You want your organization to do something bigger. I help you define it, design it, and bring it to life.
COLLABORATIONS
The challenges have nothing in common. But the work does.
IN PROGRESS
A new framework for understanding and helping families facing pediatric cancer
UX for Good · Chicago
IN PROGRESS
A new institution helping nations recover from conflict and build more peaceful societies
Aegis Trust · Kigali, Rwanda
IN PROGRESS
A new approach to reinvigorating Chicago’s downtown
Chicago Architecture Center · Chicago
COMPLETED
The first-ever sequence for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals
OECD · Washington, DC
COMPLETED
A new model for using professional sports to build better cities
Chicago Architecture Center · Chicago
COMPLETED
A new funding model for nonprofit theater
Steppenwolf, Goodman, Lookingglass, Court & Writers Theatres · Chicago
SPEAKING
Unwritten Rules
Every ambitious change — inside an organization or out in the world — runs into the same invisible wall. Not a lack of resources or ideas, but a set of forces no one talks about and most people can't see. They determine what gets taken seriously, what quietly dies, and whether bold ideas survive long enough to matter. Seeing them is where all big change begins. In this talk, I show you how.
Harvard Graduate School of Design · Stanford d.School · World Government Summit (Dubai) · Facebook · Microsoft · AT&T · MetLife · TEDx Lake Forest College · Business Innovation Factory · and 40+ other institutions, companies, associations, and conferences.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY
“You call Jeff when there’s a problem you can’t solve. He’s better at it than anyone else.”
Russ Taylor
Executive Director
Foundations of East Chicago
“Jeff sees the big picture and the gaps in it that other people don’t see. He has a level of strategic insight that’s rare.”
Steve Edwards
Chief Content Officer,
Chicago Public Media
“Jeff’s talk on unwritten rules was as insightful and thought-provoking as it was entertaining and engaging.”
Esther Lee
Global Chief Marketing Officer
MetLife
BOOK
See Think Solve: A Simple Way to Tackle Tough Problems
Most approaches to solving big problems assume people behave rationally — that if you give them the right information, the right incentives, or the right plan, they’ll change. They don’t. Human behavior is governed by invisible social norms that no one writes down and most people don’t notice. This book shows you how to see those norms and use them to create change that actually works.
ABOUT
Jeff Leitner
Organizations come to Jeff when they want to do something bigger — and need a partner who can help them define it, design it, and bring it to life. The work always starts the same way: digging into what the organization does, what it cares about, and what the world needs from it — and finding the place where those things meet in a way no one has seen before. That's where the bigger thing lives. And that's where we start building.
He's done this with the US State Department, USC, Panera, the Poetry Foundation, and dozens of other organizations.