Leaders leave with something they built

Designing Organizational Futures

Leaders bring a real problem from their own organization and leave with a prototype of the solution. The program takes them from many ideas, through critique from other points of view, to building the one worth keeping.

Choose a phase to follow a leader through the program.

Taken by

Plexus, Peak Scientific, Balfour Beatty and Rolls‑Royce

Participants

95 technology and business leaders

Format

Five parts

My role

Led its development, at NuVuX

Creative Leadership Lab

Design thinking for ministries, school leaders and educators, in twelve modules adapted for each client.

Taken by

Denmark’s Ministry of Children and Education, the Scottish Parliament Education Committee, the Council of British International Schools, the Heads’ Conference, the EdTech World Forum, MIT Morningside Academy for Design and 8 other clients

Participants

879 officials, academic leaders and educators

Format

12 modules, adapted for each client

My role

Co-developed with three other learning specialists, at NuVuX

NELO

Onboarding for new CEOs of independent organizations across the United Way network, who have no reporting line to headquarters. CEOs work with peers grouped by organization size, and each writes their own first-60-day plan.

These results come from the five-week version. The program grew from four weeks to six. The fall 2026 version runs separate tracks for small and mid/large organizations and launched with more than 40 new CEOs.

My role

Led it, at United Way Worldwide

What it taught me

Workshops produced good ideas, but ideas without support to implement them stalled. That is why I later measured finished plans instead of workshop satisfaction.

With Nakeia Medcalf and Amanda O’Keefe I also co-developed the Active Learning Framework, delivered virtually to leaders in Cameroon and Nigeria. Alf Studio takes its name from it.