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framing and application of the term design thinking among large business houses. Past year has witnessed, few Indian corporates rather hastily adopt the term ‘Design thinking’, wanting it to act as a silver bullet to promote innovation. In my opinion, training employees in the overtly commercialised and popularised four staged design thinking cycle- Empathy (User), Ideate, Prototype and Iterate will not lead to Innovation. This is a fragmented approach to incorporating design thinking, specially, when organisation has no prior culture of design with a general organisational understanding of design=aesthetics. It’s almost like jumping from level 0 (no design or styling) to level 4(design thinking in strategic decision making).
Core fundamentals of design attitude On a first glance the four staged design thinking cycle- one realises that it is no different than any scientific problem solving process. What is different is the “design attitude” which can be defined as the cognitive parameters that drive the design thinking problem solving process/ design thinking cycle. Leaders, managers, engineers and other professional experts need to first imbibe design attitude to be able to drive innovation through this process. The core fundamentals of design attitude are: (a) Challenging Assumptions: This means initiate problem solving by reframing the problem statement from ground zero (b) Systemic view: Develop a holisticsystem level or 360 degree view of problem and map interrelations between people, context and technologies (c) Envisioning / making propositions: to formulate strategies with ambiguous and often unpredictable data sets, also known as Abductive thinking, as opposed to inductive and deductive thinking that the managers and engineers are trained with. (d) Sense and respond: being adaptable to larger environmental changes within the organisation, with competitors and in the larger context of global changes, thus providing not pre build products (make and sell) but sensing and responding EXPRESS COMPUTER
To gain consistent and long term benefits from design thinking process requires a road map by the senior management to create an ecosystem to induce design attitude at a strategic level and in the structure of the organisation –people must be trained to develop this skills (e) Zoom in and Zoom out: looking at the problems inside out and outside in similar to looking at a problem with a telescope, microscope and wide lens (f) Breaking Silos/multidisciplinary team: Work on problems by breaking the barriers of disciplinary boundaries in the organisations (g) Empathy: It is not only about asking user his needs but immerse in problems in the field to develop a holistic, people driven and context to envision new propositions. This also includes co design with the communities, early involvement of stakeholders and experts where
applicable. To gain consistent and long term benefits from design thinking process requires a road map by the senior management to create an ecosystem to induce design attitude at a strategic level and in the structure of the organization. Without this ecosystem, as a standalone, this 4 stage cycle will not lead to innovation. Design attitude needs to be imbibed not only in the individuals but also in the organisational culture to build an ecosystem of processes which facilitate the design thinking individuals to drive innovation and create design driven organisations. These individuals don’t necessarily have to be designers but design thinkers or as R. Verganti says ‘interpreters’. Apple, Bang & Olufsen are classic examples of organisations which have been successful when they have incorporated design attitude as their DNA right from, the organisational structure.
Fostering innovation The very nature of design thinking allows challenging the existing order of doing things to improve them and even reconstitute them. To foster innovation which goes beyond just the mechanical usage of the 4 stage cycle, transforming organisations and societies at a national level requires leaders in organizations and government, to develop design thinking attitude as an inherent capability in its organisation construct. This process requires more than a single process adoption but transformation in the mindset of the organisation. It means changing the way people in the organisation think, and the way organisation is structured so that the internal processes are agile and adaptive. This will allow the flexibility to create operational agility, adaptability, and innovation as one of the means to create people centred, entrepreneurial and meaningful organizations. It can create an ecosystem of co-creation that allows multiple stakeholders, such as employee, management, end users, to be a part of cohesive decision making, hence making the organizations more meaningful and entrepreneurial. The author is Professor of Design Thinking, IIM-A APRIL, 2016
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