Interview - Marsha Shenk

Marsha is a pioneer in Business Anthropology. Three decades ago, reflecting on commerce as an inescapable dimension of human life, she also noted that it is the source of a great deal of suffering. Observing that its timeless laws are invisible to most people - including veteran business executives - she began her consulting practice.

Working with leaders from the Fortune 10 to small service firms, she has forged a unique and far-reaching approach to the questions that every enterprise faces. Her models reveal hidden dynamics:

Those that haven't changed since the first human community, and beg for more skill,
And those variables that do change, allowing for innovation

Armed with this insight, Marsha's Master Moves™ catalyze valuable exchanges, no matter what is happening in the marketplace. Her clients lead their industries and confound competition.

Marsha founded the BestWork™ People in 1980, introducing a new way of inspiring peoples' best work. Her models have resulted in highly profitable strategies: greatly boosting productivity and loyalty and creating new markets, products and services. Marsha is know for using Game Theory to enable enterprises to lead the market: winning a game that only they can see, in which others must compete.

Sustaining inquiry into biology, anthropology, business, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, and somatics, she partners with colleagues from multiple disciplines to ensure top tier thinking. Her work has included 15 years of teaching leadership through courses, and 27 of consulting, coaching, and facilitating.

Marsha's education began at Reed College, and includes doctoral study at UCLA and Berkeley.