Bill Harris

Current

Principal Utility Analyst, Energy Efficiency at Snohomish County PUD
Faculty Academy at Bainbridge Graduate Institute
Lecturer at University of Washington

Principal at Facilitated Systems (Sole Proprietorship)

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Past

Quality program manager, R&D productivity manager, software quality manager, production eng. mgr., . at Hewlett-Packard Company
Quality program manager, R&D productivity manager, software quality manager, production eng. mgr.,.. at HP
Senior Electrical Design Engineer at Texas Instruments Incorporated

Entwicklungsingenieur at Kienzle Apparate GmbH

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Education

Rice University
Rice University
Willamette University - Atkinson Graduate School of Management

Douglas S. Freeman HS

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Recommended

4 people have recommended Bill

Connections

445 connections

Industry

Management Consulting

Websites

Bill Harris’s Summary

I help people make sense of tough problems. I've helped people with problems in business, environmental management, and the arts. I've drawn on various systemic approaches including system dynamics, a simulation technique to help test proposed policies before implementation, and action science, an approach to facilitating more productive dialog at work. Stay up to date through Making Sense With Facilitated Systems (http://facilitatedsystems.com/weblog/).

I help groups work at a distance. I've taught management classes, coached presenters, and planned and moderated events.

Putting the two together, I do most of my consulting remotely, saving clients time and money.

My publications (http://facilitatedsystems.com/pubs.html) show some of the things I've done, including reducing cycle time in a design operation by 83% and reducing expense variance in an R&D organization by 95%.

I'd welcome the opportunity to hear about the challenges you face.

Bill Harris’s Specialties:

System dynamics, systems thinking, and other approaches to helping clients deal with tough problems (http://facilitatedsystems.com/expmgmnt.pdf, http://preview.tinyurl.com/2ol7ga, and http://preview.tinyurl.com/2luzx5)

Action learning to help people learn faster from experience (http://facilitatedsystems.com/retro.html and http://facilitatedsystems.com/llogs.html)

Online facilitation (http://facilitatedsystems.com/distwork.html and http://facilitatedsystems.com/pubs.html#dwg)

Bill Harris’s Experience

Principal Utility Analyst, Energy Efficiency

Snohomish County PUD

(Non-Profit; Utilities industry)

January 2009 — Present (7 months)
Faculty Academy

Bainbridge Graduate Institute

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

April 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)
Lecturer

University of Washington

(Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Higher Education industry)

December 2007 — Present (1 year 8 months)

Lecturer for IMT 586, a graduate course in system dynamics in winter quarter 2008
Principal
Facilitated Systems (Sole Proprietorship)

(Sole Proprietorship; Myself Only; Management Consulting industry)

December 1999 — Present (9 years 8 months)

Workshops and classes in systems thinking, management, online facilitation, and e-business.

Computer models for understanding and addressing tough organizational problems.

Meeting facilitation for more productive work, both online and face-to-face.

Lecturer in system dynamics, University of Washington, Winter 2008.
Quality program manager, R&D productivity manager, software quality manager, production eng. mgr., .

Hewlett-Packard Company

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)

August 1981 — December 1999 (18 years 5 months)

Helped one group cut design process cycle time 83% (from 6 weeks to 1 week).

Helped another group cut product development variance 95%.

Established and managed the issue escalation process for HP's Y2K Program Office.
Quality program manager, R&D productivity manager, software quality manager, production eng. mgr.,..

HP

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; HPQ; Information Technology and Services industry)

August 1981 — December 1999 (18 years 5 months)

See full profile under "Hewlett-Packard."
Senior Electrical Design Engineer

Texas Instruments Incorporated

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)

August 1973 — August 1981 (8 years 1 month)
Entwicklungsingenieur

Kienzle Apparate GmbH

(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Computer Hardware industry)

June 1971 — June 1973 (2 years 1 month)

Bill Harris’s Education

Rice University

MEE , Electrical Engineering , 1966 — 1971
Rice University

BA , Electrical Engineering, Mathematics

Activities and Societies:

Will Rice College, Rice Chamber Orchestra, Rice Chorale (student conductor), Will Rice Chorus (director)
Willamette University - Atkinson Graduate School of Management
Douglas S. Freeman HS

Additional Information

Bill Harris’s Websites:

Bill Harris’s Interests:

System dynamics, systems thinking, facilitation, action research, action learning, action science, online facilitation, organizational development, writing, German, Western art ("classical") music