About CHUCk WISNER
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
— Victor Frankl
Chuck Wisner is a thinker, a coach, and a teacher in organizational strategy, human dynamics, and leadership excellence. For the past twenty-five years, he has served as a business and personal consultant and an advisor to leaders in high-profile companies in several industries. His methods are anchored in years of leading-edge research, theoretical development, and the practical application of the foundations of conversations.
Chuck earned an architectural degree from the Boston Architectural College, and for fifteen years he worked at HKT Architects in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he served as a partner for ten years. His first position after his career in architecture was as a senior affiliated mediator with the Harvard Law Mediation Program. He was among the first to be certified through the Mastering the Art of Professional Coaching program at the Newfield Institute. He then became a specialist in organizational learning and leadership as an affiliate with MIT’s Center for Organizational Learning.
Chuck is currently working as an advisor with leaders and their teams at Google, Rivian, Apple, Tesla, DTE Energy, and PSEG, all Fortune 200 companies. His client list has included Harvard Business School, the Detroit Mayor’s Office, General Motors, Shell, and Chrysler Motor Company.
Chuck lives in New England with his wife, Kata, an artist. They have two sons, who are living their creative dreams in New York City.
“Chuck has taught me so many lessons over the years; the true test of his effectiveness is that I still hear his voice in that millisecond before reacting to something. Through my work with him, I came to realize that so much of our interaction with others is determined by the stories we unconsciously tell ourselves, or that others have of us. Chuck has a unique ability to identify those narratives, dissect them, and help others to be more mindful of their positive and negative consequences. He’s had a profound impact on my success as a leader. Even my wife agrees!”
— Jay Finney | VP Marketing, Peabody Essex Museum
Thirty years ago, I was a young architect whose creative aspirations collided with the business realities of the building industry. As a result, I became increasingly aware of disruptive and dysfunctional behaviors among team members, headstrong contractors, and arrogant owners, where contentious meetings driven by piles of money, egos, and distrust were the norm.
Over the course of four years, I was driven by my frustrations and an insatiable intellectual curiosity; I emersed myself in ideas and methodologies of conflict resolution, mediation, and transformational leadership culminating in a new career. My first venture outside of architecture was as a certified mediator in the courts of Massachusetts. Simultaneously, I also enrolled in the Ontology of Language - Mastering Professional Coaching program by the Newfield Group. That uncovered a world of knowledge about the power of words and language that changed my thinking and life.
Inspired and unemployed, exhilarated and fearful, I stepped into the unknown, knowing in my head and heart that I was making the right move. But, as life goes, closing one door often opens others. A few months after my journey began, Leslie Pollitt (my coach at the Newfield Institute) and Fred Kofman (a professor at MIT) invited me to be a coach and a teacher in a transformational leadership program at MIT, spearheaded by Peter Senge, then a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and author of The Fifth Discipline. Another life-changing experience.
Over the past thirty years, I have helped hundreds of people at Apple, Google, Tesla, General Motors, Yahoo, Ford, and DTE Energy apply the lessons I learned. After seeing the powerful impact that understanding the power of language and conversations had on my clients, I decided to write The Art of Conscious Conversations.