Design Thinking as a way of working involves a more democratic collaborative and inclusive approach to problem solving and building an innovation pipeline.
Jean Liedtka, key note speaker at the recent IRDG (Industry Research Development Group) Design Thinking for Innovation and Business Growth event in Dublin talks about design thinking being routed in three core beliefs: empathy: understanding human needs, invention: new possibilities and iteration: first solution to a better one.
Liedtka states that in using the Design Thinking model, innovation as it’s viewed needs to evolve from being seen as something that should operate in a silo with R&D. She refers to similarities with the Quality Assurance Paradigm to highlight this. We have seen a shift in how quality assurance was managed in organisations where in the past it was treated as a separate function in an organisation – full of experts who “do quality” – to a place where quality assurance is now integrated across organisations as a core managerial competence and is seen as central to competitive advantage. The idea Liedtka argues that innovation belongs to r&d is as laughable as quality now being seen as belonging purely to quality assurance.
This is where she sees Design Thinking playing a role – in a similar way to which TQM (The Total Quality Management Model) played a role in evolving how quality is now viewed and managed within organisations.
Everyone is born creative
With Design Thinking, design itself is viewed not just as a decorative station but as a strategic capability. Where it’s integrated, the business culture evolves from a platform where there are only trained designers to a place where everybody is viewed as a designer or allowed to input creatively.
Design Thinking is all about conversation and discourse rather than being confrontational, it always seeks to explore what is possible in someone else’s ideas while also seeking to avoid a world of homogeneous experts to working with more diverse teams. Importantly too, rather than keep stakeholders at arm’s length it aims to engage them as strategic partners. Ultimately through this process it sets out to encourage a portfolio of ideas. “Variation is the mother of innovation” according to Liedtka.
Perfect is the enemy of the good
Design Thinking by its nature focuses more on a journey of learning.
It teaches us to accept failure and to allow for ambiguity – as it is from this change in attitude that new ideas and a more innovative culture are more likely to emerge. As a model it tries to encourage people out of a place where they work to a traditional culture of rules.
Liedtka uses two personality types to describe this. “George: the traditionalist who fears failure”” and “Geoff: the adventurer who is always seeking new experiences”.
“Geoff” by his nature is more likely to see life as a journey of learning while “George” having a fear of uncertainty and the unknown puts his energy into avoiding not making mistakes.
Liedtka argues that applied correctly the Design Thinking Model would enable people like George to engage in a way in his organisation that he might otherwise not.
In conclusion, design thinking is a business model which when appropriately used allows for a more empathetic and collaborative approach to work which ultimately seeks to drive a more competitively advantageous business driven through the results of the creation of a range of ideas and solutions which might never evolve if innovation was treated as a separate part of an organisation.
For more information contact grace.binchy@bordbia.ie
Source: Bord Bia – Design Thinking and Driving Change in Business
