LDS Biographies

Annette Simmons
M.A., Training and Development

Annette Simmons is a behavioral science consultant and author of A Safe Place for Dangerous Truth: Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear & Distrust (AMACOM, May, 1999) and Territorial Games: Understanding and Ending Turf Wars at Work (AMACOM, 1997). She is President of Group Process Consulting (Greensboro, NC) and combines public speaking, writing, consulting and constant research and development to serve organizations seeking to increase workgroup cooperation for bottom-line results. Before becoming a consultant she was based in Melbourne, Australia working in international business throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. She worked for Ericsson (telecommunications) and J. Walter Thompson (advertising) developing and implementing marketing strategies based on consumer behavior theory and research. In 1991, Annette returned to the United States to pursue formal study of human behavior in business. In 1993, she completed her graduate studies in both adult education and psychology, earning a master's degree in Training and Development from North Carolina State University. (Her bachelor's degree in Business is from Louisiana State University, 1983.) She then taught leadership and provided organizational consulting through Farr Associates of Greensboro, NC before forming her own consulting firm, Group Process Consulting in 1996. Foundational work on A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths began in 1993, when Annette wrote her thesis on "Dialogue." Her experiments and ongoing research since that time are reflected in the practical nature of her books. Her passionate curiosity in "what goes wrong" fueled a three-year study into the phenomena called "turf wars," which launched her into national prominence when Territorial Games: Understanding and Ending Turf Wars at Work was published in October of 1997. It has since been translated into several languages including Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. Annette has been featured on CNBC's Power Lunch, various radio programs, and quoted in Fortune, Working Woman, The Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, and dozens of other newspapers and magazines. She now travels internationally to present her provocative insights and practical solutions drawn from a deep understanding of psychology, adult education, and group dynamics. Recent speaking engagements include the 1997 International Organizational Development Association Conference in Budapest, Hungary, the Monash Mt. Eliza Business School's Asia Pacific Conference in Melbourne, Australia, the American Management Association's 69th Human Resource Convention, and Al Gore's 1998 and 1999 Excellence in Government Conference.

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