I help leaders and teams navigate technical and ethical complexity.
I have spent my career working at the crux of change: building and equipping teams to do their most ambitious work; working to democratize the knowledge and practice of design; leading innovation work in companies, organizations and institutions; nurturing community and instigating challenging conversations.
Michael has a passion for starting things. Whether it's companies or communities, he has spent much of the last 25 years breaking new ground. As a design and innovation leader he was devoted to making both more rigorous and more accessible. He is a founding member of Overlap, a peer network of innovators who share knowledge and practice to advance the state of the art of design. Since spending five years helping to build an elite innovation unit in the U.S. Department of Defense, he has been focused on working with leaders and teams in domains characterized by both high technical and ethical complexity, such as AI, defense innovation and inclusive entrepreneurship.
Thinking
Michael’s PhD work in philosophy was focused on the history of ideas of objectivity in communities of practice, particularly those of science and law. Throughout his career, Michael has remained engaged in thinking at the intersection of ethics and epistemology. Thinking about the analogy of physical practice to improvisational innovation work led him to articulate the concept of Innovation Parkour. More recently, research into AI and conversation led him to develop a theory of intelligence called System 3.
ACtion
Michael has founded and led several start ups, developed an experimental innovation practice called Innovation Parkour, created the online learning program, Unfinished Business School and developed fora for conversations about complex problems, from the future of policing, to economic justice in the venture economy, to the future of shared cognition.