In her 30 years as a manager and consultant, Mary Ann “M.A.” Hastings has spent twenty five years focused on organizational development, grappling with real life business issues: operating budgets, problem performers, dysfunctional teams and always, primarily, bottom line results. Mary Ann has demonstrated effectiveness in Fortune 500 companies, family owned businesses, and not for profit organizations. Within those organizations, she has worked with teams at the executive level (strategic planning, leadership development, systems assessment) and every other level groups, including customer service, operations and sales. Her expertise with these groups flows from her ability to quickly understand the practical dynamics of business and combine it with her understanding of interpersonal dynamics. Mary Ann has been successful at reorganizing organizations, divisions and departments for effectiveness as well as gaining the buy-in and wisdom of the people who will have to carry out the work. Her style is one of compassionate candor, perceptive insights, and inclusiveness.
For 12 years, she was the Director of Individual and Organizational Development at Comerica Bank. At the end of her tenure, the business leaders who had worked with her had more success that those who had not. She held a similar position at Michigan Consolidated Gas Company where she lead a team-driven reorganization that involved multiple levels of the organization. Since 1998, M.A. has run her own consulting practice in Michigan, where the majority of her work comes from word of mouth and prior referrals. Clients say she has a unique ability to bring clarity to confusion, which has resulted in a very high client rehire rate.
In her work, Hastings has utilized a variety of approaches and has also created numerous programs that continue to be used by companies and other consultants to build strong organizations. In particular, she has demonstrated great results with:
- Strategic Planning
- Organization Development
- Leadership Development
- Managing System Change
- Teambuilding
- Restructuring
- Merger Facilitation
- Conflict Management (at both the executive and employee level)
- Performance Management Systems (both creation and administration)
- Succession Planning
- Climate Survey and Improvement
In addition to real life experience in multiple industries and businesses, she brings certification in Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Emotional Intelligence, ODR’s “Managing Organizational Change,” Pritchett & Associates Customer Service Program “Business as Unusual,” Columbia University’s Program “Assessing the Value Added of Organizational Development and Human Resources Activities,” the University of Michigan’s “Instructional Design” Program, University Associates Masters Program in Human Resource Development and “Applied Strategic Planning,” and Dannemiller Tyson Associates “Whole Scale Change” Program.
She is effective working with 1 client (Executive Coaching), as well as large groups of 50, 100, up to 2000. Her belief is that the more people who are engaged in change the better the odds of successful outcomes. Facilitation is one of her strongest and most successful skills.