Introduction and Updated Bio--Walter Derzko
=================================
I thought I'd repost my bio to the list, since my innovation and
creativity-related interests have shifted over time.
I come from a science and business background. My last corporate 9-5
job was in strategy in 1984. I've been consulting since then.
I first started teaching courses on cognitive thinking skills in 1984 at
the high school and in-house corporate levels. In 1996,
I was invited to design and teach a course on "thinking skills in business"
and a "strategy" course at Conestoga College
in Kitchener, Ontario Canada.
In 1986 I hosted a weekly cross-Canada radio program on CKO called the
"Creative Edge".
From 1989-93 I was "creative thinker in residence" and assistant to the
director at the McLuhan program in Culture and Technology
at the University of Toronto.
In 1992, I formed the Creativity Consortium in Toronto as a club for
lateral thinkers--The Toastmasters of Innovation. We meet monthly
on the last Wed of the month at the Ontario Club in Toronto with guest
speakers to provoke your lateral thinking and a hands-on practice session
to wrap up each meeting.
I'm currently designing an in-house corporate workshop ( and a 13 week
college level version) on "Knowledge Management--
Coping as a Knowledge Worker" a hands-on workshop that addresses
information anxiety and overload in today's workplace
and a second workshop on "Managing the Knowledge Worker" for supervisory
staff.(one conclusion that participants reach at the end of the workshop
is that Managing the Knowledge Worker is a misnomer--and a new term is
needed.
With my work at the Idea Lab and with various clients has refocused my
interests over the years and they've evolved as follows:
-teaching cognitive skills (circa 1984) ~> Agent-mediated learning,
social barriers to innovation, creative adaptations of intelligent agents,
-learning thinking skills ~> applying thinking skills, creative ways to
address information overload in the executive suite and for the knowledge
worker.
-social impacts of new technology ~> competitive intelligence, technology
evolution curves, hype vs. reality for new technologies, advanced scenario
planning, complexity
-single issue problem-solving ~> agility, multi-problem domains,
anticipatory management (providing clients 6 months to 1 year lead-time on
new emerging issues that will effect a firm), agent-supported
decision-making, creating knowledge maps, insight maps and decision maps
from tacit and explicit information and knowledge
-new product development ~> rethinking the innovation process; innovation
on innovation, electronic commerce, customer relationships and customer
touch, creating new concept maps for killer apps, designing innovation
-creating new concepts ~> designing new concepts in the Idea Lab,
sense-making, agent-mediated autonomous classification, software that helps
visualization (i.e. turning unstructured text into themescapes ( i.e using
software like Thememedia etc), )
-opportunity clinics ~> second generation opportunity clinics that focus on
pattern recognition for spotting new opportunities threats, anomalies, red
flags.
-agent-mediated knowledge management, ubiquitous agents, social aspects of
ubiquitous agents
I deal with clients in the financial, banking, retail, manufacturing,
education, service and consulting areas.
If there is a community of interest ( if someone is developing parallel
tools) in the above areas please contact me directly.
Walter Derzko
Director Brain Space
(formerly the Idea Lab at
the Design Exchange)
Toronto
(416) 588-1122
wderzko@pathcom.com
or (416) 955-2040 at the Royal Bank