smithery.com A blacksmith makes their
own tools Innovation, Strategic Design, and life after the IPA Excellence Diploma John V Willshire Thursday 23rd January 2020

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Part 1
2007-2011

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smithery.com Head of Innovation, 2007
“The creation and cultivation of ideas through the study of technological, social and cultural trends”

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Not Head of Futures

smithery.com The IPA Excellence Diploma
2007/8

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“I believe…”

smithery.com Assembling a point of
view September 2009

smithery.com IPA Excellence Diploma Thesis,
2008

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smithery.com The Communis Manifesto 1.
Create inner belief 2. Spread the word 3. Build relationships 4. Create community spaces 5. Allow messages to travel

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Work gets more interesting

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Work gets more interesting

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So why leave?

smithery.com Where am I going
with this..? November 2010August 2009April 2008 https://www.slideshare.net/gamages/going-out-the-new-staying-in/20-spot https://www.slideshare.net/gamages/advertising-fireworks-social-bonfires https://www.slideshare.net/gamages/the-social-lego-principles https://www.slideshare.net/gamages/the-planners-book-of-things-to-make July 2009

smithery.com What do people come
here for?

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Where does everybody go..?

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Part 2
2011-2014

smithery.com “Making is Thinking” The
Craftsman Richard Sennett

smithery.com Campaign, July 7th, 2011
"Called Smithery, the business will look to work with clients on brand and service innovation, community initiatives, crowdsourcing projects and marketing and media strategy.”

smithery.comFirst client

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December 2011

smithery.com From ‘The Craftsman’, 3rd
March 2012

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4th April 2012

smithery.com 12th September 2012 29th
September 2012

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What can it mean?

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Making is
Marketing

smithery.com “The principal task of
the marketing function is not so much to be skilful in making the customer do what suits the interests of the business, as to be skilled in conceiving and then making the business do what suits the interests of the customer”. John McKitterick, GE, 1957

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

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smithery.com connective objects that transfer
knowledge through time and space What is media? From “Are Brands Fracking The Social Web”, 2013

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The
Hollow
Factory

smithery.com make brand really interesting
make product very efficiently OPPOSING INNOVATION FORCES

smithery.com What do we know
about people?

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smithery.com “Data is the new
oil"

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

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

smithery.com Assume data to be
worthless unless you can prove otherwise

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The rise in ‘ethnography’…

smithery.com “The better you know
the current state of things and why they’re like that, the better you will be positioned to innovate.” Erika Hall

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What do people
want?

smithery.com Doyle’s three stages Foraging,
Farming, Mining

smithery.com Existing Needs Latent Needs
Incipient Needs

smithery.com Existing = Foraging Latent
= Farming Incipient = Mining

smithery.com It can mean lots
of things…

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Language as a tool

smithery.com “the limits of our
language are the limits of our world” January 2013 Ludwig Wittgenstein Broadening the toolkit

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“Smithery 3.0”

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Part 3
2015-2019

smithery.com “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

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

smithery.com What are the underlying
mechanics of this?

smithery.com What happens to things
when things happen to them?

smithery.com Metamechanics Movement Maps Loops
Layers

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Movement

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Card Mechanics

smithery.com The creative quartet https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9dIQOrVhM5E
- Prof. John Wood, TED, on Synergies Prof. John Wood 1 2 3 45 6

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smithery.com Konica Minolta A toolkit
for the digital workplace 2015

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

smithery.com Innovation & Future Thinking
Summer Course

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BIG
SMALL
COLD HOT

smithery.com Maps help us see
things we haven’t yet seen

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Dmitri
Mendeleev

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smithery.com LEGO Customer Service persona
mapping 2016

smithery.com LEGO Customer Service Persona
Mapping 2016

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Loops

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smithery.com “The highest technique is
to have no technique” Bruce Lee

smithery.com JEET KUNE DO The
way of the intercepting fist

smithery.com “…it is just a
name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back” Bruce Lee

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Multiple interpretation loops

