Brent D. Peterson and Gaylan W. Nielson: Authors of FAKE "WORK"

Gaylan and Brent are co-authors of FAKE “WORK“ and co-founders and owners of The Work Itself Group. They have known each other and worked together for over 20 years. After several years at Franklin Covey Company, helping develop the consulting wing, they founded a company called Ascent Group, LLC that became the Apollo Consulting Group under the wing of the Apollo Group and the University of Phoenix. They have been working on parallel tracks or together for most those years focusing on organizational effectiveness and learning organizations. Most of the content we provide was develop or co-developed by these two dedicated pioneers in new approaches to old problems.

Where Did Fake Work Come From?

FAKE “WORK“ the book has come out of the many years of the authors’ combined experience, and their clear understanding that companies have every intention to create the most productive, quality product, but are not aligned to do so. They state:

After years of managing people and consulting in Fortune 1000 companies as well as: government agencies, non-profits, and every other work environment; we grew tired of good ideas and good intentions that turned to dust. Much of those efforts are about dispersing knowledge, even building skills, but almost none of it focuses on work—where it all matters—where results occur.”

“We believe execution effectiveness happens at the point of work, which is a very different approach from those who think they just need to create leaders.” Brent and Gaylan have been working together for many years. They are the co-founders of The Work Itself Group—which is the company created to address problems of Fake Work.”

FAKE “WORK“ grew out of their frustration with companies who spent an extraordinary amount of time on strategies that were never translated into daily tasks—that didn’t become The Work Itself. They have had a broad spectrum of experience in their varied professional careers that include consulting, organizational development, organizational learning, training, coaching working in every industry, across the United States, and across the globe, and at every level of organizations.

Brent and Gaylan also developed a best-in-class model for learning called The Organizational Learning Framework that has been imbedded in many companies as the macro-structure for their learning culture.