ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE COACHES

Jeff Clanon
Jeff Clanon is a founding consultant member and former Director of Partnership Development for The Society for Organizational Learning (SoL). SoL is a non-profit; member governed organization chaired by Peter M. Senge Ph.D., dedicated to building knowledge about fundamental institutional change through integrating research, capacity building, and the practical application of organizational learning theory and methods. SoL evolved from the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT where Jeff was the Executive Director for five years.

While working with the members of SoL which include private and public sector organizations such as Shell, Nissan, Ford, AT&T, Boeing, the Department of Defense DoD, as well as researchers and consultants, Jeff focused on discovering, teaching, and implementing theory and practice in the area of organizational learning. Jeff was responsible for establishing and directing SoL’s executive coaching, which coached over 150 executives and managers in both the public and private sectors.

He is particularly interested in leadership as systemic phenomena and its implications for senior managers as they create and sustain work environments, which facilitate learning, tap intrinsic motivation and generate effective, collaborative action.

Over the past five years Jeff has focused on teaching, coaching and consulting with leaders and management teams in academic institutions, Federal Government agencies including the US Department of Education, NASA, and the National Security Agency and the World Bank Group. Jeff has more than 30 years of experience in the area of individual and organizational learning, having held positions as a clinical psychologist, educator, and organization development consultant and business manager.

Prior to SoL and MIT, Jeff helped establish Digital Equipment Corporation's pioneering effort in the commercial application of artificial intelligence technology and had worldwide management responsibility for Digital's knowledge engineering training programs. He also served as Director of a Community Mental Health Center in Swampscott, Massachusetts, and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Western Samoa.

Jeff has published a number of articles in the area of organizational change, knowledge engineering education and the intersection of organizational learning and technology. His article “Organizational Transformation form the Inside Out: Reinventing the MIT Center for Organizational Learning,” won an award as outstanding submission to the Learning Organization International Journal for 1999. A more recent article published in the Systems Thinker in 2004 entitled “The Dark Side of Success: Dealing with the Organizational and Emotional Complexities of Growth” provides insights into the complexities of organizational growth and the practical application of systems thinking methodologies.

He received a BA from Dickinson College, and MS from the University of Illinois and he has also completed postgraduate programs at Harvard Medical School, Laboratory of Community Psychiatry and at MIT.