Because You Need to Know – Kurt Conrad

This podcast is part of the Because You Need to Know series from Pioneer Knowledge Services.

Kurt drove away from New College of Florida for the last time with the phrase “organizational therapy” rolling around in his head. He left in his wake; many Rancid City Improvisational theater shows and an accidental college food-service boycott. He returned to DOE’s Richland Laboratory to continue his work starting up the Fast Flux Test Facility, a sodium-cooled research reactor. When he drove away from the nuclear reactor for the last time, the personnel airlock was not breaking down every few weeks. The Camrol bearings rolled much-more smoothly.

Kurt has started up training programs, support organizations, planning groups, and many of the organizational and technology-development projects that flowed from them. These projects have synthesized lessons learned across the energy, high-tech, transportation, pharmaceutical, education, publishing, and political sectors. His current focus is on: ­

• values-based decision making ­Infrastructures for collaborative, bottom-up conversations and negotiations
• nurturing grassroot organizations, communication networks, and publishing pipelines ­
• facilitating policy and knowledge architecture discussions ­
• building operational solutions to speed intelligent behaviors ­
• contributing his cello/ piccolo-bass hybrid to improvisational musical ensembles.

From research reactors to research documentation, Kurt gets people on the same page and gets things rolling. The reviews tell the story. “Anyone could learn from you.” “It was like we worked together for years” “I should be talking with you more.” “You always come up with something” “It’s never the same way twice.” “They play better when you’re here.”