Michael Anton Dila
CEO | Unfinished Business
Toronto, ON, CANADA
Experienced speaker who advocates the devlopment of innovation discipline and tools to create asymmetric advantage
Biography
Michael has a passion for starting things. Whether it's companies or communities, he has spent much of the last 15 years breaking new ground. He is a leader in design thinking and innovation, with a passion for making both more rigorous and more accessible.
Michael helped establish the Strategic Innovation Lab (slab.ocad.ca) a center for research and development in design, innovation and strategic foresight at the Ontario College or Art & Design. He is also chief catalyst of the Unfinished Business initiative (unfinished.torchiswicked.com) to apply open source ideas and methods to the practices of business management and design. And he invented and co-developed (with Matthew Milan) Innovation Parkour, a scalable framework for training people in large organizations to become more innovative. He has led several successful start-ups and is a regular speaker at deign and business events.
A philosopher by training, Michael's Ph.D. research concerned ideas and norms of objectivity. He has written and lectured on topics in the history and philosophy of science, legal and political theory, psychology, and criminal law.
Michael has co-founded: Moso (2010), Foundery (an innovation lab in Toronto, 2010), Torch Innovation (2010), Overlap (peer-to-peer innovation organization 2006), Torch Partnership (Strategic and Innovation Consulting 2006), Aegis (1999)
Industry Expertise (3)
Information Services
Financial Services
Internet
Areas of Expertise (2)
Design Thinking
Democratizing Innovation
Education (3)
University of Toronto: M.A., Pholisophy 1991
University of Toronto: Ph.D. (ABD), Philosophy 1996
Earlham College: B.A., Philosphy 1990
Links (3)
Event Appearances (7)
Title
TED India Mysore, India
2009-11-04
Title
Ignite Toronto 2 Toronto, ON
2009-11-29
Title
Ignite Toronto 3 Toronto, ON
2010-03-03
Title
Invitational Forum on Leadership & Management Halifax, Nova Scotia
2010-06-04
Title
NetChange, MaRS Toronto, ON
Title
CoThinkTank 2011 Berlin, Germany
2011-09-07
Title
NetChange, MaRS Toronto, ON
Sample Talks (1)
First, Let's Kill All the Designers
A case against the rhetoric of design thinking and arguing for the need to create and share tools rather than jargon.
Style
Availability
- Keynote
- Panelist
- Workshop Leader
- Author Appearance
Social