Consulting

Pontifex Consulting has provided consulting expertise to private, public, and non-profit organizations for nearly 15 years. We have facilitated organizations in a variety of consulting activities.

1. Developing their organizational vision (whether it be for their organization or even the nation they serve)
   

2. Building and testing strategic plans through scenario planning and Strategic ForumsTM
   

3. Operationalizing strategy through effective execution plans
   

4. Identifying and implementing process improvement initiatives
   

Our approach is to start with your identified needs, providing our own integral assessment, and then collaborating with you to reach agreed upon goals and objectives to the consulting process. No engagement is the same!

Sample engagements include:

1. Auto Industry: Building and testing a 30 year strategy for reducing auto-related fatalities
   

2. IT Industry: Using a systems thinking model to communicate the warranty strategy across the organization
   

3. Retail Industry: Developing a strategy practice field for commercial office supplier
   

4. Public Health: Facilitating a cross-functional team in developing a learning lab for state politicians to test childhood obesity policies
   

5. Government Agency: Developing a computer-based practice field to build understanding of the importance of stakeholder engagement for implementing public policy
   

6. International Development Consortium: Working with international aid agencies and government leaders to support South American nation addressing malnutrition
   

Training

Pontifex Consulting offers a portfolio of training activities for any organization wishing to embed Systems Thinking capacity into the way that organization operates. Organizations can choose both the breadth (number of employees involved) and depth (level of skills developed and utilized).

We offer training designed to work with any group within an organization (or across a community).

Our approach is to help build the overall Systems Thinking capacity by ensuring that nearly all of the organization (95% or more) can apply general Systems Thinking skills. This means they look for patterns of behavior that transcend the daily events. They treat the system as the cause of that behavior and not external forces. And they take the Big Picture view...by looking for how different parts of the system interconnect.

We will work with an organization to build the skills of a large portion (40-50%) to be able to map the system of interest, to look for unintended consequences to policies, to identify vicious cycles, and to understand the time delays inherent in making any systemic improvements.

We assume some portion of the organization can benefit from learning to build simple systems models. They can use these models to engage the senior leadership in scenario planning, policy testing...even in operationalizing the vision of the organization or community.

Sample training engagements include:

1. Leadership training for state politicians
   

2. Senior manager training for aerospace engineers
   

3. Wildlife disease management training for National Park Service
   

4. Coaching/mentoring for state health organizations
   

5. Systems Thinking workshops
   

6. Webinars on system dynamics modeling
   

7. Training teams to lead process improvement initiatives
   

8. Climate change dynamics for community planning
   

Product Development

Pontifex Consulting has developed several Systems Thinking-based products with and/or for many of its clients. We will co-design the initial statement of work, and then either develop or support your developers in creating high impact products in support of your mission. We develop products for you to sell or distribute to your clients, either on CDs or as internet-based simulations (Netsims). With several years experience in designing effective training experiences, we are a full-service development team that can help not only with the product, but in designing user guides, supporting curriculum pieces, and even appropriate multimedia that enhances learning.

Sample products we have developed include:

1. Interactive case for top ten business school that teaches basic concepts relating to global commodity systems
   

2. Logistics learning lab for military clients
   

3. Multi-player Netsim for state university that teaches the dynamics of the Chesapeake Bay system
   

4. Netsim learning lab describing concepts from a Thomas Friedman (New York Times) column
   

5. Learning lab teaching IT strategy concepts