I design new ways for organizations to solve challenges that don't have obvious solutions.
USC needed a doctorate in social innovation — so we built one. The Kigali Genocide Memorial needed to turn visitors into activists — so we redesigned how it works. The OECD needed to figure out where to start on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals — so we created the first-ever sequence. The problems are always different. The work is always the same: find the structural insight everyone has missed, and build something new around it.
Collaborations
Works in Progress
A new framework for understanding and supporting families facing pediatric cancer
UX for Good | Chicago | See Overview
A new model for using professional sports to build better cities
Chicago Architecture Center | Chicago | See Report
A new institution helping nations recover from conflict and build more peaceful societies
Aegis Trust, UX for Good | Kigali, Rwanda
Completed Works
A new roadmap for expanding poetry's reach and engagement
Poetry Foundation | Chicago
A new funding model for nonprofit theater
Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Court Theatre, Writers Theatre | Chicago | See Report
The first-ever sequence for achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) | Washington, DC | See Findings
A new path for expanding mobile healthcare
Harvard Medical School, Family Van | Boston
A new model for US investment in emerging democracies
US Department of State, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | Palm Springs, CA
Speaking
Unwritten Rules
Every organization runs on a set of rules no one wrote down — invisible forces that determine what gets prioritized, who gets promoted, and whether change actually happens. Most leaders try to drive change by rewriting the formal rules. It doesn't work, because the unwritten rules always win. In this talk, I show audiences how to surface these rules and use them — rather than fight them — to navigate politics, lead more effectively, and drive real innovation.
Speaking Venues
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Stanford d.school, World Government Summit (Dubai), Facebook, Microsoft, AT&T, Coca-Cola, MetLife, TEDx Lake Forest College, Business Innovation Factory, and 40+ other institutions, companies, associations, and conferences.
What People Say
Esther Lee, Global CMO, MetLife: "Jeff's talk on unwritten rules was as insightful and thought-provoking as it was entertaining and engaging for my global marketing organization. It has inspired us to think more deeply about how we can successfully drive cultural change to better prepare us for success in the future."
Robert Jordan, Founder & CEO, InterimExecs: "Jeff gets to the heart, soul and guts of what it takes to make organizational change stick, by first taking us through the many clever and cute ideas that sound good – but don't actually work. He had our audience of corporate executives riveted and wanting a lot more of Jeff."
Book
See Think Solve: A Simple Way to Solve 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 never notice. This book shows you how to see those norms and use them to create change that actually works — because it works with human nature instead of against it.
About
Jeff Leitner
Organizations come to me when they want to do something they don't know how to do — when the ambition is clear but the path isn't. The reason they're stuck is almost never a lack of effort or talent. It's that there's something structural about the problem they can't see. I find it, and then we build something new around it.
I've done this with the OECD, the US Department of State, Harvard Medical School, the Poetry Foundation, NASA, Steppenwolf Theatre, the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, the Kigali Genocide Memorial, and dozens of other institutions. The domains have nothing in common. The work does: big ambition, no obvious path, a hidden structural insight, and a new thing that works.
I co-authored See Think Solve: A Simple Way to Tackle Tough Problems, which details the first norms-based approach to social change. I speak and lecture on unwritten rules and social innovation at venues including Harvard's Graduate School of Design, Stanford's d.school, and the World Government Summit in Dubai.
What People Say
Russ Taylor, Executive Director, Foundations of East Chicago: "You call Jeff when there's a problem you can't solve. He's better at it than anyone else."
Steve Edwards, Chief Content Officer, Chicago Public Media: "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."
Michael Orlove, Director, National Endowment for the Arts: "Jeff can walk into a room where people are struggling to figure something out and get them to a place they wouldn't have gotten to before."