How to design for change

In 2015, the authors of Responsive Org wrote that “the future is becoming increasingly difficult to predict.”

Today, with global instability, political partisanship, and an ever more rapid rate of change, those words seem prescient.

The tension between organizations optimized for predictability and the unpredictable world we inhabit has reached a breaking point. Only organizations built to adapt are going to survive.

I founded Responsive Conference because I had witnessed the same organizational dysfunctions and habits across nearly two dozen different industries.

In selling to the Fortune 100s, I learned how much of business is relationship-driven. As the first employee at a non-profit education tech company, I witnessed how slow our educational systems are to change. As an acrobat with the San Francisco Opera, I experienced the century-old practices of one of our most storied arts institutions. And in my own little brick-and-mortar restaurant, I learned about San Francisco city politics.

We still structure our organizations for a time where predictability mattered more than speed.

The theme of Responsive Conference 2025 is “Design for change” because the world is changing so rapidly. Only those individuals and organizations that keep pace with change are going to survive.

I hope you’ll join us at the Oakland Museum of California for Responsive Conference 2025.

Let’s build the future of work together!

Get your tickets now!
Prices go up March 15

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