|
About the Authors: Jan Means
Professional Summary - Janet A. Means 
Ms. Means is experienced as a senior facilitator, business process designer, and information systems manager and developer over a 25 year career in a variety of industries including manufacturing, direct mail, banking, publishing, retail, and financial services. Special expertise focuses on facilitation of worksessions which bring Business and Information Systems professionals together to improve business performance -- by defining effective strategies and corresponding project initiatives, developing improved business processes and data, and aligning them to the organizations and information technology necessary to ensure peak productivity.
Ms. Means has extensive experience in the practical application of business process and data analysis and re-design, advanced communication, team building and information system development methods and techniques, including quality and change methodologies such as Six Sigma. Techniques utilized are preferably practiced in facilitated group worksessions, and are primarily model-based -- yielding clear and unambiguous deliverables for business project scope, processes, data, organization roles and responsibilities, and information technology requirements. She takes a “hands-on” approach, mentoring and transferring knowledge so that productive techniques and work patterns may be internalized by the client's business professionals.
Ms. Means is an accomplished facilitator, performing facilitated worksessions across organizational levels as appropriate to project needs – from senior executives to front-line workers. As a certified user of several psychological testing instruments, Ms. Means also works with organizations to help them understand the impact of employee preferences, behavior, and learned skills on communication and productivity.
Education and Professional Involvement
Ms. Means holds a Masters degree in Industrial Administration from Union College, a B.A. in Mathematics from Houghton College, and is working on a graduate program in psychology. Her professional career began in the information management arena, where she progressed from developer to senior management responsibilities.
For 12 of her 25 years of professional experience, Ms. Means worked with companies in a variety of industries (including manufacturing, banking, and direct mail), followed by consulting experience with an international consulting firm. Ms. Means is co-founder of Resource Advantage, Inc., and has consulted and delivered training programs throughout the United States, Western Europe, and the Pacific Rim.
Ms. Means is a Certified Professional
Facilitator with the International Association of Facilitators,
a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the
American Society for Quality (ASQ). She has authored articles
on Business Process Reengineering and Facilitating Process
Design, and has presented at conferences within the US and
South America, the most recent including ASQ's Six Sigma conference,
PMI's Global Congress, and the International Association of
Facilitators conference. She has also authored several articles
regarding the impact of Psychological Type and productivity
in the workplace. Ms. Means is now co-authoring a book: Facilitating
the Project Lifecycle : Skills & Tools to Accelerate
Progress for Project Managers, Facilitators and Six Sigma
Project Teams – due to be published by Jossey-Bass (a
division of John Wiley &Sons) in August 2005.
For more information about Resource
Advantage, go to www.resourceadvantageinc.com
|
