The Village of Illusions

About the Book

Helen Turnbull, Ph. D. introduces the reader to a mystical country, with fifty emotional states, including the State of Reality, the Island State of Inner Wisdom and the State of Rejection.

In the beginning, Patience has been asked to write a letter to her niece, and to share her wisdom.  Patience falls asleep and much to her surprise, her dreams disclose to her some of the emotional states where she has expended her energies.

With gentle guidance from Amethyst, the guardian of Inner Wisdom, Helen’s characters set out on many soul searching adventures.  Arctic of Ice Valley finds herself inside an oak tree where a squirrel called Stasher, assists her in looking at all the ways she has become stuck, whilst the nomadic Ms. Cosmopolitan gets more than her share of life lessons when she is whisked into the Hall of Magic Mirrors.

About the Author

            Helen Turnbull is the President and Principal Consultant of Human Facets, an International Organizational Consulting firm, founded in 1985 and specializing in Organizational Development, Workforce Diversity and Multiculturalism, utilizing Strategic Planning and Change Management methodologies.

            Human Facets clients include Texas Instruments, J.P. Morgan Chase, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, A.T. & T., Lucent Technologies, NCR Corporation, National Westminster Bank, IBM, American Express, and New York Public Library, Citigroup Europe, Lehman Brothers, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Linklaters Alliance, an international law firm.

            Human Facets conducts Diversity Strategic Planning and Diversity Awareness workshops and Helen has been the architect and facilitator for a number of major corporate diversity initiatives, providing her clients with a blueprint for connecting awareness of diversity with the Change Management process and the bottom line for their business.   

            Dr. Turnbull  works internationally and has extensive experience working with diversity issues in both the U.S.A. and Europe.  Human Facets made major contributions which assisted both JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup Europe to win the prestigious Opportunity Now Award and Business in the Community Award in 2001 and 2002.  Both of these Awards acknowledge Corporate excellence in working with women and are sponsored by Prince Charles and Cherie Blair respectively.   In U.S. terms they are equivalent to winning Catalyst and Malcolm Baldridge.   She has also assisted Citigroup Europe in being shortlisted for three more prestigious Awards in 2003.

            Human Facets has drawn on Helen’s extensive experience to develop three Diversity Assessment Tools: The Diversity Skills Assessment, The Diversity Values Grid and the Gender Gap Assessment Tool.  These are online tools and provide clients with behavioral metrics which enable both individual and organizational feedback.

            Helen is the author of the widely acclaimed book, “The Village of Illusions.” She is an accomplished public speaker and has been the keynote speaker at a number of professional conferences.  Her Doctorate is in Human and Organizational Systems.  In addition, she has two Masters Degrees, one in Industrial Psychology and Mental Health Counseling and a second one in Human and Organizational Systems

            Helen is a native of Scotland, is a passionate golfer and has lived in Florida since 1980.  While resident in the U.K. Helen was the Senior Human Resource Manager for the British Broadcasting Corporation in both Scotland and Wales.