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John V Willshire

John set up Smithery, an independent Strategic Design Practice, in 2011 to help clients make things people want, rather than make people want things. This practice has grown to help organisations take an active role in shaping their futures as they look out over an uncertain landscape.

This involves learning to perceive and understand new realities, sparking appropriate internal innovation, and acting on these instincts to make real change. John’s work is informed by a wide range of different fields, including systemic sensibilities, futures thinking, innovation frameworks, and information design. This combination helps clients think broader, for longer.

Recent projects include developing a Future Trends and Signals System for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), scouting the emerging Climate and Health intersection for Wellcome Trust, and setting a strategic framework for building capabilities for Unilever.

John V Willshire's Talk

Do the Next Right Thing

Tuesday, 10th – 12:15

A practitioner’s guide to Zenko Mapping, a framework that separates and examines the interplay between the social and material dimensions of a design process. With client examples drawn from over the last decade of work, and a new systemic version which creates a template for a holistic Strategic Design process, this talk will also (trigger warning) feature quite a lot about gardens.

On the web
https://smithery.com/
On LinkedIn
in/johnvwillshire/