Graduate Studies Program Application | Singularity University

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Page 1 Application Setup COMPLETE Page 2 Personal Information COMPLETE Page 3 Educational Background COMPLETE Page 4 Professional Background COMPLETE Page 5 Personal Statements COMPLETE Page 6 References COMPLETE Page 7 Tuition and Program Fee COMPLETE Page 8 Application Submission INCOMPLETE Log out

Graduate Studies Program 2011 Application (Ralf Lippold) Final Submission

Please review your application data before submitting your final application. Once you sign and submit your application, you will no longer be able to edit it, and it will be entered into the review phase of the admissions process. Note that you cannot submit your application until both letters of reference have been received. Information about which letters (if any) are missing is at the bottom of the page. If you have any questions about your application or the application process, please contact applications@singularityu.org

Application Summary
Name Email Address Phone Number Address Ralf Lippold ralf_lippold@web.de 493511606122 Louisenstr. 61 Dresden, 01099 Germany male June 25, 1965 Mainz Germany Germany

Gender Date of Birth City of Birth Country of Birth Country of Primary Citizenship Country of Secondary Citizenship How You Heard About SU Online Presence

friend http://xing.com/profile/Ralf_Lippold http://leanthinkers.blogspot.com http://linkedin.com/RalfLippold http://facebook.com/RalfLippold http://twitter.com/RalfLippold http://mindbroker.de/wiki/RalfLippold http://www.delicious.com/RalfLippold

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Track of Primary Expertise Track of Secondary Expertise Track of Most Interest College / University 1

FEE FSF

NCS University of Applied Science HTW Dresden Germany Degree: Diploma Graduation Year: 1997 Discipline/Major: Business Administration Area of Research: Innovation Management University Bamberg Germany

College / University 2

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Germany Degree: none Graduation Year: Discipline/Major: Economics Area of Research: University Mainz Germany Degree: Bachelor Graduation Year: 1989 Discipline/Major: Economics Area of Research: masters Uploaded Reading "The Machine that Changed the World" (by the Jim Womack/ Dan Jones, authors of "Lean Thinking") during my studies in Bamberg in 1992 has sparked my further interest to learn and apply lean in organizations. Ever since my passion is on creating more value for society with the resources at hand (or less) using current and new technologies. The study fields innovation management, production logistics, and office communication therefore was a logical course when starting at HTW Dresden. Since working at BMW the topic of human dynamics around implementing new technologies in current work processes has been my main interest. While working on various projects within and outside BMW it became obvious to me that it is more the mental models and psychological interaction that prevent to technology to emerge with ease in organization and public use. Working at BMW within the system to be changed enabled me to learn about system dynamics (http://systemdynamics.org/wiki) and Theory U (http://presencing.com) which I am researching in action research manner to understand the subtle resistance of humans to new developments and finding the leverage points to make the chances reality.

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Highest Degree Earned Transcripts Academic Background Essay

Other Academic Areas Expertise Essay English Proficiency Other Languages fluent German (native) Spanish (beginner) French (beginner) Business Consultant (own) Innovation Catalysator

Current / Most Recent Employer Current / Most Recent Position or Title Website of Current / Most Recent Employer Years of FullTime Work Experience International Work / Volunteer Experience Essay

