Virtual via Zoom

Transformation has a shape, and we’ve been playing it for millennia.

The Rite of Passage is an ancient yet cutting-edge, cross-cultural design for navigating change and generating transformation. We can find it anywhere there is human change (including in the design of tabletop role-playing games). Whether you’re launching a product, shifting your creative purpose, or leading through uncertainty, there is a common framework for mapping our world from what was to what’s next while helping us create meaning in the space between.

We will explore:

Why understanding and systemically applying the Rite of Passage is critical for us to successfully navigate and influence, with agency, a constantly evolving, Al-saturated world. Examples of Rites of Passage found in all areas of human change, including within groups, social movements, and transformative innovations. How the tabletop role-playing game, as a microcosm of the Rite of Passage, acts as an experiment for transformation that can be applied to the actual world. An invitation to take part in that experiment.

Bio: About Thor Madsen

Thor Madsen helps people and organizations navigate meaningful change, whether creative, structural, or personal. He has worked across tech, media, and education, and recently completed a graduate thesis at Reed College exploring how rituals and role-playing games reflect and rehearse actual-world transformation. Through his firm, ThinkResults LLC, he blends strategic advisory with immersive design and cultural research.

Lecture Details Sometimes when we share research findings, we hear back, “We already knew that.” In this talk, I’ll examine why that happens, and what we can do about it. Sometimes, it’s a cognitive bias, called hindsight bias and also known as the “knew it all along” phenomenon. But there are other causes and we can adjust our approach to research to try and limit this all-too-common challenge.

About Steve Portigal Steve Portigal is an experienced user researcher who helps organizations to build mature user research practices. He is the author of Interviewing Users: How To Uncover Compelling Insights (now in a second edition) and Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries: User Research War Stories. He’s also the host of the Dollars to Donuts podcast.

Website: portigal.com/