Consultant Biographies
DAVID FRIEDMAN
David Friedman is an associate senior consultant with Guttman Development Strategies, Inc., bringing a new perspective and out-of-the-box thinking to issues of corporate creativity, productivity, human relations, and the achievement of corporate and personal objectives.
David specializes in one-on-one coaching in the areas of conflict management, goal setting, bottom-line responsibility, and interpersonal relationships within the corporate setting. He is often called in when traditional methods have failed, and he has had great success in breaking through long-standing blocks and generating results in areas that have previously been problematic or resistant to change.
David's background is unusual for a corporate consultant in that he has been, and continues to be, a major player in the areas of show business, theater, film, and music. The principles on which David bases his consulting have come out of his experience as a conductor on Broadway and in films. Conducting is an art in which a conductor, through sheer will, gets an entire orchestra to do exactly what he wishes them to do, without saying a word. In his private coaching practice, David began to explore how this ability might translate to leadership and cooperation in the corporate world.
In addition to his one-on-one coaching, David offers many "show business" tools such as singing workshops, where people have the opportunity to experience, first hand, in an area where they are not expert, how a change in thought produces an immediate and dramatic change in results. His workshops produce a sense of camaraderie and safety that can significantly add to morale and cooperation in the workplace.
David has led Thought Exchange® Workshops and Seminars for corporations and creative and personal growth organizations throughout the U.S. He looks at corporate issues from the unique hypothetical paradigm that everything we see before us in the world is an exact reflection of what we're thinking, and that by "exchanging" our old thoughts for new, more positive ones, we often see dramatic changes in the business results we achieve.
David has elaborated on these concepts in his book, The Thought Exchange – A Practical Method for Moving Beyond "Positive Thinking." He is also a well-known songwriter, whose compositions have been recorded by artists as diverse as Diana Ross, Barry Manilow, Petula Clark, Laura Branigan, Allison Krauss, and Nancy LaMott.
As an individual consultant or as part of a team, David brings a humanistic, creative, ground-breaking addition to the lexicon of services and growth opportunities offered by GDS.