John Scherer

John Scherer graduated with honors from Roanoke College in the USA, majoring in History and Philosophy. He then finished high in his class at the US Naval Officer Candidate School and served as Combat Officer aboard the USS EATON (DD-510) in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean Fleets. In 1966 he finished his four-year Navy tour of duty and enrolled in the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Columbia, SC.

He again graduated with honors and served his Internship in Norfolk, VA, where he conducted one of the nation's first Street Ministries, doing crisis counseling with ‘people of the night.’  From there he went to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, as Lutheran Chaplain, where he created programs linking the spiritual domain with the educational and business communities. His reputation as a facilitator of change grew, as he responded to more invitations from business and non-profit organizations to lead management seminars and resolve workplace conflicts.

In 1973 John went to Spokane, WA, to join the Leadership Institute of Spokane (LIOS), serving as co-creator and Core Faculty of the nation’s first competency-based Masters Program in the Applied Behavioral Sciences. In 1982 he founded his own leadership and organization effectiveness firm.  

Since then he has worked with businesses and their leaders from around the world, including Boeing, GTE, Ford, Exxon, Sisters of Mercy Health Corporation, AEtna, The US Army, Northern Telecom, ACE Hardware, TV New Zealand, Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Nintendo, the van Melle Company, Siemens, DHL Polska, Orlen Petroleum, WARTA Bank, AmRest, Netia, BZWBK, Bank of the Pacific, Metropolitan Financial, Roche Global CFOs, Mastercook Polska, and many others. Each year he addresses national and international conferences as a keynote speaker, recently in Ottawa, Canada; Krakow, Poland; Shenyang, China; Bangkok, Thailand; and Budapest, Hungary. 

A former President of The Association for Creative Change, John is a Member of The World Business Academy, The OD Network, The Transformational Leaders Council, The International OD Association, and is Founder of Wiser at Work’s Five Questions Coaching Network. 

He is a pioneer in the emerging field that shares the name of his 1993 book, WORK AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT, and in 2008, his FIVE QUESTIONS THAT CHANGE EVERYTHING  began to receive strong positive reviews from around the world. Robert Middleton, internet marketing expert, called it ‘The best business self-help book ever written!’ The Stepheh Covey Magazine voted John to their list of The Top 100 Thought Leaders in Leadership Development, and his 2010 presentation to his alma mater, Roanoke College, was selected by NPR as ‘One of the Best 100 

Commencement Addresses. Ever.’ John is the author or creator of hundreds of articles, audio/video programs, and on-line resources in the fields of high-performance leadership development, conflict resolution, and unleashing the human spirit at work. Most recently, his chapters ‘On the Shoulders of Giants: The Origins of Organization Development,’ and ‘The Role of Individual Development in OD,’ appeared in PRACTICING ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT. He also has chapters in CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL AT WORK (‘The Phantom’), THE PROMISE OF DIVERSITY (‘What Changes When Things Change?’) and THE MANY FACETS OF LEADERSHIP (‘The Role of Chaos in the Creation of Change’).  

In 1985 his BREAKTHROUGH SERIES was among the first applications of video-based technology to assist work groups in becoming high-performance teams during regular meetings. In 2008, The Stephen Covey Organization named John one of America’s Top 100 Thought Leaders in Personal/Leadership Development.

Based in Seattle, WA, he was invited to Poland in 2008 and since then has made Krakow and now Warsaw, Poland, his home and headquarters for Scherer Leadership Center. John has four grown children, plays the guitar, does the occasional magic show, swims or runs and does yoga daily, and loves to read a good spy novel.

For more information about John and his work visit: https://wiseratwork.com/ and https://scherercenter.com/