IDEO Fellows

Bob Adams consults and lectures internationally on the topics of sustainability, innovation and transformation. From 2003-2008 he developed and led the Design for Sustainability initiative at IDEO, from which have emerged IDEO’s current focus areas in Social Innovation, Energy, and Environmental Impact. Trained in mechanical engineering, product design, and agronomy, Bob has been working on the integration of the design process with principles of sustainable development since 2000 when he joined The Natural Step and authored the formative white paper Sustainability for Designers. Bob has worked in the field of design for 25 years, with corporate experience including Hewlett Packard, Interval Research Corporation, and J.N, Marshall Pvt. Ltd. (Pune, India). As a consultant he has advised such companies as Procter and Gamble, Cargill, Adobe Systems, Nissan, ConAgra, Natureworks, and Verdant Power on questions of the incorporation of sustainability into products, services, and business models. He has worked in the not-for-profit sector with such organizations as The Natural Step, Meridian Institute, Forum for the Future, Business for Social Responsibility, and Rocky Mountain Institute.
Bob holds six patents in human-computer interface design, and has been the recipient of several international design awards. Since 1994, Bob has owned and operated a farm in the Sacramento Valley of California. His long-standing interest in sustainable agricultural practices led him to his current work in the field of sustainability. He is convinced that the potential for “redesigning design” is tremendous, and lies in a new integration of systems thinking, understanding of the life sciences, principles of sustainability, and the design process.

Videos:
Sustainability at IDEO: A First Look Through the Lens
CCA for the Design Green Now series lecture, 2009
Meyer May Symposium at Steelcase in Grand Rapids, 2009

Chip Heath is a Professor in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Chip is the co-author (along with his brother, Dan) of a book titled Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (Random House, 2007). Made to Stick has been a BusinessWeek and New York Times bestseller, and was ranked among Amazon’s Top 10 Business Books of 2007 by both editors and customers. It has been translated into 23 languages, including Thai, Arabic, and Lithuanian.

Chip’s research examines why certain ideas—ranging from urban legends to business strategy myths—survive and prosper in the social marketplace of ideas. These "naturally sticky" ideas spread without external help in the form of marketing dollars, PR assistance, or leadership attention. Chip’s research has appeared in academic journals in psychology, economics, and management. Popular accounts of his research have appeared in Scientific American, the Financial Times, The Washington Post, Business Week, Psychology Today, and Vanity Fair. He has appeared on NPR and National Geographic specials

Read Chip's bio: Chip Heath, Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford

Barry Katz is Professor of Humanities and Design at the California College of the Arts and Consulting Professor in the Design Division at Stanford University. He is the author of three books and has been editor of the Design Book Review; his essays on the history and philosophy of design have appeared in many academic, professional and popular journals including Design Issues, I.D. Magazine, Metropolis and Dwell. He is currently at work on a history of Silicon Valley design. Barry believes that there is no design problem that does not have its roots in history, and his contributions to IDEO's project work have been to make that history relevant.

Read Barry's bio: Barry Katz, Professor of Humanities and Design, CCA

Read about the Stanford University's Design Division

Robert I. Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford Engineering School, where he is a researcher and cofounder in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, and a cofounder and member of the “d.school.” Bob is also a Professor of Organizational Behavior, by courtesy, at Stanford Graduate School of Business. His honors include the Eugene L. Grant Award for Excellence in Teaching; the McGraw-Hill Innovation in Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award; the McCullough Faculty Scholar Chair from Stanford; and selection by Business 2.0 as a leading “management guru” in 2002.

Bob studies the links between managerial knowledge and organizational action, innovation, and organizational performance. He has published over 100 articles and chapters in scholarly publications as well as eight books and edited volumes. His most recent book is The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t (Warner, 2007). Bob’s research and opinions are often described in major press outlets, and he has been a guest on numerous radio and television shows, including Bloomberg, BBC, Connections, PBS, NPR, Tech Nation, and CNN.

Check out Bob's blog

Dr. Daniel Gray Wilson is a Research Director at Harvard Project Zero and currently leads the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s “Learning Innovations Laboratory (LILA)." LILA facilitates cross-organizational learning on challenges of innovation, knowledge creation and collaboration and currently involves leaders from fifteen global organizations such as the YMCA, McDonalds, Pfizer, MTV, Pfizer, Walt Disney and the World Bank. Over the past fourteen years at Project Zero, Daniel’s research has focused on how to teach and learn for deeper understanding in a variety of contexts ranging from k-12 schools across the U.S., mid-level managers in Colombia, to professional athletic teams. His research has examined informal learning and leadership practices in the workplace, which led to the co-authored book Learning at Work (2005). For the past three-years he has been working with adventure racing teams to understand how these “extreme teams” adaptively learn to perform in high-risk and uncertain environments. He is also a musician and plays drums and percussion in a Boston-based band.