 | Born and raised in an east London funeral parlour. |
| Left school aged 16 and worked in telecoms, music and magazine publishing, fashion, retail and advertising before founding Leith & Price, a pioneering business development consultancy serving the advertising and marketing industry. |
| Undertook a searching inquiry into how the new comes into being, beyond prevailing theories and practices (read more). The inquiry continues. |
| Lifelong creator of the new. In addition to Leith & Price, founded The Innovation Agency, Innovatics, The Centre for Large Group Interventions and several other ventures. Creations include Now-to-New, a way of thinking and talking about shifting from the present situation to what is needed instead; the V-Spec value specification framework; PRESTO, a mantra for facilitators of co-creation meetings; Hoochie-Coochie, a wish fulfilment game for adventurous couples; and Newcreate. |
| As an independent practitioner specialising in co-creation, breakthrough innovation, systemic change and complex problem solving, provided professional services to startups, consulting firms, charities, arts organisations, social enterprises, government bodies and global corporates. Read about some past projects |
| One-time consultant in residence at Findhorn Foundation, the long-established spiritual community and ecovillage located in Scotland. At Findhorn, trained as a facilitator of The Transformation Game, subsequently hosting many Transformation Game workshops and co-founding The Transformation Game Facilitators Network. |
| Areas of expertise include breakthrough innovation, systemic change, problem transformation, concept origination, strategy formulation, intervention design, multi-stakeholder co-creation, participative conferencing, large group facilitation, and venture/project initiation. |
| Based in Bristol, United Kingdom. |
Paul Levy, a senior fellow at University of Brighton—Centre for Change, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, and the founder of Rational Madness Theatre Company, FringeReview and CATS3000:
“Jack is an innovation consultant who walks the talk. He is constantly innovating his own business activity, its design and aims. He is ‘the person’ to talk to for large group interventions, for whole system change and innovation. I attended a five day Open Space conference that Jack facilitated. It set me on a new path in life. Jack is highly committed and skilled, challenging and truly creative. Jack thinks deeply about innovation and transformation. He has developed a range of propositions about innovation which can lead to new insights on the topic. He understands creativity and innovation and has developed practical ways to develop innovativeness in organisations. Jack’s views tap into the wild and the wonderful as well as the rational. He likes to shake things up, and to help that shaking to happen quickly. He doesn’t mess about! You won’t always find it easy working with Jack because he is one of that rare breed – an authentic agent of change and innovation who is prepared for things to get harder before they get easier.”
Dr James Wilk MA Oxf, MSc Oxf, PhD, FCybS, University of Oxford; Research Director and Managing Partner, Interchange Research:
“For three decades Jack has been the go-to walking encyclopaedia of the very best and most innovative management and organization theory. He is second to none in comparing, contrasting, and critiquing models, explaining complex management thinking simply and memorably, and turning ideas into effective practice. A sophisticated thinker of this calibre and breadth of knowledge who is also a skilled practitioner, is these days something of a rarity.”
Angus Jenkinson, formerly Professor of Integrated Marketing at University of Bedfordshire; currently Councillor for Regenerative Agricultures and Ecology at Cotswold District Council:
“I have worked with Jack Martin Leith for more than 20 years. He has one of the most brilliant, penetrating, erudite, and practical minds I know. With his exceptional experience of innovation, large group work and organisation development, he is a terrific partner for clients and consultancies with major projects.”
Dr Math Kohnen, formerly a member of the Group Strategy unit at Shell plc and a vice president at Shell GameChanger:
“Jack worked with the Shell GameChanger team to design and deliver innovation workshops in Rijswijk, Netherlands (with a large group of first assignees); in Moscow, Russia (with scientists from a range of scientific institutions); in Trondheim, Norway (with academics from Norwegian University of Science and Technology); and in Ascot, UK (with academics from Imperial College and Wageningen University, along with members of Shell’s Water to Value team). His understanding of the issues, passion for innovation and down-to-earth approach made a valuable contribution to GameChanger.”
Tom Bourner, Emeritus Professor of Personal and Professional Development, University of Brighton, UK:
“I’ve known Jack Martin Leith since 1995 when he taught the Creative Problem Solving module of the MA in Managing Change at the University of Brighton.
His workshops were very well received by the participants (most of them managers in the private and public sectors), who appreciated Jack’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the field of creativity, innovation and change, and his provocative yet supportive style of facilitation.
We brought Jack into the team because of his special expertise in the field and it would be true to say that the rest of the staff team learned a great deal from Jack about creative problem-solving and how to develop it in managers.”
Rohit Talwar, CEO, Fast Future:
“Jack is a living example of innovation, creativity and constant reinvention. His capacity for original thought, creative process design and in-depth research is awe-inspiring. Jack doesn’t do passion – he is passion!”
Enriching the world: Is it good business practice?
Here is the five-minute talk Jack gave some years ago at an Ignite event held at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol to an audience of 200 people. The 20 slides accompanying the talk auto-advance every 15 seconds. He just about managed to keep up with them.
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