ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We have so many people and organizations to thank for their insights, encouragement, and support in the creation of this book. First and foremost, we thank our families, Liz and Kate and Susan and Max, for their steadfast love and sacrifices of family time. We’ve also enjoyed the inspiration of many teachers, including Thomas Leonard, an early founder of professional coaching who challenged us to figure out how to train people to develop the essence of coaching skills within thirty minutes. That challenge prompted us to create the Talent Catalyst Conversation model. Shirley Anderson and many other leaders have supported us and our efforts from the beginning.

Professional colleagues and friends generously contributed insights for our efforts. In particular, we note John Steinhart, who originally recruited Don to the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Professor Michael Ray, who taught the Creativity in Business course that Don attended in its first offering. They have been outstanding sources of wisdom, treasured friends, and powerful “Hope Holders” for our endeavor. Meg Wheatley also took an early interest in the project and, along with Michael Ray, recommended the book to Steve Piersanti, president of Berrett-Koehler. While we had heard wonderful reports about this publisher for years, we have been amazed and delighted by the kindly rigor of Berrett-Koehler’s editorial, marketing, and production teams. They immediately understood and championed the vision of providing keys for everyone to take charge of their talent. We deeply appreciate Jim Kouzes’s interest in the book and the insights and energy he brought to writing the foreword.

Suzanne Murray and Lauren Courcy Villagran provided very talented editorial assistance for the draft manuscript. Dorothy Kolomeisky served as our key editor. Her fresh perspective, creative ideas, animated language, and constant support arrived just when we needed them most.

Many clients in organizations large and small, for profit and nonprofit, have participated in workshops and Talent Catalyst Conversations and shared invaluable feedback. Frank Benest, who is a past president of California City Managers, a former city manager of Palo Alto, and now senior advisor to the International City-County Management Association, stimulated our early work to create a program that scales easily to serve people throughout an organization. We also appreciate Jim Collins’s encouragement to think big about the impact that Take Charge of Your Talent could have. The Take Charge 20/20 Vision (twenty million people in twenty countries using the keys by the year 2020) arose from his concept of a long-term BHAG (big hairy audacious goal).

The success of the vision will require attracting many people from around the globe to share leadership of the endeavor. We are grateful to an early band of master coaches who provided suggestions for implementing the program. They include Siobhan Murphy (self-appointed and much appreciated “minister” for the effort), Andrew Cassidy, Gail Ginder, and Julia Fabris McBride. More recently, Heide Marie Klein, Axel Meierhofer, and others have offered interest, ideas, and leadership.

To all of you and many more people who continue to inspire, encourage, and support us, we express our deepest thanks.