Announcing some big next steps!
After eight amazing years as Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer of Planned Parenthood I’m thrilled to announce two exciting new professional relationships to kick off 2019: Strategic Advisor, Impact and Innovation at Redshift Leadership, and Expert-in-Residence at IDEO, one of the world's foremost human-centered design and innovation firms. Working with these creative and collaborative partners I’ll continue to focus on strategy and innovation, as well as draw on my previous experience as a campaign-winning and culture-change focused media and brand strategist. And in-between my many travels I'll be exploring the explosive energy, innovation and abundant food trucks of my new hometown Austin, TX. The tacos are on me when you come for a visit! (photo credit: The 500 Tacos Project)
Before sharing a bit more on these exciting partnerships I want to thank each and every person who has been part of my life and career to this point. To paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, every person I have met is my better in some area, and in that I have learned, and continue to learn, from each person I encounter. I’m very grateful for your friendship, partnership and mentorship.
Here's more on IDEO and Redshift, and the work I'm excited to do with them in 2019:
As Expert-in-Residence at IDEO, I'll spend the year working in the midst of their global designers, creators and problem solvers while imagining, exploring and prototyping the socially responsible and responsive organizations, corporations and technology needed for a healthier and happier future for both people and the planet. I'll regularly be on-site in the San Francisco Bay Area and in other IDEO locations, learning from IDEO's endlessly big-thinking, big-doing approach and sharing my expertise in helping guide social and civic movements, catalyzing brand activism and utilizing emergent technology to create change.
IDEO was a partner and creative force behind numerous innovations at Planned Parenthood including the design and implementation of a nationwide employee engagement and brand campaign that united organizational culture and patient experience across our national office and 56 affiliates. Sister organization IDEO.org has been a leader in the global sexual and reproductive health world, working with numerous international organizations to create programs tailored to adolescent girls and to promote global reproductive health and choice. Through inspiration, ideation, and implementation IDEO tackles a broad spectrum of challenges in the business and social sectors and I'm honored to spend this year collaborating with them.
As Strategic Advisor, Impact and Innovation at Redshift Leadership, I will be contributing to, and extending, Redshift's leadership development, strategy and change management work with US and global NGOs, foundations, and select for-profit organizations. I'll focus on vision and values clarification, narrative and storytelling to help these movements and brands unlock more activism and engagement, and work directly with CEO’s and senior leaders to support their biggest ambitions and meet their toughest challenges.
Through my work at Planned Parenthood, I had the chance to partner closely with Redshift Founding Principal, Suzanne Rotondo, and experience firsthand the firm's deep understanding of how change really happens in society and within organizations — as well as the research-driven and emotionally intelligent approach they bring to all of their work.
Redshift works with an incredible group of game changers and industry leaders including The Ad Council, Netflix, Sierra Club, Obama Foundation, NBCUniversal, Children's Investment Fund Foundation, BuzzFeed, OutRight International, NorthLight Foundation, Clinton Foundation, ClimateWorks, Mom's Rising, Disney, Healthcare without Harm, Black Entertainment Television, Planned Parenthood, Humane Society, and Open Society Foundation.
If you would like to know more about my work with Redshift Leadership or IDEO, please reach out to me at dlaguens@ideo.com or dawn@redshiftleadership.org, on Twitter @DawnLaguens, and follow the fun on Instagram @DawnLaguens. I would love to hear what you are hoping, dreaming and doing in 2019 and if there is an opportunity to think and create together.