About This Course

As one course among many offered in the American Management Association’s Essential Business Skills series, Practical Problem-Solving Skills in the Workplace has been designed specifically to give professionals at every level an introduction to the essential skills and the knowledge needed to succeed in today’s business world. It provides private, self-paced, individualized study; self-evaluation through in-text exercises; and communication between the student and the AMA’s Educational Services instructors through a pre-test and a post-test. AMA’s curriculum provides practical information to working professionals who, on their own time and at their own pace, want to continue their education.

Judith Combes Taylor, Ph.D., is co-president of ATA Associates, which specializes in developing programs and curricula for workplace effectiveness skills, including communication, problem solving, teamwork, and customer service. She has more than 12 years’ experience in the public and private sectors educating and training people for success in the work force. Most recently, she has been coaching self-managing teams of machine operators at a Fortune 500 company; assisted a major urban school system revitalize its vocational curriculum; and, with Jen Tellier, co-managed innovative retraining programs for adults that incorporate workplace effectiveness training. Prior to that, she was deputy director of a $10 million program that significantly improved the delivery of employment services throughout the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Ms. Taylor received her bachelor of arts degree from Oberlin College and, in 1980, her doctoral degree from Arizona State University.

Rebekah Lashman is the director of program development at Seltzer Associates, Inc. She has more than 10 years’ experience in employment and training program development, management, and evaluation. She currently is responsible for providing planning and work-force development consulting assistance to managers in the private and public sectors and recently delivered a series of introductory career exploration sessions to workers at a major Massachusetts public authority. Prior to this, she was director of two $16 million multisite employment programs that helped more than 50,000 participants evaluate their career options and find jobs. Ms. Lashman has written and edited a wide variety of materials, including program evaluation reports, training manuals, speeches, and grant proposals. Currently, she is writing a users’ manual for a management tracking system and database that she developed as part of an employee skills upgrading program. Ms. Lashman received her degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Pamela Helling, president of Pam Helling Associates, a Brookline, Massachusetts, consulting firm specializing in developing business communications curricula and customized training programs, serves as general editor of the Essential Business Skills series. She has trained for a variety of organizations including Boston Edison, the Boston Management Consortium, the Massachusetts Department of Employment and Training, and Polaroid, and has lectured at the University of Lowell and the Harvard Extension. Ms. Helling has written several courses for the American Management Association. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wales and her graduate degree from the University of London, England.

The publisher wishes to thank Andrew E. Schwartz, president of A. E. Schwartz & Associates, a management training and consulting organization located in Watertown, Massachusetts, for his assistance in reviewing and developing this course and others in the Essential Business Skills series.