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About Facilitated Systems
Facilitated Systems was founded in 1999 to offer collaborative solutions to executives who want strategies and initiatives that are tested before implementation, who want their organizations to work more productively in groups, and who want to build organizations that learn and improve more rapidly from their experiences.No, wait, that's not it. That's what Facilitated Systems does; that's not why it does. Bill Harris founded Facilitated Systems to help people. Specifically, we people (most of us, at least) spend much of our lives in organizations. We do that to accomplish things we couldn't accomplish alone. Bill had observed certain recurring organizational problems that made it harder to achieve those goals than it should be. Because he had experience helping people address those problems successfully inside companies, he founded Facilitated Systems to help more people by helping the organizations in which they work.
There, that's it.
Facilitated Systems' clients have included Agilent Technologies, The Boeing Company, CakeBoxx LLC, the Desert Conservation Program of Clark County, Nevada, General Electric Company, Harborview Medical Center, Hewlett-Packard Company, Quisic, Sustainability Institute, THINK New Ideas Seattle, Turning Point, the University of Washington, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Facilitated Systems has presented workshops for the American Evaluation Association, the AeA (formerly the American Electronics Association), and University Centers of North Puget Sound.
Facilitated Systems is an associate of Full Circle Associates and a value added reseller for Web Crossing.
About Bill Harris
Bill Harris has observed
companies for over 30 years as an engineer, manager, and internal and
external consultant and facilitator. He has worked in a 4,000
employee European company, a Fortune 50 multinational, and a Fortune
500 high tech company, filling roles in R&D, Manufacturing, Quality,
and Finance and Administration.
During this time, he's learned that it's hard to link an organization's actions to its goals, to work really effectively in groups, and to get the time to learn and grow from our experiences. For many organizations distributed around the world, it's hard to work effectively without the cost in time and money of frequent travel.
He enjoys working collaboratively with those who want to address such issues in their organizations. He helped one organization reduce cycle time by 83% as they changed their processes and became a self-directed work team for faster decision making and better responsiveness. He helped a manager reduce spending variance by 95% based on a system dynamics investigation. He routinely trains managers and helps groups function more effectively, even when they're not located in the same place.
Bill teaches a graduate course in system dynamics in the Information School at the University of Washington and co-teaches a course in systems thinking at Bainbridge Graduate Institute.
While a member of the Northwest Entrepreneur Network, Bill chaired their Managing Growth Focus Area and assisted in the design and launch of their Executive Roundtable program. He is a member of the American Evaluation Association, the HP Alumni Association, and an alumnus of Rice University. To spread the word about simulation-based systems thinking (system dynamics), he writes the interactive column At Any Rate for Pegasus Communications. Read more in a Member Service Provider Profile the Northwest Entrepreneur Network published in the February 2004 Venturer.
View Bill Harris's profile
on LinkedIn.