The Human Transformation site is continuously transforming as are we all.

It’s about being in service of leaders in their quest to inspire, empower and transform talent to become their best. Human Transformation has become essential in the rapidly evolving Age of Digital Transformation. The content is based on insight gained from decades of experience, and lots of research by myself as well as the research and experience that went into various books and other sources referenced throughout.

About CD

I started capturing learnings from experiences as I discovered peers and next generation leaders being curious about what I learned on my journey of continuous transformation. I currently leverage my industry experience  and training as a teacher, sports coach, Co-Active coach along with a Humble Consulting approach in helping mentor, advise, coach and transform people within and outside my current company. I certainly don’t have all the answers as I’m continuously transforming. I share what I’ve learned from so many talented and insightful people I’ve encountered on my journey. I’m learning more each day and discovering new and better ways of seeing and doing things.

There is no one right way.
The path to enlightenment lies not in the footsteps of another.

In 35+ years in software engineering (29 since becoming a manager, 27 since becoming a director and 20 since becoming a VP), coaching national level teams and teaching K-8, I’ve had the luck, benefit and honor of working alongside some of the most incredibly kind, brilliant, inspired, competitive, collaborative and productive people in small and large companies in two cultures (experiencing rapid growth before, during and after 3 acquisitions, 2 IPOs, and coaching and competing in national and world championships). Whether leading teams of engineers, managers, players on the field or classrooms of students – mentoring, teaching and coaching have always been an aspect of those responsibilities I have thoroughly enjoyed.

After having been a K-8 Teacher, sports coach and enjoyed mentoring folks, I learned of Google’s Project Oxygen where they concluded after much research that the most important behavior exhibited by their best managers was being a good coach, I decided to look into enrolling in the best coaching certification program I could find. I’ve since completed the 5 courses needed towards a certification as a Co-Active coach with CTI and as recognized by the ICF to add to my toolkit and experience in helping others grow their leadership skills.

As a horse whisperer, I learned to quietly and without a word can connect with a horse I’ve never seen before and ask it to move around an arena, change speed and direction, walk backwards, follow me, nuzzle its head on my shoulder, … It’s also important to recognize that it’s a dance that both beings contribute to. You make less progress with a horse if you only see yourself as leading them – appreciating their hesitations and desires to move in another direction are useful cues to pick up on and work with. So too can we as Talent Whisperers quietly and deeply move and motivate others to grow, develop and broaden their impact.

It turns out I really like to learn to foster my continuous human transformation: Strength Finders Results for CD

Family and Personal History

My ancestral journey of episodic curiosity got a boost between 1914 and 1920 when my grandfather Friedrich Dolezalek worked with Albert Einstein in Berlin and my dad was inspired by this fascinating man whenever he came to visit their house. As a fifth-generation physicist on my father’s side, my fascination on how things work and my belief that our understanding of the world is just a series of ever refining theories that are tangentially approaching the truth has remained alive and become stronger with time.

My fascination of acquiring and sharing knowledge also comes from my mother’s side where I became a fifth-generation teacher. Her vigor and fascination with learning new things continues to this day at age 98. Here she is just two weeks after having gone through a stroke and internal bleeding and having the doctor tell me I should just let her go…

My life purpose of leaving a positive impact on humanity had its roots solidified around 1933 when my father, the head of the young democrats from Berlin at the time, stumbled into large room while looking for a rest room which Hitler and Goebbels enter after him. After hearing the two have an animated conversation, he decided to shift his focus from fighting against the communists to do everything he could to prevent Hitler from coming to power.

I was born on December 12, 1961 in Lowell, MA to parents who had experienced many transformations to begin my own journey of continuous transformation.

My soul and empathic curiosity went through a profound transformation in 1979 when I rounded a corner at U.Va. on the way to class found myself face to face with a man I’d never seen before. We both stopped, smiled and looked deeply into each other’s eyes and souls; it felt like I recognized a kindred spirit that I had known for several lifetimes. To this day I clearly remember the sensation that he looked into my soul and knew me better than I knew myself. We then both smiled, nodded, bowed towards each other and went on our ways. It wasn’t until the next day upon seeing his picture in the paper that I first learned of this person known as the Dalai Lama.

My heart sprung to life in Munich in 1985 when I first heard Kristy’s laugh at another table in was both our favorite Greek restaurant Kytaro. Destiny had our paths cross several times afterwards and I’m now blessed to have her as my life partner, muse and greatest inspiration.

Effecting change and transforming again and again throughout my career that spans a wide variety of engagements and provided access to brilliant and passionate people and experiences:

• Kleen-Rite, Corp – First paycheck was as a janitor cleaning floors in federal buildings First “promotion”  when boss discovered I knew how to fix cleaning machines.

• Kasemir Construction – Built a house from the ground up doing carpentry, masonry, flooring, roofing, plumbing, electrical work, etc.
• Darden Business School (U.Va.) Executive Program – waiter and bartender – met lots of execs upping their game to keep up in a changing world.
• Atmosphere Sciences Research Center – Leveraging the first personal computer with Bill Gate’s BASIC to do Acid Rain Data Analysis at SUNY running analytics on vast amounts of data on rain depositions and wind trajectories – results later included in Scientific American
• Ultimate Frisbee – Player / Captain / Coach of National Champion Teams. Tournaments in the U.S., Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden
• Softlab, GmbH – engineer to architect to product manager – rewriting the operating system twice to keep up with significant changes in technology. MAESTRO supported development methodologies and tools to enable engineering teams changing how banks, insurance companies, etc do business. Softlab was Germany’s 2nd fastest growing independent software house at the time – acquired by BMW
• Cooperative Solutions, Inc. – Shifting from traditional transaction processing to client/server. At its time, the most heavily funded ($29M) start-up company ever – Promoted to site director for product BU when acquired by Bachman, Inc
• Informix, Inc. – Improving Software Engineering productivity through NewERA Director, Engineering. One of the big database players in its day – acquired by IBM
• BroadVision, Inc. – Enabling the movement of brick-and-mortar commerce to eCommerce and eBusiness, eBanking, eProcurement, … as VP Engineering at 2nd fastest growing company on Nasdaq in the dot com days – joined pre-IPO
• San Mateo/Santa Clara Public/Private Schools– Learning how humans learn through pattern recognition and teaching at Bay Area Schools from East San Jose to Los Gatos – Was introduced to Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset before her book. Taught all subjects in K-8.
• Intuit, Inc. – Helping small business transform from paper book-keeping to distributed systems. Spear-headed disruptive internal SAAS startup and learned about small businesses
• Yahoo, Inc.– Ran Yahoo!Games Engineering as an innovator in online gaming as the wrold’s biggest social gaming site of the time
• IMVU, Inc.– Director, Engineering – Improved agile and continuous deployment at the company behind the book “The Lean Startup” and the world’s largest virtual goods catalog. Enabling virtual interactions and socializing through avatars.
• Twitch, Interactive, Inc. Exec V.P. Engineering at Rapid growth/paradigm shift in video streaming and eSports – “unicorn” acquisition by Amazon for ~$1B
• Pure Storage, Inc. Director Engineer at the fastest growing infrastructure company to date – joined pre “unicorn” IPOing
• Prosper Marketplace, V.P. Engineering at a pioneer FinTec company.

For fun also a small selection of CD’s poems.