Approach to DOD challenges & medical research applied in the business world
John Rogers, CEO of Capstone National Partners (Capstone) and co-founder of RL Leaders, announced that Capstone has initiated offering the coveted Applied Creativity Thinking panels as an exclusive offering for Capstone’s private sector clients. The panels, originally developed by RL Leaders and used by the Federal Government, including the US Department of Defense (DOD), will be branded as Strategic Action Charrettes.
“We’ve found that this type of activity has real tangible value in ‘bringing the future forward’ for organizations, allowing them to develop and play out different scenarios in a safe but productive way, while at the same time getting leadership teams to think more creatively,” said Rogers.
For the last 13 years, Rogers has been leading Charrettes for the US Army and other branches of the DOD. Rogers, a former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, is introducing this innovative approach to the private sector. While serving in the DOD, Rogers and Secretary Les Aspin first used this approach to problem solving. Like its public sector counterpart, Strategic ActionCharrettes are collaborative, intensive planning sessions typically held over multiple days with the participation of a variety of stakeholders.
Since 2001, entertainment industry professionals, scientific experts and academic thought leaders have teamed up with national security and defense experts to come up with innovative solutions to some of the federal government’s most vexing problems.
Rogers and his partners have relationships with Hollywood’s biggest writers and producers, NASA scientists, top video game developers, military leaders, and advisors to Fortune 500 CEOs.
“You combine that out-of-the-box thinking, and that hardcore edge, with an analytical thinker and a problem solver, and you come up with some amazing stuff,” said Greg Goodrich, video game designer and CEO of Pound Sand, who has participated in numerous Charrettes.
This process can be used to address issues ranging from the future of healthcare delivery systems in the next decade to how advances in voice communication technology will shape the way we live and work.
Previous Charrettes have ranged from examining new approaches to treating, diagnosing and preventing Parkinson’s disease, to looking at how people will interact with computers in the next twenty years.
“The kinds of challenges leaders face today are more complex than ever before,” Rogers said. “There is a real need to look at these challenges through different lenses and to create a compelling narrative and develop solutions that can be implemented in the near term. Strategic Action Charrettes provide access to some of the most creative, thoughtful, successful leaders in the country that candidly, would not be able to be convened otherwise. As one of our DARPA clients said to us, ‘never before and never again will this group of amazing individuals be brought together to address our challenge.’ That’s a concept I’m proud of and we’re delighted to be able to offer it to the private sector.”
Capstone National Partners is a full service public affairs firm with an office in Washington, D.C. Capstone has grown and evolved over the last 20 years to become the highly successful boutique public relations and government affairs firm it is today.
To learn more about how a Strategic Action Charrette can be implemented within your organization, contact Erik Oksala at 202-551-1424.
