Sales Ed.D.

After 30 years of working as a researcher and consultant in the field of organizational behavior, I've co-authored Life Sustaining Organizations-A Design Guide-with my partner, Anika Savage.

We wrote this book to address two important issues:

1) A lot of people are not nearly as happy at work as they want to be and as they deserve to be. Work is often more life-draining than it is life-sustaining. We think we know something about what it takes to design a very lively organization that attracts and holds highly creative talent, the sort of "cool" people that others want to know and work with.

2) Large, complex organizations are having a lot of unintended negative consequences for the planet's eco-system. The ability of the Earth to sustain life is under stress because of human activity. Human society needs more life-sustaining organization that consciously seeks to live in a harmonious relationship with nature.

Organizations that see themselves as living systems and, therefore, depend upon being in good health want to attract vital people that will infuse them with life and they want to support the well-being of the natural environment that is the context for all of us.

We invented a methodology, Structural Dynamics, that shows organizations how to pay attention to the dynamic forces that will excite an organizational system and keep it young. Structural Dynamics integrates the analytical approaches of systems thinking with the imagination generated by scenario planning. Our book lays out the elements of a Structural Dynamics process and provides an example of how to apply it. People who become involved in this strategic thinking process become Anticipatory Leaders, who are able to help their organizations face the future with confidence.

Some additional information about me:

* I've worked across a wide spectrum of economic sectors as an organizational analyst, executive coach, and the designer/trainer of a variety of leadership development training courses. Engagements have included lengthy stints at Partners Health Care, Rohm and Haas Corporation, Seagrams, MIT, Boston College, Ashland Chemical, Polaroid, and Arthur D. Little to name a few representative clients.

* I've authored about fifteen articles for journals and periodicals in the fields of organizational learning and family business. I've been published in The Systems Thinker, Strategy and Leadership, Small Business Reports, and The Employee Relations Bulletin. I've also had chapters published in Jossey-Bass' Organization Development Reader and Business Leadership Reader, both top sellers in the organizational learning field.

• I've presented in many different contexts, including the World Future Society, the Association for Strategic Planning, the Ecology of Work Conference, Babson's Program on Family Business Practice, Harvard University, and the Intelligence Leadership Forum.

* I hold a doctorate in organizational behavior from Harvard's Graduate School of Education where I worked closely with Chris Argyris, Lee Bolman, Grady McGonagill, Diana Smith, Bill Torbert, Bill Joiner, Joan Gallos, Michel Crozier and others.

* I was a senior associate of Power and Systems Training for 25 years where I on staff at the open enrollment Power Lab and ran the Organization Workshop and the Merging Cultures workshop multiple times for clients like Microsoft and Phillips Medical.

* I was trained in Economics and Finance at the Wharton School and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. I applied my learning there to securities analysis.

* I co-founded the Family Business Resource Center, where I coached a number of family business owners and managers and published original research in the field.

• I've had teaching assignments at Harvard, California State University at San Francisco, San Francisco University, and the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

* I come from a family of show business people and entrepreneurs who started, owned and managed successful enterprises.

* I've been a big picture thinker from the time I was ten and started following stories of oppression, such as the effort to suppress the Dali Lama in 1954 and the crushing of the Hungarian Rebellion in 1956.

• Nothing make me prouder than my daughter, who is the author of humorous novels and an editor of young adult fiction at a publishing house in Manhattan.

I hope you find something useful in our book. We would love to get your reactions and feedback.