Designed to

Lead.

Leadership is a creative act.

Let’s make it intentional.

Mentor, Facilitator, Designer, Speaker.

  • High-performing teams are not accidental; they are designed.

    Let’s use design to create higher performance in your team.

  • "The future is not some place we are going to but one we are creating.” Peter Ellyard

    Let’s imagine a better future for your business, agency or team, and design a blueprint to get there.

  • $42b in financial wealth will be transferred by 2035.

    But what about your experiential wealth, will it be wasted or passed forward.  Let’s work together to power up the next generation of leaders.

  • Scaling an innovation mountain? Go with a guide.

    Mountain climbers ascend with companions and experienced guides. Building innovation capability is a journey. Let’s work together with me as your experienced companion and guide.

Hi, Kia ora - I’m Jim Scully

A glimpse of my journey

I spent the last 30 years leading and designing. I was fortunate to be surfing the early wave of human-centred design and design thinking. I learnt from amazing pioneers and leaders in the field. I have used the power of design to both innovate and lead in various countries.

Leaders have hectic lives; every slice of your time and energy matters. I know, I have lived your schedules in start-ups, multi-nationals and Government. I’ve helped NZ exporters via Better-by-Design, Singapore grow its design thinking, the UN Development Program, and mentored leaders. My team and I even built NZ Government’s first customer/human-centred design capability.

Most leaders aren’t satisfied with the status quo, they aspire to create and have impact in the world. To support them, I founded a for-impact business ThinkPlace | Wahi Whakaaro Aotearoa NZ. I have now also launched my Practice.

My new ‘why’

In 2024, I figured that the twin golden threads running through my career have been leading great teams and designing better futures. So I’ve decided to bring both together to work with leaders who are keen to use design to power up their leadership and their team’s performance.

Passions beyond work

  • Mentoring young social entrepreneurs around the world

  • Facilitating global innovation labs with UNLEASH, a not-for-profit organisation, which gives me a triple shot of inspiration, energy and hope every time!

  • Kayaking off the coast, fishing up a river, skiing down a mountain.

  • Walking our dog (River) with my family on Wellington’s steep, green hills.

Local + Global

I would love to work with wherever you are!

Over my career, I've worked with amazing leaders, change-makers and future-shapers in diverse parts of our world. I love travel and have been fortunate to visit all seven continents. I have seen change-makers everywhere, even in the sub-Antarctic.

PS The photos are from my journeys.

What are people
saying about Jim?

“I have worked with Jim Scully for over a decade, often collaborating to deliver workshops and experiences for senior government officials. Jim is  a master at bringing a group together to catalyse new ways of looking at the world to generate new insights. You can ‘trust the process’ when the process is good and the right method is applied to the right challenge. On a personal level, Jim is unfailingly generous with his time and wisdom – he has been a valued sounding board for me. For raising my spirits and energy levels, a ‘Jim session’ has much more impact than any ‘gym session.”

Sally Washington, Practice Fellow (Policy capability & Public management)

“Jim has been an invaluable and highly respected part of the UNLEASH community, serving as a highly dedicated Facilitator at four UNLEASH Innovation Labs in Singapore, China, India and Rwanda where his outstanding innovation expertise, empathy, and motivational leadership have inspired numerous UNLEASH international teams across the world turning bold innovative ideas into action.”

Flemming Besenbacher,DSc, DSc h.c. mult., FRSC, Professor and Chairperson of UNLEASH, and former Chairman of Carlsberg Group

Jim Scully brings extensive experience, expertise, and thought leadership in applying a wide array of innovation approaches ranging from systems thinking to design thinking, to address diverse transformation challenges and building innovation capacity within institutions and organizations.”

Banny Banerjee, Global ChangeLabs Stanford

“Jim has helped me and the teams I have worked with navigate the complexities of driving innovation and change in forestry. He has a wonderful ability to view things from different perspectives, challenge your thinking, and often sets you down a more inspiring path.”

Claire Stewart, Programme Leader, Forest Growers Research

A Postcard from 2040……..

To you,

It’s 2040, and you are part of a thriving community of innovative leaders. Through your leadership, you have built high-performing, impactful teams, teams that continue to perform after you’ve moved on. By 2026, you have designed your new blueprint and have momentum.

2025 was a tough year, but you made a crucial decision. You decided you needed an ally to design your way forward. You asked Jim to be your strategy mentor and co-designer. He was on a mission to help leaders unlock their design potential to create better futures, and called it leading as designing.

Together, you co-designed a better future, a higher-performing team and the pathway to it.

The rest is (future) history.

Regards……..

Let’s write a postcard to your future.

Schedule a call

I’m keen to hear what success means for you. What’s working and what isn’t. Let’s use design to create a better future!