Letter from Lhasa, number 313.
Change by Design
by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi
Brown, T., with B. Katz,
Change by Design. How Design Thinking
Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, HarperCollins e-books, 2009.
(Brown 2009).
Tim Brown
Barry Katz
Design thinking is something qualitatively different from
simple problem solving and just applying known techniques. It is an exploration
process departing from the status quo,
outside existing business models, thinking not in terms of problem but of project.
“Design thinking taps into capacities we all have but that
are overlooked by more conventional problem-solving practices. It is not only
human-centered; it is deeply human in and of itself. Design thinking relies on
our ability to be intuitive, to recognize patterns, to construct ideas that
have emotional meaning as well as functionality, to express ourselves in media
other than words or symbols. Nobody wants to run a business based on feeling,
intuition, and inspiration, but an overreliance on the rational and the
analytical can be just as dangerous. The integrated approach at the core of the
design process suggests a “third way.””
(Brown 2009, p. 11).
It is a form of lateral thinking too.
An innovation culture needs to break traditional frontiers
and to be concerned only with achievements, indifferent to previous
stereotypes. “The next generation of designers will need to be as comfortable
in the boardroom as they are in the studio or the shop, and they will need to
begin looking at every problem—from adult illiteracy to global warming—as a
design problem.” (Brown 2009, p. 36).
It also needs interdisciplinary groups triggering creativity
instead of groups repressing it as usually groups do. “The creative process
generates ideas and concepts that have not existed before.” (Brown 2009, p.
39). Easy to tell, not always easy to do, in groups, where usually hierarchies
prevails, as well as other psycho-sociological factors as the tendency to
minimize personal risks.
Rapid change forces to look at new problems to solve, not
only at new ways for solving problems.
XXI century leaders, people and organizations cannot work as
XVIII century ones. It may seem tautological although in many areas and milieus
that be not understood.
The success of the companies and the general welfare of
humanity are not necessarily opposed and design thinking can contribute to
both.
Design thinking is a human-centred approach to innovation
because it observes how people interact with products and services. What is
methodologically different from beginning from constraints. In fact, innovative
approaches change, reframe, overcome, the same constraints.
Finally, markets are people. The discovery of new needs, and
of new and better ways for satisfying them, is also a more market-based approach.
Brown, T., with B. Katz, Change
by Design. How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation,
HarperCollins e-books, 2009.
