Consulting

Throughout his professional career Farson has consulted on management and human relations problems with a wide variety of organizations including IBM; Westinghouse; General Dynamics; TRW; Digital Equipment Corporation; Herman Miller Company; Kaypro Corporation; City of San Diego; U.S. Forest Service; Department of Mental Hygiene, Los Angeles County; Planned Parenthood; Kresge College, University of California, Santa Cruz; U.S. Army; and the World Economic Forum.

In addition to his having the experience of heading several organizations, he has a reputation for being ahead of the curve in anticipating issues that have led to crucially important social and organizational developments. For example:

• Diversity. His pioneering efforts on behalf of women’s and children’s rights, marked by his 1969 Look magazine article, "The Rage of Women," and his 1974 book, "Birthrights: A Bill of Rights for Children," each of which was the first to bring to a national audience the need for reform, stand out as early moves toward fostering and incorporating diversity.

• Educational Innovation. In 1981, long before the advent of the Internet, he created WBSI’s highly regarded School of Management and Strategic Studies, the first program ever to use online distance education, a field that now serves millions of students worldwide.

• Scaleablity. In an effort to develop scaleable approaches to the promotion of mental health, he was the first to conduct group psychotherapy on television as stimulus for a community mental health program. One film in this effort, "Journey Into Self," won an Academy Award for best feature length documentary.

Farson is a longtime student of organizational behavior. In addition to the extensive research he directed in his role as president of WBSI, he has held several other significant research positions. He has been a Ford Foundation Fellow on the Human Relations Faculty of the Harvard Business School, a Research Associate at the Industrial Relations Center of the University of Chicago, a Research Officer at the U.S. Navy Personnel Research and Development Center, and a partner in the management consulting firm of Gordon and Farson Associates (with Thomas Gordon, noted for his books and programs on parent and leader training).

Of crucial importance today, he understands that because social situations and environments are so determining of human behavior and achievement, design will be the key element of consulting in the 21^st century. Farson is a leader in the field of social and environmental design. In addition to his writings in the area, he was the founding dean of the School of Design at the California Institute of the Arts, twice president of the International Design Conference in Aspen, of which he has been a director for thirty years, and the one Public Director (non-architect) elected to the national Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects. In 2001 he was appointed a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council.