Michael E. Zientek

Michael Zientek has more than 25 years of experience both as an industry practitioner and consultant providing leadership, strategic direction, facilitation, and coaching in support of the development of high performance organizations.  Mr. Zientek has designed, developed and delivered training in effective communication, problem solving, conflict management, team building, joint governance, decision-making, high performance work systems and process improvement. He has assisted unions and management in joint planning, work redesign, six sigma/lean improvement efforts, and has advised on and facilitated interest-based approaches to collective bargaining.  Mr. Zientek has broad experience in manufacturing (food, auto and chemicals), utilities (power generation [fossil and nuclear], call center operations, service planning and construction), healthcare (hospital start-up and staffing and re-design), and education (research).

Prior to joining RAI, Mr. Zientek was the Manager of Organizational Development for Hunt-Wesson, Inc., and before that he was Manager of Training and Development for LaChoy Food Products, both part of the Conagra organization.  Mr. Zientek started his career as a high school educator and coach, and served as president of the local teachers’ union. 

Mr. Zientek received a B.S. in Agriculture from Ohio State University and a Masters’ in Educational Technology/Human Resource Development from the University of Toledo.  He has presented his work on “Joint Decision-Making” at the Center for Collaborative Organizations, and on the “Design of an Innovative High Tech Laboratory” at the national FMCS Conference. Mr. Zientek is an American Society for Quality (ASQ) certified Six Sigma Greenbelt.