Design thinking is a human-centered approach to developing your strategic plan. This workshop will provide you with the skills and processes to design a creative, effective, and sustainable strategic plan; one that utilizes the best of your organization's board, staff, and volunteers to achieve a greater positive impact and be in the best position to provide and grow your offerings now and in years to come.

Participants will:

• Learn how to utilize design thinking and strategic planning fundamentals
• Learn how to apply them to their work and within their organizations
• Be introduced to and provided case-based applied learning opportunities that they can bring back to and start utilizing within their organizations in creative and engaging ways.

About the presenter:

Joe Benesh is a native of Newton, Iowa. Joe has a background in planning that spans more than eighteen years. His unique ability to listen, process, and framework thoughts and ideas into focused strategies and tactical implementation plans has led to purposeful, creative, and sustainable growth in the organizations he works with. In addition to the groups he has worked with regionally in Iowa, Joe has also built successful organizations in Chicago and Miami. Joe is a member of the University of Iowa teaching staff as an adjunct, where he is in his sixth year of teaching strategic planning in their Masters of Business Administration program. He serves on the boards of several non-profits, a college board, has participated in the design of multiple leadership development programs, and has been an organizing member of a think-tank that is dedicated to the success of the central Iowa region. Joe has also been a regular blogger for the Des Moines Business Record and the Greater Des Moines Partnership, where he writes a blog on organizational strategy and design thinking, which he is currently editing into a book on strategic planning. Joe graduated from Iowa State University with a Degree in Architecture in 1999. He holds a license to practice architecture in three states and received a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Iowa in 2016.