Laura Smythe
Laura Smythe

I am an attorney, a mediator, a professor, consultant, trainer, coach, and systems assessor and utilize all of those skills as an Organizational Culture Diagnostician ©.  As a former school administrator, a former Executive Director of a mediation center, and a long-time consultant, I created my own company, Communication Connections, LLC., in order to capture my varied professional experience and to utilize my strengths in conflict management, ethical communication and EQ skills.  I have worked in a wide variety of industries and in organizations of all types including (but not exclusively): national and international for-profits, local and national non-profits, schools, health facilities, and churches. I enjoy the challenge of working with new industries and professions and diagnosing the ways in which an organization’s culture is supporting its employees and its goals and the ways in which an organization’s culture is undermining both its goals and its reputation.  I bring 18 years of experience practicing law, providing systems’  assessments, coaching leaders and decision-makers to improve their confidence and leadership acumen, mediating thousands of disputes, teaching undergraduate and graduate students about organizational culture and leadership, conflict management, and managing change and experience creating and leading workshops and trainings across the nation about effective communication and facilitating respectful conversations in difficult situations, to every new client with whom I work.  In 2013 I was elected to serve on the National Board of Directors of NAFCM (National Association for Community Mediation) which supports hundreds of community mediation centers across the country. In 2014 I was elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the Dispute Resolution Section of the Wisconsin State Bar. I am also currently working with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to provide mediation training across the state of Wisconsin. And I serve, at the request of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, on the District 10 Committee for the Office of Lawyer Regulation.

As a communication and conflict management expert and facilitator of constructive relationships, I provide a useful “outsider’s” perspective within a comprehensive analysis about how to improve how you do business.  I look forward to being of help!