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Layers

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but this year…

smithery.com 1994 1995 1996 1997
1998 1999

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SLOW
FAST
FAST
SLOW

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THE
GEARBOX

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THE
GEARBOX

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SLOWFAST
PEOPLE

smithery.com SLOWFAST PEOPLE FRIENDS FAMILY
KIDS TEAM FUNDRAISERS PARTIES PARENT HELPERS COMMUNITY PROGRAMMES LOCAL TEAMS HERITAGE OFFICIAL LEAGUES GRASSROOTS MATCH OFFICIALS GOVERNING BODIES TOURNAMENT INTERNATIONAL TEAMS EUROPEAN COMPETITION SUPPORTERS CLUBS TELEVISION COVERAGE

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SLOWFAST
SPACE

smithery.com SLOWFAST SPACE GRAFFITI CHALKING
FLYPOSTING STREET ART STICKERS ADVERTISING PUBLIC NOTICE BOARDS SHOP SIGNS STREET SIGNS COUNCIL NOTICES TRAFFIC DIVERSIONS FOUNTAINS MOSAICS PUBLIC AMENITIES MURALS SCULPTURES STREET FURNITURE

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SLOWFAST
PEOPLE
SLOWFAST
SPACE

smithery.com “The quick processes provide
originality and challenge, while the slow provide continuity and restraint” Stewart Brand

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What
happens
here?

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smithery.com 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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善狐

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p
s

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Sketch

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Scaffold
Sketch

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Structure
Scaffold
Sketch

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p
s

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Laseau’s Funnel

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p
s

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Team

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Qual
Team

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Quant
Qual
Team

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Development…
Research…
p
s

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p
s

smithery.com p s Emotion Mapping
- Ella Saltmarshe & John V Willshire

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smithery.com Unstructured The Sandpit The
Towers of Industry The Souk The Cantina The High Council The Data Mines The Sprawl Structured Inward Looking The Guildhall Outward Looking The People’s Palace

smithery.com The Cantina Core Team
Partners Public SketchScaffoldStructure The Guildhall The Sandpit The Towers of Industry The Souk The High Council The Colosseum The Sprawl The People’s Palace

smithery.com The Colosseum Core Team
Partners Public SketchScaffoldStructure The Guildhall The Sandpit The Towers of Industry The Souk The Cantina The High Council The Sprawl The People’s Palace

smithery.com The Colosseum The Cantina
Core Team Partners Public SketchScaffoldStructure The Guildhall The Sandpit The Towers of Industry The Souk The High Council The Sprawl The People’s Palace 1 2 1 3 4 5 1 3 2 4 5 1 3 2 4 51 3 2 4 5 0 1 3 2 4 5 0 5 3 4 2 1

smithery.com The Colosseum The Cantina
Core Team Partners Public SketchScaffoldStructure The Guildhall The Sandpit The Towers of Industry The Souk The High Council The Sprawl The People’s Palace 1 3 2 4 5 0 (re)construction

smithery.com The Colosseum The Cantina
Core Team Partners Public SketchScaffoldStructure The Guildhall The Sandpit The Towers of Industry The Souk The High Council The Sprawl The People’s Palace Catalyst events Data driven? Partner opinion? Personally driven?

smithery.com “Mapping is a social
practice of sensemaking that shifts from individual cognition to shared understanding” Roser Pujadas, LSE

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Let’s play…

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

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

smithery.com p s Name a
particularly interesting cluster or two

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

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smithery.com p s A framework
for a learning organisation

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smithery.com How things work round
here

smithery.com Issues Identifying the problem
spaces

smithery.com Issues Interventions By design
or deployment

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

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p
s

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善狐
?

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善狐

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Domains
Resources
Interactions

smithery.com Learn to adapt to
any surroundings

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In conclusion…

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

smithery.com Strategic Design bridges disciplines
and departments, roles and responsibilities. It is concerned with the factors around a thing, not just the thing itself.

smithery.com Everything is connected But
can be separated with the right tools

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Tools can be lingual

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

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Tools can be procedural

smithery.com 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

smithery.com DesignPrototype CultureStrategy Tools can
be learned, found, connected, separated…

smithery.com Make Copy Iterate Borrow
Fuse Learn Reinvent your own tools

smithery.com If you can separate
anything, you can see everything

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