About Jim
Hi, Kia Ora - I’m
Jim Scully
How I work (Local + Global)
I work with a small number of leaders at a time. Selectively. That's intentional.
The work isn't advisory in the traditional sense — it's closer to a thinking partnership, a design collaboration, a deliberate reshaping of how a leader sees their role and their future.
Mentoring. Strategic advisory. Keynotes and Strategic facilitation.
A glimpse of my journey
Thirty years ago, I discovered a way of working that would shape everything that followed.
Human-centred design, or design thinking, was not mainstream. The pioneers were still figuring out the language for it. I was fortunate to learn from some of them early — and to spend the decades since using that lens to create impact across countries, sectors, and scales of complexity.
I've led from inside start-ups, multinationals and government. I've helped New Zealand exporters lift their game through Better by Design. Supported Singapore to grow its design thinking capability. Been on the UN Development Programme panel. Built NZ Government's first customer and human-centred design capability — from the ground up, inside one of its largest agencies.
Every one of those experiences taught me something the leadership books didn’t: the people who shape the future aren't always the ones with the biggest titles. They're the ones who've learned to design conditions — for better decisions, better systems, better possibilities — in others. Some are senior leaders, some are not.
The question that changed things
In 2024, I found myself sitting with a question. Two threads had run through my entire career: leading great teams, and designing better futures. What if design was the leadership stance the world actually needed right now? What if leaders were great designers?
That question became the foundation for everything I'm building.
I founded my leadership practice after successfully leading ThinkPlace | Wāhi Whakaaro NZ — a for-impact, for-profit design consultancy. The practice brings together thirty years of lived design and leadership experience in service of one purpose: helping leaders use design to shape what's next.
Shapers — the book I'm writing
Halfway through a book about leaders who expand possibilities rather than hoard them. I'm sharing frameworks and provocations as I go.
Beyond work
I have travelled to all 7 continents and 42 countries (with more to go!)
Facilitating global innovation labs (UNLEASH)
Kayaking on the coast, fishing up a river, skiing down a mountain
Walking our dog (River) with my family on Wellington’s steep, green hills.
Schedule a meeting
Let’s chat about what success looks like for you, assess where you are and how you are tracking.