Design thinking has been around a long time. Herbert Simon’s wrote about it in his 1969 book, “The Sciences of the Artificial.” From there the principles have been applied beyond the sciences to technology, education and business. Design thinking is a creative approach to goals and solutions. It replaces our tendency to solve problems. Design thinking is a creative process that allows innovative solutions.
The problem solving approach often comes from the wrong question and a limited perspective. How do I fix the problem at hand? As a business coach, I do not favor this approach as it does not create fundamental changes nor long-term sustainable solutions. If we forego finding how to solve a problem, we ask a different questions.
The problem might be staff are not coming to work on time. The company’s systems are not producing desired results. The supply chain is falling apart. Work is not getting completed on time, customers are lost and the business suffers. That is a problem. Rather than solve the problem from this perspective, consider the goal. Staff are engaged, understand the value of their work, see their position as a mini profit center and are motivated to contribute to the success of the company. Systems produce results that support the company brand. The company is nimble enough to adjust to changes int he marketplace.
In its simplest form, problem solves want to solve a problem and design thinkers want to find solutions. Problem solvers may create consequences for tardiness, press for systems compliance or shoring up the supply chain. Design thinkers find ways to create a culture of excellence in which being late is not something staff would be motivated to do, to innovate systems and rethink relationships with suppliers.
Design thinking employs divergent thinking. It is the ability to come up with several variant and innovative ideas rather before finding the right solution right away. While there is not one way to approach design thinking, there are common elements that include creativity, teamwork, user empathy, curiosity and positive thinking.
When approaching a problem, design thinking wants to re-design. This begins with knowing the right question. What needs to change? What is our company vision? This is strategic thinking. When it is difficult to define the problem and the question, design thinking can begin with opening the conversation to reveal both.
As a social process, design thinking brings additional value to the experience for those involved, creating opportunities for creativity, innovation and orchestration. Various ideas and approaches can be tried, measured and redesigned as needed to produce desired results. To be effective, companies would need to be open-minded, collaborative, innovative with the courage to change.
A core component is the willingness to prototype, try different ideas to determine which design produces the desired results. My favorite example of design thinking came from Henry Ford. He did not try to solve a problem but to design a solution. Henry Ford understood this when he said, “If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said ‘a faster horse.” and no one would have said a car.”
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