A Blacksmith Makes Their Own Tools

smithery.com
A blacksmith makes
their own tools
Innovation, Strategic Design,
and life after the IPA Excellence Diploma
Jo...

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Head of Innovation, 2007
“The creation and cultivation of ideas through the
study of technological, social an...

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Not Head of Futures

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The IPA
Excellence
Diploma
2007/8

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“I believe…”

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Assembling a point of view
September 2009

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IPA Excellence Diploma Thesis, 2008

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The Communis Manifesto
1. Create inner belief
2. Spread the word
3. Build relationships
4. Create community s...

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Work gets more interesting

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Where am I going with this..?
November 2010August 2009April 2008
https://www.slideshare.net/gamages/going-out...

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What do people come here for?

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Where does everybody go..?

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“Making is Thinking”
The Craftsman
Richard Sennett

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Campaign, July 7th, 2011
"Called Smithery, the business will
look to work with clients on brand
and service i...

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From ‘The Craftsman’, 3rd March 2012

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12th September 2012 29th September 2012

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What can it mean?

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Making is
Marketing

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“The principal task of the
marketing function is not so
much to be skilful in making
the customer do what sui...

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“No honest
craftsman or
maker knows in
the process of
working whether
he is making or
creating”
Joseph Brodsky

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“Sending out probes”

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What are
things
made of? https://www.instructables.com/id/A-sandstone-block-built-from-lego-blending-real-o/

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connective objects
that
transfer knowledge
through
time and space
What is media?
From “Are Brands Fracking Th...

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The
Hollow
Factory

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make brand
really interesting
make product
very efﬁciently
OPPOSING
INNOVATION
FORCES

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What do we
know about
people?

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“Data is the
new oil"

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“Everyone’s looking
for a crutch to lean
on, and it’s easier to
lean on quant data.”
Louise Flett, InklingCC

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“It was on Pollﬁsh,
which is fairly reliable
given what I was willing
to spend on it at the time”
Sam Conniff...

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Assume data to
be worthless
unless you can
prove otherwise

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The rise in ‘ethnography’…

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“The better you know the
current state of things and
why they’re like that, the
better you will be
positioned...

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What do people
want?

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Doyle’s three stages
Foraging, Farming, Mining

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Existing
Needs
Latent
Needs
Incipient
Needs

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Existing = Foraging
Latent = Farming
Incipient = Mining

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It can mean lots of things…

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Language as a tool

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“the limits of our
language are the
limits of our world”
January 2013
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Broadening
the tool...

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“Smithery 3.0”

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“The blacksmith
makes his
own tools”
Intuition Pumps
Daniel C. Dennett

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let's start with this…

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Jean Tinguely
1925-1991

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If you stare long enough,
you see how it works
http://www.vernissage.tv

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What are the
underlying
mechanics
of this?

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What happens to things
when things happen to them?

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Metamechanics
Movement
Maps
Loops
Layers

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The creative quartet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9dIQOrVhM5E - Prof. John Wood, T...

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Konica Minolta
A toolkit for the digital workplace
2015

smithery.comWhat makes these things different?
What makes these things the same?
Maps

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Innovation & Future Thinking
Summer Course

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BIG
SMALL
COLD HOT

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Maps help us
see things we
haven’t yet
seen

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LEGO
Customer Service persona mapping
2016

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LEGO
Customer Service Persona Mapping
2016

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“The highest
technique is
to have no
technique”
Bruce Lee

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JEET KUNE DO
The way of the intercepting ﬁst

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“…it is just a name used,
a boat to get one across,
and once across it is to be discarded
and not to be carri...

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Multiple interpretation loops

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1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999

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SLOW
FAST
FAST
SLOW

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SLOWFAST PEOPLE
FRIENDS
FAMILY
KIDS TEAM
FUNDRAISERS
PARTIES
PARENT HELPERS
COMMUNITY PROGRAMMES
LOCAL TEAMS
...

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SLOWFAST SPACE
GRAFFITI
CHALKING
FLYPOSTING
STREET ART
STICKERS
ADVERTISING
PUBLIC NOTICE BOARDS
SHOP SIGNS
S...

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SLOWFAST
PEOPLE
SLOWFAST
SPACE

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“The quick processes provide
originality and challenge,
while the slow provide
continuity and restraint”
Stew...

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What
happens
here?

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DesignPrototype
CultureStrategy
A library is
everything
that is
between
the covers,
but not on
the pages

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Design
Prototyping Culture
Strategy

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Structure
Scaffold
Sketch

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Laseau’s Funnel

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Development…
Research…
p
s

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p
s
Emotion Mapping - Ella Saltmarshe & John V Willshire

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Unstructured
The
Sandpit
The
Towers
of Industry
The
Souk
The
Cantina
The
High
Council
The
Data Mines
The
Spra...

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The
Cantina
Core Team Partners Public
SketchScaffoldStructure
The
Guildhall
The
Sandpit
The
Towers
of Industr...

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The
Colosseum
The
Guildhall
The
Sandpit
The
Towers
of Indus...

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The
Colosseum
The
Cantina
The
Guildhall
The
Sandpit
The
Tow...

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“Mapping is a social practice of
sensemaking that shifts from
individual cognition to shared
understanding”
R...

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Pick a project that
didn’t go as well
as you’d hoped…
Identify ﬁve key pivotal moments
Write out each stage o...

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p
s
In teams of 4-5,
map out your projects,
one at a time

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p
s
Name a
particularly
interesting
cluster or two

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Now, pick a cluster
Try and create something that may address
the issues there…

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p
s
A framework for a
learning organisation

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How things
work round here

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Issues
Identifying the
problem spaces

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Issues
Interventions
By design or
deployment

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0-30 days 30-60 days 60-90 days
Collection of
Instances
Review of
issues
Design of
Interventions

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Domains
Resources
Interactions

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Learn to adapt to
any surroundings

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“When we try to pick
out anything by itself,
we ﬁnd it hitched to
everything else
in the universe”
John Muir

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Strategic Design
bridges disciplines and departments,
roles and responsibilities.
It is concerned with the
fa...

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Everything is connected
But can be separated with the right tools

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Tools can be lingual

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Tools can be spatial
3. Embodiment
1. High Consequences
2. Rich Environment

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Tools can be procedural

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Tools can be fractal
p
s

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Tools can be
provocative

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Tools can
be playful

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Tools can
be practical

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Tools can
be actual

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DesignPrototype
CultureStrategy
Tools can
be learned,
found,
connected,
separated…

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Make
Copy
Iterate
Borrow
Fuse
Learn
Reinvent your own tools

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If you can separate anything,
you can see everything

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Thank you,
and good luck
John V Willshire
john@smithery.com
@willsh