MOLLY CATRON
STORYTELLER KEYNOTE SPEAKER ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT
Email: mollywcatron@gmail.com
Molly Catron started her career at Eastman Chemical Company (Eastman Kodak) in the early eighties as an analytical chemist. After a few years, she was appointed manager over a large analytical laboratory and was told to “empower” them. This experience resulted in a career change where she continued to work on cultural change on the division level, the corporate level and ultimately on the global level of the company as an organizational change agent.
She worked to develop leaders and teams to enable them to succeed in the Information Age and her approach was strongly influenced by the work of organizational development expert's at MIT, where she attended workshops and conferences. But beyond what she has read or studied, she is influenced by what she found to be effective in a “real life” sitting and now pulls from her twenty years of experience inside a large organization.
While working with groups, Molly recognized the effectiveness of stories when teaching complex organizational concepts and more importantly when trying to build relationships between people. She believes most of the problems in organizations are a result of not connecting as human beings. Stories provide a powerful way to connect and establish relationships. Her interest in and use of story in organizational change led to her representing Eastman in “think tanks” at the International Storytelling Center where she worked with practitioners from other organizations (IBM, Disney, Harvard University, Capitol One, World Bank, etc.) to study the use of story in business.
In August, 2001, Molly retired from Eastman Chemical to pursue her interest in storytelling. She has a Masters in Storytelling from East Tennessee State University. This multidisciplinary study crossed over the departments of Education, Business, Psychology, and Performance Arts providing a broader understanding of how and why story works and knowledge of how other disciplines use story.
Presently, she divides her time between consulting, research, and stage performance. Her client list include IBM, St. Jude Medical Research, Capsugel, Toray Plastics, Nuclear Fuel Services, Fruit of the Loom, BIC, United Way of America, LGE, First Quality, United States Geological Society, Pickens Country School System, Lord Fairfax Community College System and others.
She serves on the Board of the National Storytelling Network as the Southeast Regional Director and is a member of the Brimstone Grant Committee for applied storytelling. She is a performing member of the Jonesborough Storyteller’s Guild and has performed across the states and in Europe and Asia. Areas of storytelling application:
Her workshops are upbeat and filled with “real life” application stories from her experience inside the organization where she was responsible for getting results and stimulating lasting change. |
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