About Us

Robert "Jake" Jacobs

Winds of Change Group is a global partnership of Real Time Strategic Change practitioners. Read about the rest of our team.

Our missions and values.

Why do some organizations work and others don’t? I’ve been curious about that question since my first real job on the assembly line of an ice cream novelty manufacturing plant and my second, tending bar in college. As a pioneer in the field of large group interventions, I have continued my discoveries about better ways for people and organizations to change. My consulting, writing, and teaching have all helped me continue in answering that question.

I’ve worked with some of the largest corporations in the world including American Express, Corning, Ford, The Home Depot, Marriott, Mobil, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. I’ve also supported major change efforts with the City of New York, the U.S. National Forest Service and Environmental Protection Agency and the United Kingdom’s National Health and Employment Services.

Writing has been a great way for me to get clearer about what I believe and how I work. In addition to regular postings to my blog, I’ve written articles for Strategy and Leadership, Executive Excellence, Leader to Leader, Strategic HR Review, and Consulting to Management.

I’ve authored and co-authored six books:

• Real Time Strategic Change: How to Involve an Entire Organization in Fast and Far-Reaching Change,
• You Don’t Have To Do It Alone: How to Involve Others to Get Things Done
• The Change Handbook
• Positively M.A.D.: Making a Difference in Your Organizations, Communities, and the World
• Organization Development at Work, and
• The Conscious Consultant

Learn more about my books. Discover some of my recommended sites.

Notre Dame’s Executive Education Program, the U.S. Navy’s Postgraduate Institute, Roffey Park Management Institute in England, and St. Thomas University have all been ways to continue my own learning while teaching others.

Through my consulting work I’ve adopted (and been adopted) by a number of theatres including The Performance Network in Ann Arbor, MI, and 24th Street Theatre and The Theatre at Boston Court in Los Angeles. My work with non-profit organizations including Autism411.net , The Child Care Network of Michigan, Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor, St. Mary’s Student Parish at the University of Michigan, and The Accelerated School in Los Angeles has also been an important part of my practice.

Before starting my firm, I worked as an internal consultant at Ford, director of the University of Michigan’s Athletic Tutorial Program, an investigator at Institute for Social Research, and an interior garage painter (my first entrepreneurial business).

I graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Michigan and received a Masters of Science in Organization Development from Pepperdine University.

I now call Los Angeles home with my wife Cheryl, children Alison and Aaron, our cat Chloe, a spunky rescue dog Stella and my best friend black lab, Theo.