Workshops & Presentations

Planning Institute - The National Association of College and University Food Service

NACUFS biannually offers a week-long workshop on strategic planning, the capstone of an impressive array of couses they offer their members. In 2007 they collaborated with the Society for College and University Planning and me for a new approach, and Russell Ackoff's process of Idealized Design was chosen as a framework. (The drawing shown here was a product of one our planning sessions.) Rather than teach participants a step-by-step method, we use Ackoff's process as a framework for discovering the challenges and opportunities in planning in ways that they can apply to their own unique circumstances. The fourth iteration is scheduled for 2013. Additional information can be found in this blog post.

Panel Discussion - Women in Cable Television's Leadership Conference 2011

In October I joined a panel moderated by Dan Buchner, Director of Innovation for the Center for Creative Leadership, where we talked through "Unleashing Creativity in Business" for an audience of about 100 WICT members. Cable 360's synopsis is posted here.

Archex Conference 2011

Architects in Virginia come together for their annual conference in Richmond each year, and in November I presented "Making Voices Visible." As a recovering architect my self, I explained how visual practice was originally formalized by architects who realized that drawing could be powerful well beyond the construction arena. (In the session evaluations, one participant wryly commented "Bruce should go to Washington and end the fighting between Republicans and Democrats.") Click here to read more about what I presented.

Why Does This Keep Happening? - Exploring Complex Challenges In Ways That Open New Doors to Creativity 

Jean Tully and I conducted two versions of this workshop at the Creative Problem Solving Institute. Having observed commonalities between Osborne-Parnes Creative Problem-Solving Process and recent developments in systems thinking methodologies, we cross-walked the two. Our workshop then showed participants how to use systems practices to gain deeper insights into creative opportunities.