Jim McKinlay

Jim McKinlay has provided consulting services to clients in government, business and the community sectors since 1970. His concern for the communities he has lived in has been demonstrated by his service as Board Member, Volunteer or Staff Member for a wide variety of community based non-profit organizations.

He has an intense interest in the fields of Organizational Development and Human Resource Development as expressed by these comments:

"The ability of an organization and its people to accept, embrace and even pursue and create change will be critical to its future success. Having the capacity to respond to change and to manage it wisely and in a timely fashion, will provide corporations with the strategic advantage they will need to survive and succeed in the 21st Century.

My personal vision as a professional dedicated to the filed of human resource development is captured in my personal rallying cry:

'Transforming Vision into Action – through Strategic Change Management' "

From 1977-1986, Jim held various positions as a Provincial Government Consultant for three different Ontario Government Ministries, in the Hamilton, St. Catharine's and Toronto areas. In 1986, he moved to Regina, Saskatchewan as Senior Consultant for Organizational Change in the Staff Development Division of the Saskatchewan Public Service Commission. After three years, he was appointed Executive Director of the Staff Development Division. Here, he and his team were responsible for the design and delivery of corporate development and learning programs across the government, from Senior Executives to front-line Supervisors. Jim played a key role in the development and operation of a very successful internal consulting service for departments across the government, which was regarded as a model by other provincial governments.

In 1992, he and his family "followed their dreams" and moved to Canmore, Alberta, a small community nestled in the Rocky Mountains, just 20 kilometers from Banff. Jim, along with Colleen, his wife and Julie, their daughter, built their dream home on a lot overlooking the Bow River. This move, along with the establishment of their own home-based consulting business, was a key component of their own "Personal Life Plan". After fourteen years of "life in paradise", Jim and Colleen relocated to White Rock BC in 2006, which provides them with another view of "life in paradise" along the Pacific Ocean.

From 1992 - 1994, Jim served as a Senior Human Resource Consultant for a private utility company located in Western Canada. This experience provided some valuable experience in the world of private sector business. It also provided a painful and indelible lesson in how an implementation plan for a major organizational re-design process can create many victims if it is not managed in a wise and sensitive manner. Because too little concern was being shown for the human factor related to this change, Jim was faced with a personal values conflict. He ultimately decided to voluntarily resign, once he realized his efforts to influence the change in a more humane fashion were being rejected.

Jim now devotes his work to his own Management Consulting Business, as one of a group of 30 Alliance Partners in the Haines Centre for Strategic Management, a consulting group that specializes in Strategic Planning and Strategic Change Management. The Centre's Home Office is in San Diego, with Partner Offices located throughout Canada and the USA, as well as offices in thirteen other countries in Australia, Africa, Europe and Asia. Jim was one of the Co-Founders of the Centre, which was established in 1990 and he currently serves as a member of the Global Executive Committee, the North American Executive Team as well as Canadian Managing Partner.

Along with two other Partners of the Haines Centre for Strategic Management – Steve Haines and Gail Aller-Stead – Jim is the co-author of a new book entitled "Enterprise-Wide Change: Superior Results Through Systems Thinking". It was published in October of 2004, by Jossey-Bass Publishers, a Wiley and Sons imprint. This book is one of The Practicing Organization Development Series, which is a major project to update the old Addison Wesley Series on Organization Development that has been the backbone of every O.D. consultant's professional library since the series was released in the early 1980's.

Jim's level of International Consulting experience has been steadily growing. He has conducted public sector workshops in Western and Northern Australia, as well as specific consulting assignments for the Government of Jamaica and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Budapest, Hungary.

Jim is a graduate of the University of Waterloo, in Honours Recreation (1973), which was the first degree program in Recreation Studies in Canada. He earned his Masters of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in 1989, through University Associates, in San Diego, California. He has served as a Faculty Member at the Banff Centre for Management, from 1996 – 2001, an internationally recognized Executive Development Centre, on several of their Leadership and Executive Management Development programs.

Jim brings over 30 years of practical experience in the areas of Strategic Management, Leadership and Organizational Development, and Human Resource Management. He has been highly acclaimed for his work in Public Consultations, Conference Keynote Presentations, and more than 700 consulting projects with clients from the private sector, the public sector and not-for-profit groups. His recent ventures into the international field include assignments in Australia, Jamaica and the USA. His formal education and years of practical experience help to ensure his sessions are challenging, valuable and enjoyable.

He has described his career goal as follows:

"I've served as an internal and external consultant within a variety of organizations since 1974 in locations throughout Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta. In addition, I've provided external consulting support to government organizations from Newfoundland to the Yukon, at the municipal, provincial, territorial and federal levels. My consulting practice has also included many private sector organizations as well as not-for profit groups in many different fields of endeavour.

At several points in my career, I have served in key executive roles within organizations and helped them to grow, change and develop in response to increasing demands for improved service quality and innovative service effectiveness.

From this experience base, I've been able to confirm that the real goal of my career is to be valued by my clients and customers as "the change agent that really made a difference'."

