Work and Your Infinite Wisdom
 
John attended Roanoke College, Salem, VA, graduating with honors in History and Philosophy in 1962. After graduation, he finished high in his class at the US Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI, and served as Combat Officer aboard the USS EATON (DD-510) in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean Fleets, receiving commendations for his work in Anti-Submarine Warfare Air Control and Intelligence. In 1966 he finished his four-year tour of duty and enrolled in the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Columbia, SC.
 
He again graduated with honors and served an Internship in Norfolk, VA, where he conducted one of the nation's first Street Ministries, working with "people of the night." From there he went to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, as Lutheran Chaplain, where he created programs linking the spiritual domain with the educational and business communities. His reputation as a facilitator of change grew, as he responded to more invitations from business and non-profit organizations to lead management seminars and resolve workplace conflicts.
 
In 1973 John went to Spokane, WA, to join the Leadership Institute of Spokane (LIOS), serving as Co-Founder and Core Faculty for the nation's first competency-based Masters Program in the Applied Behavioral Sciences. In 1982 he founded his own leadership and organization development firm.
 
Since then he has worked with organizations and their leaders from around the world, including Boeing, GTE, Ford, Sisters of Mercy Health Corporation, Polaroid, AEtna, The US Army, Northern Telecom, ACE Hardware, TV New Zealand, Blue Cross-Blue Shield, the van Melle Company, Cook Inlet Tribal Council, Pathways Poland, Siemens and many others. Each year he addresses national and international conferences as a keynote speaker, this year in Ottawa; Canada, Krakow, Poland; and Shenyang, China.
 
He is a Member of The World Business Academy, and The OD Network, author or co-author of many professional articles, including most recently, "On the Shoulders of Giants: The Origins of Organization Development," and "The Role of Individual Development in OD" in Practicing Organization Development.
 
He is a pioneer in the emerging field that shares the name of his 1993 book, Work and the Human Spirit, and is the author or creator of over a hundred articles, video programs and on-line resources in the fields of high-performance leadership development, conflict resolution, and unleashing the human spirit at work. He has recently written chapters for Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work, and The Many Facets of Leadership. In 1985 his Breakthrough Series was the first application of video-based technology to assist work groups in becoming high-performance teams during regular meetings. His next book, Five Questions That Change Everything, was released in September of 2007.
 
Based in Seattle, WA, John has four children, plays the guitar, does the occasional magic show, runs and does yoga daily, and loves to read a good spy novel
 
See www.scherercenter.com for more information.