t was a dark and stormy afternoon. The wind howled through the barren chambers of the phys ed building. Inside, warm and dry but quite afraid, I confronted the tap dancing instructor with grim amusement. Having lost a bet with my doctoral advisor, I had signed up for the tap dancing class listed in the far reaches of the MIT course catalog. Now I grew transfixed by the spectacle of two dozen geek graduate students attempting to learn the fine art.
The fact that this was the famous gymnasium the paper airplane club used to push its flimsy science to the limits was lost on most of the double dozen. Many clutched note pads and pencils, attempting in vain to keep up with the fast-talking but frighteningly imprecise teacher.
Who was more frustrated, the students who wanted, so desperately, to discover and provide the right answer, or the instructor, a zaftig woman in her forties, who kept imploring, "Relax, please relax, just let your body flow, flow, flow." And yet the more she implored, the more we all looked stilted, robotic, mechanical.
It was somewhere in the midst of watching this event that my own interest in the geeks around me became clear to me. Decades later, with my MIT PhD and brass rat ring in hand along with a few years experience working in a think tank and another few years experience teaching in a major university's MBA program, I find an easy chemistry with geek groups.
In twenty years of management consulting we have found our way to some of the most renowned geek organizations on the planet: the renowned AT&T Labs, the esteemed QA groups of major pharmaceutical companies, consulting groups at the Centers For Disease Control, knowledge managers in software companies, the founders of major technologies, even the crew of the Alvin submarine.
Our track record with geek groups is significant. Most people in our business turn tail and run when confronted with geek groups and with good reason. We have encountered numerous geek groups who have recounted with great relish their escapades that sent smiley-faced corporate trainers packing. There was, for example, that group of math modelers who conspired only to mumble in response to all of their trainers' questions about their "feelings." And there was the group of statisticians who put the names of obscure mathematicians on their "Hello, I'm Horace" name tags.
These are the very groups that make our day.
Geeklead.com is primarily Dr. William C. Ronco, author of the beleaguered prose above. Dr. Ronco involves a team of highly experienced and qualified associates for larger projects, but he is the founder and principal force in the organization.
A management consultant with over twenty years experience, Dr. Ronco is especially qualified to function effectively as leader for training, teambuilding and partnering programs for technical professionals. He brings a unique and valuable mix of experience and expertise to each assignment:
- Broad industry experience. Dr. Ronco works in a wide variety of organizations: software, real estate, computers, telecommunications, construction, architecture, quality, service, support, research, consulting and many others. His perspective can help group members compare their situations across industry lines, and distinguish between small and large issues.
- Highly rated management/ leadership instructor. Dr. Ronco regularly conducts management and leadership training programs for Boston University, the Institute for Professional Education and the International Development Research Council. Previously, he was a professor in the MBA program at Northeastern University. Participant evaluations of his programs are consistently at the highest levels. Dr. Ronco's experience as a leadership instructor provides a foundation for his assisting program participants in developing high levels of competence in carrying out the leadership skills.
- Skilled facilitator. Dr. Ronco works extensively with facilitation in the hundreds of successful partnering and teambuilding programs he as led. This experience with facilitating ensures that Leadership Circle group discussions are balanced, interactive and objective. Program participants are able to participate evenly, comfortably and effectively at all times.
- Long term consulting relationships. Dr. Ronco's work with numerous clients over lengthy time periods provides him with the perspective to know what kinds of issues matter in the long run, what is easy to change and what is more difficult, what is worth working on and what is essential to improve
A nationally recognized expert on effective partnering methods, Dr. Ronco is author, with Jean Ronco of the Partnering Manual For Design and Construction (NY: McGraw-Hill, 1996) and numerous articles on partnering and outsourcing as well. He has led over a hundred partnering workshops for design and construction projects. He has led an additional hundred partnering projects outside construction, in outsourcing, strategic alliances, sales, customer support, implementing new technologies, improving interdepartmental communications and in government agencies.
Prior to founding Gathering Pace Consulting some twenty years
ago, Dr. Ronco was professor in the MBA program at Northeastern
University. Coordinator of the Business Ethics classes, he
taught Organizational Change, Organization Design and Organizational
Behavior. Dr. Ronco was a Senior Analyst at Abt Associates,
conducting organizational analyses of government agencies. He
also served as Coordinator of Continuing Education at the Boston
Architectural Center.
Author of numerous articles, Dr. Ronco has written three books in addition to the partnering book: Food Co-ops (Boston: Beacon Press: 1974); Jobs (Boston: Beacon Press, 1977); and (with Lisa Peattie) Making Work (NY: Plenum, 1981).
Dr. Ronco earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and his B.A. from Rutgers University.
Note: Dr. Ronco is not (so far as he knows) related to the infamous Ronco Products advertised on late-night television: the salad spinner, the frying pan screen, the spray-on hair. Usually a patient and genial person, he struggles to maintain composure with people who make Ronco products jokes in his presence.
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