Over the last month, the contribution ‘design thinking’ can play in facilitating complex discussions in organisations, has come ups in many conversations I have had. (Today it was with Amy Taylor at Magnetic).
This is where design becomes an approach within more general problem solving and a route to resolving issues in business, government, healthcare and education – in other words designing things that are not things.
To apply design thinking to more abstract problems, the skillset of the designer needs to evolve as illustrated. Taking design to this new level has the same implications as for developing any profession – it means we need to build the underlying curriculum for design thinkers and then develop their professional knowledge through reflection in action. In this new world for design, outputs and impact are ultimately in the hands of the problem owners who are responsible for implementing change. Design therefore also needs to find new ways to measure the influence it can have on the working practices of others to really understand its contribution.