http://xing.com/profile/Ralf_Lippold

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1990 before changing university I applied for an international work program for the USA. For two months I worked at a pancake restaurant on Cape Cod (in the kitchen and as a buzz boy) and became a house renter in a foreign country. Afterwards explored with a Delta Airline standby ticket a big chunk of the U.S. before heading back. 1991 I worked during the summer for two months at the Greek Public Power Corporation in Athens in the economic department, mainly on translating German tariffs into English, adapting them to Greek circumstances and teaching employees Wordperfect. 1993 I got the chance to work in building up the photo archive at the State Institute for Archeology in Dresden for two months and learned about the background of Eastern Germany and the challenges that people in the had been faced in the time after the Wall had come down in 1989. My driving passion - especially after a three-month stay in 1982 in Vancouver, Canada- is the ability of bridging knowledge and people across distance, cultures, and other boundaries together to fulfill outstanding missions. For that purpose I help people to use and effectively combine technology with their daily tasks in order to lower their workload, search time, and coordination time. This opens up time to be used on the really big challenges ahead of humanity that are often outside our work environment. CESAR - Container Tracking & Tracing for forwarding companies, changing use behavior from using phone to using web-based computer application Netmeeting/ Sametime - based as a process specialist logistics at BMW Plant Leipzig, we had lots of new technologies and tools as first movers. Sharing with other plants and departments outside Leipzig became a challenge especially when as main organizer for vehicle distribution dealing with sales people showing them online via desktop sharing. NAS - steering software for off-line production areas, originally focused on rework issues; facilitated that ALL other departments in the off-line areas at BMW Plant Leipzig got to use this, especially the analyst and non-rework employees who at first had the mental model that the program would not be for them (due to the name, "Rework Steering System"). LDLQ - using the data from NAS (sensor-based tracking) to establish an online visualization tool to see production bottlenecks, changes. Using the present software solutions for the purpose needed with the least amount of change - providing realtime information about Lean & System Dynamics Research Paper Together with a PhD student from New Zealand I started to write a research paper on the use of lean thinking within managerial enviornment. Adapting the model of Management Flight Simulators (mainly driven by Prof. John Sterman, MIT Sloan System Dynamics Group) to be used in short talks with managers making them understand in which way their current (and past) actions influence the future of the organization. While doing this experiment we learned a lot on virtual collaboration and the challenges of timezones - back in 2006/2007 the spread of free tools for virtual collaboratin were in the beginning. Google 10^100 Project 2008 - After 3rd SoL Global Forum in Oman in April 2008 I learned about Team Academy, "a management school without teachers", http://leanthinkers.blogspot.com/2008/06/team-academy-management-school-without.html. This led to setting up a proposal for the Google Project http://leanthinkers.blogspot.com/2008/11/team-action-learning-jouney-intofuture.html LockSchuppen - bringing an entrepreneurial incubator and think tank to Dresden, to provide the space to unlock people's own "hidden" creative potential through enabling the use of new technologies across a variety of usage fields. Initially sparked by attendance of the 3rd SoL Global Forum, visit to Team Academy, the "management school without teachers" (http://www.academia.si/pdf/TELP_Short_Presentation.pdf) CoOrpheum revitalizing an old, unused ballroom, into a coworking space, http://CoOrpheum.com making it a space where people cocreate the future OpenCoffeeClubDresden - a weekly meeting of entrepreneurs and like-minded people for 25 consecutive weeks from summe 2009 on (after being part of an OpenCoffeeClub in Cambridge, MA Resume / CV Uploaded Resume / CV Link: http://bit.ly/aliwCT Unintentionally educated by my parents and my father being an electrical engineer I learned early to solve problems with what was at hand. In the basement a vast variety of tools, electrical devices, wood was available to us kids at ease. Curious as my father especially around new technology, building radios, pantographs for use with an BBC Acorn Computer in 1982, has lead to the fascination of technology. Through our first home exchanges in

Entrepreneurial / Leadership Background Essay

Resume / CV Grand Challeneges Essay

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an BBC Acorn Computer in 1982, has lead to the fascination of technology. Through our first home exchanges in 1981 to England I learned to adapt to new technologies in the houses we moved to. At home we had automated cooking devices, phone connections in the complete house (from end of the 60's on, state of the art HiFi equipment (which my father often brought home to test from his job at ZDF, German televion). All this over time span of 45 years has piled up in a variety and broadness of how challenges can be tackled with first your mind, and then additionally with applying technology at the right time and space. This is probably the reason that I feel very comfortable amongst engineers and computer science folks and adapted to their language and understanding. Studying economics and business administration opened up the view to see the broader connections between organizations, people, and technology. Since reading "Lean Thinking" (Womack/Jones) back in the mid 90's the passion of solving challenges with the best available solution has caught me up. Especially real life experience (either as customer or within a workspace) drive me to see and do the process differently in order to create tangible value for the customer and company alike.

Grand Challenge of Most Interest What would you like to get from your SU experience?

Education on applying sustainability to poor areas There is one dream I am working on for the last eight years when I was head of the crisis orga team in Dresden during the flood in 2002. It took me five years at BMW co-creating the new plant in Leipzig, http://bmw-werkleipzig.de, only to attend a workshop at MIT Sloan on "Business Dynamics: MIT's Approach to Diagnosing and Solving Complex Business Problems" with Prof. John Sterman, Jay Forrester (creator of the field system dynamics), and Peter Senge. From there on the dream has become even more tangible and after a visit to Finland by surprise ("Watching the Arrival of the Penguins!" - the arrival of new students at the entrepreneurial hot spot Team Academy. Team Lea(r)ning Experience, http://leanthinkers.blogspot.com/2008/11/team-action-learningjouney-into-future.html, is supposed to become a blended version of Team Academy, MIT, Singularity University, Presencing Institute (founded by Otto Scharmer) to put another mosaic in the puzzle to solve the greatest challenges on earth. In general I would like to learn more about putting my boundary spanner capabiity into practice to bring high tech solutions more quickly into world! My plans after Singularity University is to further create the dream of Team Lea(r)ning Experience to my and others expertise and knowledge to address the world's greatest challenges coming from a grass-roots level making the advancing technologies better understood by citizens, peers, and politicians. The next steps on that path will be providing the knowledge gained from SU Experience to KMU in the high tech beld in and around Dresden to make "Singularity Arrive" and co-create what Ray Kurzweil talked about in June at Congress Center Dresden, http://bit.ly/cEUWZ4.

Career Goals Essay

About Me: In Brief Video Link Letters of Recommendation http:// John Sterman jsterman@mit.edu +1-617-253 1951 Professor Letter has been submitted by reference Edgar Schein scheine@comcast.net Professor (em.) Letter has not been submitted by reference Tuition Amount Able to Raise $10000

You cannot submit your application until both references have submitted their letters of recommendation. (You will be notified by email when they do. At this time, you are still waiting on a letter from Edgar Schein.

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