Gk Vanpatter

Background

About Gk Vanpatter

GK VanPatter is CoFounder of Humantific and author of ReThinking Design Thinking: Making Sense of the Future that has Already Arrived and Innovation Methods Mapping: De-Mystifying 80+ Years of Innovation Process Design. He is also CoFounder of NextDesign Leadership Network and Founding Editor of NextD Journal. He is an internationally recognized innovation architect, methodologist and strategic capacity building advisor. His passion is building next generation innovation leadership skills and inclusive cross-disciplinary innovation cultures. His long-standing work includes the integration of visual sensemaking into complex problem finding/solving contexts. Prior to co-founding Humantific in 2001, he was Innovation VP at Scient, a Scient Fellow and CoFounder of Scient’s Innovation Acceleration Labs. He previously worked with Richard Saul Wurman and Donnovan & Green in New York. Concerned about the future of design leadership GK co-founded the NextDesign Leadership Initiative, NextD Journal and NextD Academy with Elizabeth Pastor in 2002. Since that time NextD has created and shared hundreds of sensemaking models and documents now available in the NextD Futures Library. He writes frequently on the subjects of strategic design thinking, and the challenges facing that community from a methodology perspective. He was an early advocate of rethinking design thinking beyond product, service and experience creation. He holds a Masters Degree in design from Pratt Institute in New York. His ongoing research interests include: Innovation Methods Mapping, Dialogue Mapping, Integrative Thinking, Cognitive Bias, Distributed Cognition Systems, Thinking Made Visible, Team Dynamics, Think-Balance, Systems Thinking, Experiencial Learning, History of Innovation, Enabling CoCreation in Organizations and Inclusive Innovation Culture Building. He is presently at work on Volume #2 of Innovation Methods Mapping (Coming soon). He speaks frequently at conferences around the world on the subjects related to inclusive innovation enabling in organizations and the future of Design Thinking. He lives in New York City.