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Climate, poverty, gender and the spaces in between.
This past week in Nairobi, PopTech convened a diverse and illustrious group of innovators from technology, gender analysis, development, micro-insurance, mobile, water, agriculture and funding to have...
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Poverty, identity and design.
Of all the advantages that affluent individuals enjoy, perhaps none is as valuable or prescriptive as the picture that they form, or are given, of what is possible for them. Luxury, wealth,...
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MFA Design for Social Innovation at SVA: the first born.
When parents have their first child, there is a high probability that friends and family will make an appropriately effusive fuss about it. People show up to celebrate, bring gifts, toast with...
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Poverty, in all its shapes and sizes
When I first considered writing for NextBillion, my concern, beyond finding the time, was whether or not I had enough to say about its editorial focus of poverty, given that I am by no means an expert...
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Bottoms Up. The way to design for social impact.
When Janine Benyus’ Biomimicry was published in 1977 it was an awakening. Like Rachel Carson and Silent Spring over a decade earlier, one slim book changed the way we thought – in Janine’s case about...
View ArticleThink bigger than design thinking
The title of a June 7th article in the Wall Street Journal tells us to: “Forget B-School, D-School is Hot”. Which is quite the opposite of what the article actually conveys. The real news in the story,...
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Education Redesign: the defining opportunity of our time.
What follows is the original article submitted to FastCompany. Never before has a generation needed or had access to more tools to take on the real work that needs to be done in our societies. New...
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Forget poverty. Let’s talk about business.
In an article I just finished for How Magazine on the future of design, I used Paul Polak as an example of why generalists are so important to the world right now. I said, “For example, it would be...
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Connected and Unconnected in New York
Last night I moderated a panel on “Design for the future connectivity of New York” at the new Arup headquarters in Manhattan – a “house warming” for their new digs and the first Penguin Pool1 in the...
View ArticleUnlocking intrapreneurship with language
If it is true, as has been said, that all change begins with language, then it is equally true that the inability to change begins with language as well. The wealth of jargon used to describe...
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The elephant has left the room.
A request from Unreasonable.is to make this last post of 2012 a reflection of the year gone by has been an opportunity to reclaim some perspective. I am grateful for that, and for the opportunity to...
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Learning from the folks we love to hate.
One could argue that most of the problems we’re faced with solving at this moment in history have been either ignited or facilitated by advertising, through its promotion of greed, competition, instant...
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Slow Social Innovation
We needed the Slow Food movement to remind us that meals can heal us through their rituals of connectedness and their nourishing substance. We need the Slow Money movement to remind us that money...
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Are you a generalist who dreams of being an expert? Read this.
Have you ever heard the advice “pick one thing and stick to it”? Many entrepreneurs have a very hard time specializing in just one thing. Take comfort in these wise and inspiring words, because a world...
View ArticleMission? Vision? Values? Forget It.
Originally posted on Unreasonable.is “Rinse and re-use” should not apply to something as important as the expression of your enterprise and its future. One common misconception among entrepreneurs is...
View ArticleThe Start of Sappi’s Ideas that Matter: Cheryl Heller
In 1999, Sappi received a suggestion that we start a cause-related program for designers and end-users. The goal of the program was to recognize design on paper that benefited worthy causes. Not only...
View ArticleSappi Design Partners Awarded Top Honors in Design Industry
This year AIGA, the professional association for design, is recognizing 24 design leaders, among them Cheryl Heller and Dana Arnett, who have been vital to shaping the Sappi brand over the past two...
View ArticleHeller Good. An Accidental Visionary Mashes up Design, Social Innovation
It’s hard to sum up Cheryl Heller. She’s a fine artist, CEO of Heller Communication Design, chair of the Design for Social Innovation MFA program at the School of Visual Arts, a social do-gooder, a...
View ArticleYou Gotta Get Out More
Why being humbled by nature will make you a better social innovator (and a better human). I was knocked out by the responses to my recent post on “Creating our Way to Well-Being”, particularly by the...
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Design for Social Innovation, Moving Past the Assembly Line
The most pressing challenge businesses face isn’t finding new opportunities for growth and market share; it’s changing the way they approach their challenges in the first place. And there’s no better...
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