Jane Cavanaugh

I'm a life and business coach, meeting facilitator, and leadership trainer.

I bring the same unique blend of experience to this blog that I do to my coaching, training and meeting facilitation practices. I am grounded in solid experience and best practices in business, as well as the art of “creating your own reality.” I have lived and worked in a variety of cooperative, collaborative environments since I was 19 years old, including:

* Living for two years in an off-the-grid college environmental housing cooperative, now in its 30th year (Denison University's Homestead)
* Working for over five years for a natural foods cooperative warehouse (former People's Wherehouse in Ann Arbor, MI)
* Almost 20 years of working in corporate collaborative team environments, primarily in high tech
* Creating a small co-housing community on my own land in the Santa Cruz Mountains

This blog contains insights, tools and best practices for what I've learned about the art of change, communication and collaboration in life and business.

LIFE+WORK. My favorite conversations and coaching sessions are at the intersection of life and work. People who have a business goal but are also curious about what’s under the surface. What about their own beliefs and attitudes might be getting in the way? What about the way they are thinking or feeling might be in the way of making effective change in a particular situation or their life? How could they find or create work that feels like play? This blog is intended to have a blend of two sometimes very different skill sets that I often bring together in coaching sessions—the art of manifesting or “creating your reality” and business best practices.

LIFE. I make frequent often radical change in my life, with successful, satisfying outcomes. It confuses some and occasionally concerns my family, but for me it is a natural and essential part of exploring life. I continue to get faster and smoother at creating significant change. I have learned a tremendous amount about how to manifest change through study, experimentation, receiving good coaching, my own life experience and experiences of people that I coach. In my private coaching practice I often work with clients who are ready to make some significant change in their life or work, but are struggling with how to move forward. Part of this blog is about sharing what I’ve learned over the years as a masterful change artist.

WORK. I have an extensive business background that I bring to this blog (see my Bio on www.janecavanaugh.com for more details). I am an executive coach, leadership development trainer, and strategic meeting facilitator. I have been facilitating and designing agendas for complex, strategic meetings for over 15 years, in both external and internal consulting roles. I regularly train leaders on the tools and best practices for meeting facilitation, agenda design, decision-making and stakeholder management. Coaching has been a part of my role for over 15 years. Four years ago I began a private coaching practice, where I work with professionals on business and life goals. Part of this blog is about sharing best practices for business skills like communication, leadership, teamwork, collaborative decision-making, stakeholder management and personal performance.