Design Thinking for Innovation – Peer Graded Assignment  Title : Design Thinking for clarifying institutional needs and expectations  Author : Louise Bennani

Challenge & Selection

In a context of rapidly evolving technologies, business models, demographics, and  constant changing needs and expectations, the way training institutions understand  their mission and perform their work has profoundly changed. As a result, the  management board of our university has decided to set up an appropriate  intelligence and prospective system to increase the institutional watch-keeping  capability, share knowledge, anticipate trends and improve the quality of our  services. However the expressed need was very vague and required clarification. So  I have been asked to address this challenge and help the board to clarify their need  as a baseline for a future project.

Amongst the four design thinking tools presented in the course, I have selected the  visualization tool (Module 1) that seemed in my view to be the most appropriate for  starting the reflection process, highlight the range of different representations  associated with the challenge of institutional intelligence and achieve a shared  understanding of the need. I use this approach often now with project team members  or stakeholders groups with various background and expertise to help them get to  know each other better, foster collaboration and demonstrate the value of diversity in  the design process of any new projects. As Angela Myer, an experienced designer,  explains in the video, visualization is actually « a way of unlocking a different part of  brain. It allows us to think in a nonverbal way (…) and to access parts of our brain,  parts of our creativity, that we might not normally be using in the course of  conversation. »

Application

My first action was to meet with the member of the executive board in charge of  quality to get a better understanding of her expectations and ensure her ownership  and support. Then we jointly decided to gather together all the members of the board  and to invite them to participate in a three-hour workshop.

I started the workshop process by asking participants to put into words what the  concept of institutional intelligence was meaning to them without any limitation or  judgment. As each participant was bringing forth their own ideas, I collected answers,  recorded them on flipchart and created a view that combined all contributions  classified by broad categories clearly identifiable by a colour code.

The next step was to describe the current state and to envision the future. To that  end, I used the first two phases of the Design Thinking process : 1. What is ? 2. What  if ? The What is phase allowed us to clarify what we did know about current and  future trends, what we did not know, what we did need to know, and how we would  learn what we would need to know. The What if phase allowed us to explore all  possible options and constraints in putting in place an intelligence and prospective  system within the organization.

Insight & Approach

The workshop has led to very insightful interventions and enabled us to clarify the  institutional need, opportunities and constraints, but also to identify available internal  expertise. This proves the usefulness and applicability of visualization as a powerful  tool to clarify one’s own thoughts and ideas and share them with a group.

I do note, though, that participants tend to limit their reflection to what they do know  or need in their respective spheres of activity – or limit themselves in their mode of  thinking – and often miss the opportunity to explore new areas. Maybe next time I  could borrow Dr. Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats® approach to enlarge the  reflection and discussion, by looking at options from a range of different  perspectives : information known or needed (White Hat), positives and probe for  value and benefit (Yellow Hat), difficulties and threats (Black Hat), feelings (Red Hat),  new ideas and alternatives (Green Hat). This simple, effective technique may help  the group become even more productive.    January 18th, 2018

