Bill Harris

Current

• Adjunct Faculty 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
• Senior Electrical Design Engineer at Texas Instruments Incorporated
• Entwicklungsingenieur at Kienzle Apparate GmbH

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Education

• Rice University
• Rice University

Recommended

4 people have recommended Bill

Connections

282 connections

Industry

Management Consulting

Websites

• My Company
• My Blog

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

• Adjunct Faculty

  Bainbridge Graduate Institute

  (Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

  April 2008 — Present (2 months)

• Lecturer

  University of Washington

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

  December 2007 — Present (6 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 (8 years 6 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.

• 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)

Additional Information

Bill Harris’s Websites:

• My Company
• My Blog

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

Bill Harris’s Groups:

American Evaluation Association, Rice University, Puget Sound System Dynamics Special Interest Group, odnet, System dynamics mailing list, UW IMT586

•    Hewlett-Packard Alumni Association member
•    Association of Rice Alumni member
•    LinkedSeattle member

Bill Harris’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch