Dr.
John Izzo
Dr.
John Izzo sees and feels the
goodness many of us aspire to. As an author, community leader and inspiring speaker he has
worked hard to talk about the essential elements of Leadership
and the new frontier of that ever changing role. His interests are Development as
it pertains to the individual as well at the company, Corporate
Culture and the pursuit of creating places that support the individual
as well as the corporate vision, and Personal Well-being in the
fight to balance work and life.
Dr. John Izzo has more than 19 years experience working in a wide
variety of corporate settings. His clients include nonprofit
organizations, Fortune 500 companies, Healthcare Organizations and
mid-size companies. Over the last two decades, John Izzo has married
his first career as a minister with his second career as a management
& leadership consultant to help leaders create corporations and
organizations where values and purpose are the foundations for
success. Dr. Izzo spent five years as a senior organizational
development consultant for Kaiser Permanente, and 4 years as Vice
President of The Einstein Consulting Group, an international customer
service consultancy prior to establishing his own firm. Currently he
focuses on helping leaders and organizations reach sustainable success
through the integration of purposeful leadership and business
practices.
John Izzo obtained his Bachelor of Sociology from Hofstra University
in 1978 before completing a dual Masters degree from McCormick
Divinity School in Theology while simultaneously attending the
University of Chicago to complete his Masters in
Organizational
Psychology. Dr. Izzo then completed his Ph.D. in Organizational
Communication from Kent State University shortly thereafter. He is the
author of over 60 articles, and is the co-author of the best selling
book “Awakening Corporate Soul: Four Paths to Unleash the Power of
People at Work” and its companion workbook. His pioneering work has
been featured on CNN, ABC World News, the LA Times, Canada AM, CBC
Radio, The American Medical Journal, B.C. Business, The Seattle Times
and the cover of Association Management Magazine on “Creating
Inspiring Work Places”. His second book “Values-Shift:
The New Work Ethic
and What it Means for Business” (Prentice-Hall) defines how and why
our work ethic is changing, and it focuses on the six major shifts
people expect from work. As well, if offers practical ideas on what
companies and managers can do to retain and inspire the people they
need and value. Based on leading edge research and experiences with more than 200
companies, John Izzo helps people understand these shifting values and
how they differ across generations and across gender. In 2004
Berrett Koehler published John's third non-fiction book titled "Second Innocence: Rediscovering Joy and
Wonder" . It is a powerful book
that blends personal stories with Dr. Izzo's thoughts on work,
spirituality, relationships and daily life.
trivia...
Married with three children. Born in Connecticut raised in New
York City and now lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Favorite Books---
The Sacred Balance:
Rediscovering Our Place in Nature by
David Suzuki
Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness
in Everyday Life by Thomas Moore
The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional
Values and Spiritual Growth by Scott Peck
The
Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the Worlds Coasts and
Beneath the Seas by Carl Safina
Favorite Musicians---
Bruce Springsteen Jan Arden
Nancy Griffith Harry Chapin
Jackson Browne, Coldplay Five for
Fighting Deep Blue Sea
Favorite Movies---
"Jerry McGuire" "BIG FISH"
"Mass Appeal" "Gandhi"
"Casablanca" "Sorry, Wrong Number"
"Thin Red Line" "Hotel Rwanda" "Blood Diamond"
Chosen
Hobbies:
Tennis Downhill skiing
Hiking Golf
Reading Environmental
responsibility
Dr. John Izzo's
Story
Dr. John Izzo has devoted his life and career to helping leaders create
workplaces that are capable of bringing out the best in people and
helping people discover more purpose and fulfillment in life and work.
From his early days as a minister to his 17 years in organization
development, his focus has been to improve the quality of work and life.
We are at a unique time in human history. Competition and change have
created the need for organizations to adapt and evolve at an accelerated
pace. These demands have taken their toll on the workplace and on those
who work. At the same time, many of us are yearning for a simpler, more
balanced life, one where relationships, play and contribution are
balanced with achievement, career, and material success. A growing
number of us have a desire for a different experience, one where our
work has more meaning and our life a more human pace. So we live in a
time of great paradox-leaders need more from their people but people
want more from leaders. We want our work to have more meaning but we
want to find more time for play and relationships.
One of these paradoxes is that we have 18th century organizational
philosophies and 21st century workers. Based on the work of Frederick
Taylor, many organizations still operate in top down, hierarchical
models while the new workforce expect to be treated like partners.
Dr. John Izzo is uniquely qualified to address the concerns of both
business leaders and the professional individual with emerging desires
for our lives and work to be more purposeful.
Over the last 15 years he has worked with thousands of leaders,
professionals and front-line colleagues to foster more responsibility,
purpose, and spirit at work. His clients have ranged from high tech to
high touch, from hotels to hospitals, from government agencies to
entrepreneurial start-ups. In each case, his wisdom and experience has
helped people discover practical ways to create engaged teams and more
fulfilling lives.
He is the author of two highly acclaimed books-Awakening Corporate Soul
and Values Shift: The New Work Ethic & What it Means for Business. In
his first book, he identified four paths to more soul and engagement at
work. He has given hundreds of talks to leaders and front line people on
how spirit is created at work and what each of us must do to create that
for ourselves and others.
In Values Shift, he identified six major shifts in our values at work
and created a blueprint of the 21st century workforce. These shifts
towards balance, partnership, trust, community, growth and development,
and work as noble cause, represent the values that must be embodied by
the successful organization of the present and future. He offers both an
insightful look at how values are shifting as well as practical ideas on
how to win this new workforce.
Today’s employees are looking to be inspired, to work in places of deep
trust, places of integrity, and places where their development and
growth is nurtured and valued. Yet our research shows that employees are
also deeply distrustful of organizations and leaders. Dr. Izzo helps
leaders discover how to gain the trust of people and create
organizations where values are real and lived. Such organizations
inspire deep levels of commitment from people.
Leaders have said that Dr. John Izzo is that unique combination of
practical ideas and high-level “big picture” thinking that leaders want.
In one talk he will inspire your people to greater vision, challenge
them with new insights, and leave them with practical things they can do
to create the organization of the future.
But John Izzo is more than a thinker about great organizations, he is a
person capable of inspiring your audience to more authentic, purposeful
lives. Drawing on his early work in ministry and thousands of workshops
on soul in work, Dr. Izzo challenges audiences to live a life that
matters, an uncommon life, where lasting legacy is balanced with every
day fulfillment.
With topics like Living a Life that Matters and What Matters Most?
(Aligning Your Life with Your Values), his work will inspire everyone to
discover a life filled with purpose, where we can re-discover the sacred
in the simple moments of life. In the big stuff and in the small stuff,
he challenges us with insight and practical ideas on living a more
intentional life and leaving a more significant legacy.
In his newest book, he will explore what it means to live a more
intentional life, on focused on what matters to us, one where we are
more present in the daily experience of our lives, and one where we
ultimately live in a way that leaves the world, our community, and our
families better than when we arrived. This book is about find that
“Second Innocence”.
Sigmund Freud once said that the primary human motivation is the
avoidance of pain. Dr. Izzo believes that the primary human drive is the
search for significance, the desire to know that our life and our work
have mattered. His work has been devoted to that human desire and to the
development of communities that are up to the challenges of our age.
The great Yankee baseball player and manager, Yogi Berra, once said “
you can see a lot by observing.”
Dr. John Izzo has spent two decades working with individuals and leaders
who were trying to find purpose and fulfillment in their lives. He has
worked with some of the most admired and greatest places to work in
North America. It is this insight, gained from two decades of consulting
and coaching that makes him such a valuable resource.
