Lisa J. Marshall created The Smart Work Company to prepare executives, teams and organizations everywhere to do their best work. Prior to this, she was with Syntax Communication Modeling Corporation for 17 years. Some of her accomplishments include:

• helping leaders at Intel, EDS, and other places build compelling
• organizational stories that motivate and align their organizations;
• supporting the introduction of a new decision-making process with •
• collaboration skills at Intel;
• developing and conducting "just-in-time" collaboration skills trainings • • • interwoven with business simulations for EDS and Hewlett-Packard;
• developing and teaching influencing skills to senior managers at Taiwan • • Semiconductor Manufacturing Company; and
• coaching executives in Fortune 500 companies like Dell, General Motors, • EDS, and Intel as well as working with people in startups.

In addition, Ms. Marshall co-wrote, Smart Work: The Syntax Guide for Mutual Understanding, a practical, how-to discussion of collaboration in technical environments. She is also co-author of the essay "Why Smart Organizations’s Don’t Learn" in Productivity Press’s best-selling Learning Organizations: Creating Cultures for Tomorrow’s Workplace. She speaks and writes extensively as a nationally recognized authority on the use of story in the workplace, leadership stories for organizations and individuals, change management, interpersonal effectiveness in knowledge environments, the changing nature of work, and coordinated coaching as a culture change tool. She frequently presents at conferences such as Project World, Linkage’s Coaching and Mentoring Conference, the International Association of Facilitators, the American Society for Training and Development and the Organization Development Network.

Marshall is currently at work on a new book, whose working title is The Gift of True Longing; Leadership, Story, Spirit and Work. She has been fascinated for a long time by the implications of complexity science (non-linear systems) for organizations faced with radical change. She spent 12 years as an educational/documentary film and video producer, documenting social change before she moved into business. She is a graduate of Bennington College and is certified in Syntax, Ontological Coaching and Transition Management.

When she’s not doing client work, Lisa is in her wonderful home office in Washington, DC, with Dr. Electrode (her techno-wizard spouse), two terrific daughters, a very large dog, and her frequently neglected garden. She is currently Co-Clerk of the Bethesda Friends Meeting.