Great to see Jeanne Liedtka getting design thinking across in ways everyone can grasp. This time she’s teamed up with Salzman and Azer to write Design Thinking for the Greater Good, and it’s just been published. And that was the past weekend’s reading!
Liedtka’s design thinking approach is about taking action. Design thinking is design doing. It’s human-centred, possibility -driven, option-focused and iterative. And ultimately it’s about innovation that involves everyone. With design thinking you’re placing small bets in real world situations and seeing what works.
And you’re not trying to reach the best, but better what you’ve got now. You carry on iterating, rather than packing up your toolkit and moving on.
Design thinking is a major part of our approach to business agility. It’s a close cousin of systems thinking, working with wicked problems, agile and Lean Startup. They all have the same mindset: our problems are messy and need people, teams and organisations to take action in the face of uncertainty – a challenge to an analytical world.
Great to see this valuable new resource.