Keith McCandless helps people
innovate and manage complexity by working with groups to unleash creativity,
discover opportunities and build on momentum. A co-founder of the
Social Invention Group, his eclectic skills are grounded in organizational
development, complexity science, business strategy, and graphic facilitation.
He describes himself as a structured improvisationalist.
He has worked with a broad range of corporate and nonprofit clients in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Latin America. Keith has facilitated innovative change initiatives in health, education, and technology sectors. He specializes in imaginative solutions to challenges without easy answers and situations with low levels of certainty and agreement.
Keith managed executive learning and research initiatives for the Health Forum in San Francisco, where he was responsible for leading field-based learning collaboratives focused on quality, systems thinking, creativity, idealized design, market dynamics, rapid prototyping, and transformational leadership. Prior to the Health Forum, Keith founded and served as the executive director of the Foundation for Health Care Quality in Seattle. He holds a MA in Management from Brandeis University in Boston and a BA from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
Currently, Keith is engaged in three bold, transformational initiatives: the Innovation Learning Network (including large health systems in the US); Liberating Structures in Latin America & Europe; and Positive Deviance, preventing MRSA infections in hospitals. He is a board member of the Plexus Institute, a vibrant network of scholars and practitioners working on the frontiers of complexity science and health.
Clients include: Intuit Corporation; Amex; PATH; Merck; IDM; Serono; Schering-Plough; Veterans Health Administration; Mayo Clinic; Providence Health System; Group Health Cooperative; Plexus Institute; American Red Cross; VHA Health Foundation; Whole Foods Market; WestFarm Foods; Sacred Heart Medical Center; UC Davis Health Sciences; Scripps Health; Executive Alliance; Seattle Public Utilities; Washington Health Foundation; Buddhist Peace Fellowship; WA State Board of Health; The Center for Ethical Leadership; Dental Health Foundation; CHEF; NW Regional Primary Care Assn; Children’s Hospital & Health Center; McGill University; York University; Foundation for Community Vitality; Pioneer Network; Health Forum Fellowships; TESC; UTMB; APGO; AAMC; CIMIT; and, the Chaordic Alliance.
