A few of the questions I've helped leaders work through.

Six pieces of work from the last twenty years, on subjects from space debris to health care to AI.

01 / 06

2010RAND

Cleaning up a place nobody owns.

The problem: Old satellites and broken pieces of rockets were piling up in orbit, and no one knew how to clean up a place that every country uses and no country controls.
Who it was for: DARPA, the Pentagon's research agency.
What I did: I looked for problems on Earth with the same shape, like oil spills, acid rain and email spam, and studied how people tackled them. That meant reading more than 360 sources and talking with people who had worked on those problems.
What came of it: A set of ideas for cleaning up orbit, and warnings about what to avoid, based on what worked and what failed on Earth.

02 / 06

2022Advisory

The problem: Since 1970, Venice Family Clinic has cared for people in Los Angeles who can't afford health care, and by 2022 it was serving more than 45,000 people a year. It needed a plan for its next five years. Partway through, its longtime CEO retired and the clinic merged with a partner.
Who it was for: Venice Family Clinic, the largest free clinic in the United States.
What I did: I ran workshops with the board and with people who speak for the clinic's patients, and interviewed about 20 leaders and partners. When the CEO retired, I reshaped the work so the clinic had a plan for the next year and a half and its new CEO had a running start.
What came of it: An 18-month plan with four priorities, and a briefing book laying out the first decisions the new CEO would face.

03 / 06

2013RAND

The problem: A U.S. intelligence agency builds satellites that take years to design and launch. The world changes faster than that, and the agency needed its people and its systems to adapt when something unexpected happened.
Who it was for: A U.S. intelligence agency that builds and runs satellites.
What I did: I looked outside government at jobs where surprise comes with the territory, from CEOs and doctors to diplomats and Navy SEALs, and compared how thirteen of them prepare for the unexpected. I also studied how companies design products in swappable parts so they can change course quickly.
What came of it: A practical way for the agency to prepare for surprises and respond when they come, later rewritten for business leaders and lawyers.

04 / 06

2024 to nowAdvisory

The problem: Research organizations, universities and companies all want their people using AI. The tools change every month. Leaders need to decide what AI should do for their mission, and their people need to learn to use it on the work in front of them.
Who it was for: Research organizations, universities, foundations and companies.
What I did: I start with the leaders: what the organization is trying to accomplish and where AI fits. That becomes a strategy, and then training built around the work its people actually do, from executives to analysts.
What came of it: Courses that organizations keep using with new staff, and clients that come back year after year.

05 / 06

2012 to 2016RAND

The problem: On top of a volcano on Maui, the Air Force runs telescopes that keep watch on satellites, an important site for national security. Its funding was shrinking, and it needed a way to pay its bills year after year.
Who it was for: The Air Force Research Laboratory.
What I did: I talked with the people who use the site and with 15 similar places, worked out who valued it and what they would pay for, ran working sessions with its leaders, and helped set up a board of senior advisors.
What came of it: A new way to fund the site, and a board of senior advisors to back it.

The main reports from this work aren't public.

06 / 06

2022Advisory

The problem: The United Kingdom wanted to work more closely with the United States in engineering biology, which uses living cells to make things like food, medicine and materials. To choose where to invest, it needed a clear picture of where the U.S. field stood and where the two countries could build on each other's strengths.
Who it was for: The UK government, through its embassy in Washington.
What I did: In six weeks, I helped interview about two dozen experts in industry and research, read what had been written, and gathered the numbers that exist on the field.
What came of it: A report on the field's strengths and gaps, and on where investment and partnership would do the most over the next five years.

My advisory practice is Spark & Compass.