ABOUT
I have deep knowledge and experience in matters of leadership generally and especially as it pertains to organizational and individual change.
I bring that expertise and experience to collaborating with you concerning your immediate challenge. I bring you an external perspective based on experience, research, writing, and teaching executive education. I combine this perspective with careful garnered appreciation of the perspective from within your organization.
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
I do what I do because I believe that work forms an essential component of human existence. Work affects much of how we show up in our lives outside of work and that organizations (along with their leaders) can profoundly affect how we experience work. I work with a small portfolio of organizations at any time, because I carry them with me. I think about them. I worry about their well-being.
I consult and I teach regularly at Wharton’s Aresty Institute of Executive Education, in the areas of organizational and individual change (including resilience), leadership, innovation, group effectiveness, and diversity. I have worked extensively in a wide variety of industries and with senior leadership including boards of directors as well as deep within organizations. I am a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School’s Center for Leadership and Change, Adjunct Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and of its Aresty Institute of Executive Education, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the Wharton School, and President of Shea & Associates, Inc.
I frequently serve as Learning Director of Wharton Executive Education programs, including for the Johnson and Johnson/Wharton Program for Health System CEO’s and for 14 years as Academic Director for the Johnson and Johnson/Wharton Fellows Program for Nurse Executives. My awards include an Excellence in Teaching Award from Wharton. I am a member of the Academy of Management and the American Psychological Association.
RESEARCH AND WRITINGS
I have authored or co-authored numerous books and articles in academic and thoughtful practitioner press such as Leading Successful Change: 8 Keys to Making Change Work (revised edition, 2020), We Can Fix Healthcare: The Future Is Now (2016), Your Job Survival Guide: A Manual for Thriving in Change (2009), American Healthcare & the Consumer Experience (2005), and The Phantom Stethoscope: A Field Manual for Finding an Optimistic Future in Medicine (1999) and have contributed chapters to the following books: Business Management for the Curious: Why Study Business Management (2015), Strategic Thinking and Entrepreneurial Action in Health Care (2007), Medicine and Business (2000), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (2nd edition; 1992), Managing Hospitals (1991), and Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management (Volume 5; 1987).
My writing has appeared in the Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Journal of Applied Management, Journal of Applied Behavior Science, Journal of Conflict Resolution, British Journal of Social Psychology, Directors and Boards, Journal of Management Development, Healthcare Transformation, Nursing Administration Quarterly, Annals of Surgery, Health Management Policy and Innovation, and School Administrator. I have served as Associate Editor of Healthcare Transformation and as contributing editor to the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. I also have contributed over the years to Knowledge@Wharton and Wharton Business Radio.
EDUCATION AND PERSONAL
I am a Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard College and hold an M.Sc. in Management Studies from the London School of Economics and an M.A., M. Phil., and Ph.D. in Administrative Science from Yale University.
Besides my current resume, I’d note that I’ve worked for wage since I was 14, supervised people since I was 17, served as a partner in a seven partner national consulting firm, and, perhaps most importantly (!), am in my second tour of duty on the management committee of my homeowner’s association. In short, I have experienced a full life, one that has led to a well-developed sense of how things — people, organizations, and the world — work.
I am a husband of nearly 35 years, married to a feminist, and father of two strong and independent-minded adult daughters. I’ve had my boots on all 7 continents and am a poster child for the power of stem cell transplantation to battle cancer.