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:

• In 1990, along with Steve Haines, co-founded the Haines Centre for Strategic Management, which has matured into a strategic alliance of fifteen Partners and Principals across Canada and the USA, as well as International partners operating in fifteen countries within Australia, Africa, Europe and Asia. Members of the Centre are fully responsible for their own consulting practice, as an independent entrepreneur. Through collaboration, they continue to develop a state-of-the-art body of knowledge focused on the critical fields of Strategic Planning and Strategic Change Management. All work is built upon a "Systems Thinking Framework" and these practices are utilized in all of our consulting work.
• Co-author of a new book entitled "Enterprise-Wide Change: Superior Results Through Systems Thinking". This book is one of The Practicing Organization Development Series, which is a major project to update the old Addison Wesley Series on Organization Development that has been the backbone of every O.D. consultant's professional library since the series was released in the early 1980's. This new book was published in Oct. of 2004.
• In 1993, co-designed and co-facilitated the development of an innovative Competency Assessment Process and related Pay for Competence System in two of the three primary business units at TransAlta Utilities Corporation.
• During 1993, facilitated the training program for Mutual Gains Negotiations at TransAlta which was used to successfully conclude contract negotiations with both the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the TransAlta Employee's Association (TAEA) - before either contract expired in 1993.
• Since 1990, served as Lead Consultant on corporate Strategic Planning Projects for approximately 100 different corporations and government departments throughout Canada - in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon and Northwest Territories.
• While with the Saskatchewan Public Service Commission from 1986 -1992, was responsible for:
  • creating an internal Consulting Services Team which provided consulting support for over 100 projects affecting every Government Department as well as several Crown Corporations and Agencies;
  • instituting an extremely successful service standard policy of providing a "money-back guarantee of satisfaction" when using our consulting services;
  • provided consulting support on two major corporate down-sizing exercises (in 1987 and in 1992) which affected up to 17% of the current public sector workforce; both of these initiatives were recognized nationally as models of how to handle this type of traumatic event in a very responsible and humane manner which ensured that individuals were treated fairly throughout the exercise - including support services until new employment was found;
  • the creation of the "Serving People First" program of developing a strong client centered focus within government departments; this project received national recognition in 1990 as part of the "Award of Innovative Management Program", co-sponsored by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) and Coopers - Lybrand;
  • designing and implementing an extremely successful Employee Wellness Program in which the Pilot Project provided a return-on-investment ratio of 2.4:1, by reducing employee absenteeism by almost 50%;
  • the design and implementation of a government-wide performance management process called Coaching For Results; this process fostered employee empowerment by creating individual and work unit plans that were functionally integrated with the organization's strategic and operational plans; made presentations on the program at regional, provincial and national conferences across Canada; this model was later adopted for use within the Ontario Public Service.
• From 1977-86, while with the Ontario Government, was involved in the design and delivery of several innovative community programs including:
  • "Working With Volunteer Boards" training program,
  • "Young Leaders Tomorrow" - a youth development program and
  • "Ontario Volunteer Recognition Program".
• Since 1980, he has been developing much of own material. Several of Jim's theories and models were included in publications produced by the Ministry of Citizenship & Culture and the Ministry of Tourism & Recreation in Ontario. In 1987, Jim's model of an "Organizational Health Analysis" was published in the journals of both the Canadian Parks & Recreation Association and the Saskatchewan Recreation Society.

Now, most of his consulting practice is built upon models, concepts and materials developed by team of partners and affiliates. Several of these pieces of work have been published in provincial professional journals in Western Canada. The Haines Centre for Strategic Management now publishes much of its own material and has an extensive collection of learning tools and techniques, built upon the "Systems Thinking Framework" that Jim McKinlay and Steven Haines pioneered.

EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE:

EDUCATION:

• Masters of Human Resource Development (MHRD), 1989, University Associates, San Diego, California
• Coursework towards Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Part-time Studies Program (1980 -1981); terminated studies in 1981; State University of New York at Buffalo, New York
• Bachelor of Arts, Honours Recreation - Co-op Program, 1973, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
• Human Resource Development Intern Program, 1988 – 1989, University Associates, San Diego, California

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS and AFFILIATIONS:

• Banff Centre for Management, Banff, Alberta - served as Faculty Member of several Executive Leadership Programs.
• Alberta Society for Human Resources and Organizational Development (ASHROD) - Calgary, Alberta - past member of the Program Committee and Co-Chair of the 1994 Provincial Leadership Conference.
• Canadian Human Resource Planners, Ottawa, Ontario
• Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Alexandria, Virginia
• Conference Board of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
  • served as member of the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC)
• Canadian Public Personnel Management Association (CPPMA), Toronto, Ontario
  • Program Chairman, 1990 National Conference
  • past member of the National Certification Board
• Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC)
  • past member of Executive Committee for Regina Regional Chapter
• Saskatchewan Training & Development Association
  • past member of Executive Committee, Regina, Saskatchewan
• American Society of Training & Development, Washington, D.C.