Liz Bywater, PhD, is focused on change, and change for the better. Her vision finds reflection in the statement of mission posted at the website of Bywater Consulting: ''...a sophisticated approach to the enhancement of business performance, profitability, and growth.'' And to some, that sums up the spirit of Bywater Consulting in general, and Liz Bywater in particular, where organizational change and development is concerned.
It is a well-known fact in business circles that jobs are not created by governments, but by entrepreneurs willing to take business risks. Leaders are leaders because they have the vision and risk taking attitude to take that vital first step towards a new direction. It is because pioneers like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs thought of creating user-friendly computers, and were willing to take risks, that today we have computer jobs in the government. It is rarely the other way around. And it is here that consultants like Liz Bywater and firms like Bywater consulting stand out, for by her own admission, her ''... goal is to develop ... bold and innovative business leaders who are willing to take risks in the pursuit of progress.'' That, by itself, would help any nation more than UI checks or their extension. We need more consultants like Liz Bywater helping and guiding companies, than those whose company development programs focus solely around employee layoffs and risk aversion.
Dr. Liz Bywater did her undergraduate studies at Cornell University, graduating with Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude, with Distinction in All Subjects. She followed her initial formal learning with a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University.
As Liz Bywater states, most people serving as organizational consultants do not have a background in psychology. This, though not a true impediment to honest consulting, still serves to create frequent gaps in insight on part of such consultants, gaps that are easily filled through formal training in psychology. This is not to say that consultants who have developed a functional understanding of employee psychology through intuition, deduction, common sense, and trial and error are inherently handicapped when it comes to providing proper advice. Far from that, what it implies is people like Liz Bywater, by dint of their formal background in psychology are a safer bet than untrained consultants when it comes to organizational change and major business decisions.
