About David Noer

My name is David Noer and I'm from the Gamma class, the third class, and currently I'm an external OD consultant and an executive coach.

When I came to the Pepperdine program I was looking for techniques, I was looking for a recipe book in terms of how to consult. What I emerged with was the recipe book is me. It changed my life because it helped me understand that the primary instrument of change is my own warm body, my own human spirit, my own sense of connection with the client. It changed my whole approach to consulting and my whole approach to understanding myself as a human being.

Let's see. I'm still alive. I heard Willie Nelson's song to other day that says I ain't dead yet. My legacy is I'm still alive. I'd like people to know that I've written some useful books, useful comments about our profession. I guess my real legacy will be my book, my book Humanistic Consulting, and some of the clients that I've helped become better organizations and better people.

My presentation this morning was The View From the Gray End of the Long Gray Line. The View From the Gray End of the Long Gray Line is that they're less Sundays in front of me than there were behind me, so what I'd like to have happen in the next few years is to help develop and coach and mentor some of the younger practitioners in the field so that they carry on the tradition of Pepperdine's wonderful message to change to world and make it better.

I think the MSOD is incredibly useful. It's also incredibly painful, some parts of it, because it forces one to look in the mirror and accept what they see. What they see in the mirror may be something they want to change, and it'll help you change that. What's really good about the program is they hold up several mirrors to you and you need to accept what you see and change what you need to change. Because they do that, it will be wonderful for your clients and wonderful for the contribution you want to make in this profession.