Michael Anton Dila

Brainstormer, Change agent, Connector, Entrepreneur, Explorer, Foodie, Idea generator, Parent, Startup

Michael co-founded Torch Partnership with Robin Uchida in 2006. Together, they shape strategic conversations and help their clients create organizational confidence so that they can confront their “wicked problems”. A philosopher by training, Michael’s academic research concerned ideas and norms of objectivity, and he has written and lectured on topics in the history and philosophy of science, legal and political theory, psychology and criminal law. For the last decade, he has brought intellectual rigor to the discipline of design thinking while working with creative teams to deliver effective designs that are clear, simple, and which honor the fundamental importance of ideas. Michael is one of the founders of Overlap (theoverlap.org), an annual, peer-to-peer gathering for those working at the center of emerging theory, methods and practices of innovation. He is Chief Strategist of Strategic Innovation Lab (slab.ocad.ca) at the Ontario College or Art & Design and also the chief catalyst of the Unfinished Business initiative (unfinished.torchiswicked.com).

In the economic sphere an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen; we are fortunate if we foresee them. There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen. Yet this difference is tremendous; for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. Whence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil. - Frederic Bastiat, 1801-1850

Collaboration, conversation, Design Leadership, Design Thinking, Epistemology, History of Science, Philosophy of Law

Rockin' the turntables. Was resident DJ at a cub in the 80s, a job I was replaced in by Moby.