1. Challenge: Describe your challenge, including all relevant information.

a) I am an officer for the Korean culture club at my university. We initially started off as

an organization who had a shared interest over popular culture: Korean dramas, K- Pop, and the entertainment industry. Over the past two years we have expanded our  club from 20 members to approximately 50 members. With each year we have  gained more people who share a similar penchant for Korean culture like we do.  However, one of the challenges we face is with the lack of native Koreans in our  club. This past year we decided to change our mission statement to encompass  traditional culture as well as popular culture. One of our biggest issues has been  cultural appropriation. Because none of our office board is Korean or has a deep  enough understanding of certain aspects of Korean culture we would like to have  someone who has a better understanding to assist us in creating better quality  meetings for our members.

b) There is another Korean organization primarily for international Korean students

called the Korean Students Association (KSA) whom we would like to seek help  from; however, whenever we try to approach them with an idea we are shut down.  We have failed to understand why and want to approach them again with a different  method.

2. Selection: In your own words, briefly describe the tool you selected (e.g., what it is and why you

selected it for your challenge -- including any appropriate video lecture references).

a) The tool I decided to use for this scenario is visualization, to achieve a shared

understanding of the situation among a diverse group of officer from our own board  and KSA’s board. I also decided to use this tool because of the language barrier  between our officers and the KSA officers. I wanted to use a tool that goes beyond  using words for communication.

3. Application: Describe how you applied the tool you selected to your challenge (e.g., what you did

and how the tool was applied effectively or ineffectively).

a) To apply visualization to this situation we decided to conduct a joint group meeting

between our officers and KSA’s officers. Once everyone was seated we gave a quick  introduction into our mission statement and what we stood for. Throughout the rest of  the meeting we ran through our previous presentations which contained visuals of  the highlights of each meeting such as: popular Korean events that were happening  in Dallas, images of artists holding concerts nearby, and graphics of food we were  going to have at that particular meeting. Running through each presentation created  a more holistic approach that our organization had a genuine appreciation for Korean  culture, just lacked a deeper knowledge of it due to our own individual backgrounds.

4. Insight: Describe the insight you gained from applying the tool you selected to your challenge (e.g.,

how an insight affected your thinking about the challenge and about design thinking more broadly).

a) Some of the insight we gained was that there was a lot of misinterpretation to how

our organization functioned as a whole. Many of the KSA officers were under the  impression that our group didn’t appreciate Korean culture for all of its aspects and  assumed we only liked Korea for its image. While we explained we couldn’t properly  teach certain aspects of the culture due to our lack of understanding (and did not  want to pass that onto our members), we did work very hard to promote an  environment that fostered a genuine love and understanding for Korean culture. We  explained to them that we would host a few language sessions with our members.  These sessions focused on learning Hangul (the Korean alphabet), and basic  greetings, something we could properly after hearing these phrases so often. In

addition, we would try to collaborate with the Asian Center in Dallas to take our  members to Korean festival events when possible; but due to how little events are  hosted each year we could only do this a handful of times. Finally if there was  something we were not sure of when teaching we would do proper research  beforehand to delineate any cultural appropriation. After much explanation we  reached an agreement to have the KSA officers attend one of our meetings so that  they could see how our meetings were run.

5. Approach: Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same tool you selected

or a different one -- and the reason(s) why.

a) Originally during our meeting we used a lot of images to convey our points: such as

going through previous presentation slides which contained graphics of key points  we were going to discuss. If I was going to do this differently I would have asked our  historian to collect highlights of various photos from our meetings to gain a clearer  perspective of what happens during each meeting. I think this would have added a lot  of clarity between each group of officers.


1 . Challenge : Describe your challenge , including all relevant information . a ) I am an officer for the Korean culture club at my university . We initially started off as an organization who had a shared interest over popular culture : Korean dramas , K- Pop , and the entertainment industry . Over the past two years we have expanded our club from 20 members to approximately 50 members . With each year we have gained more people who share a similar penchant for Korean culture like we do . However , one of the challenges we face is with the lack of native Koreans in our club . This past year we decided to change our mission statement to encompass traditional culture as well as popular culture . One of our biggest issues has been cultural appropriation . Because none of our office board is Korean or has a deep enough understanding of certain aspects of Korean culture we would like to have someone who has a better understanding to assist us in creating better quality meetings for our members . b ) There is another Korean organization primarily for international Korean students called the Korean Students Association ( KSA ) whom we would like to seek help from ; however , whenever we try to approach them with an idea we are shut down . We have failed to understand why and want to approach them again with a different method . 2 . Selection : In your own words , briefly describe the tool you selected ( e.g. , what it is and why you selected it for your challenge -- including any appropriate video lecture references ) . a ) The tool I decided to use for this scenario is visualization , to achieve a shared understanding of the situation among a diverse group of officer from our own board and KSA ’s board . I also decided to use this tool because of the language barrier between our officers and the KSA officers . I wanted to use a tool that goes beyond using words for communication . 3 . Application : Describe how you applied the tool you selected to your challenge ( e.g. , what you did and how the tool was applied effectively or ineffectively ) . a ) To apply visualization to this situation we decided to conduct a joint group meeting between our officers and KSA ’s officers . Once everyone was seated we gave a quick introduction into our mission statement and what we stood for . Throughout the rest of the meeting we ran through our previous presentations which contained visuals of the highlights of each meeting such as : popular Korean events that were happening in Dallas , images of artists holding concerts nearby , and graphics of food we were going to have at that particular meeting . Running through each presentation created a more holistic approach that our organization had a genuine appreciation for Korean culture , just lacked a deeper knowledge of it due to our own individual backgrounds . 4 . Insight : Describe the insight you gained from applying the tool you selected to your challenge ( e.g. , how an insight affected your thinking about the challenge and about design thinking more broadly ) . a ) Some of the insight we gained was that there was a lot of misinterpretation to how our organization functioned as a whole . Many of the KSA officers were under the impression that our group did n’t appreciate Korean culture for all of its aspects and assumed we only liked Korea for its image . While we explained we could n’t properly teach certain aspects of the culture due to our lack of understanding ( and did not want to pass that onto our members ) , we did work very hard to promote an environment that fostered a genuine love and understanding for Korean culture . We explained to them that we would host a few language sessions with our members . These sessions focused on learning Hangul ( the Korean alphabet ) , and basic greetings , something we could properly after hearing these phrases so often . In addition , we would try to collaborate with the Asian Center in Dallas to take our members to Korean festival events when possible ; but due to how little events are hosted each year we could only do this a handful of times . Finally if there was something we were not sure of when teaching we would do proper research beforehand to delineate any cultural appropriation . After much explanation we reached an agreement to have the KSA officers attend one of our meetings so that they could see how our meetings were run . 5 . Approach : Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same tool you selected or a different one -- and the reason(s ) why . a ) Originally during our meeting we used a lot of images to convey our points : such as going through previous presentation slides which contained graphics of key points we were going to discuss . If I was going to do this differently I would have asked our historian to collect highlights of various photos from our meetings to gain a clearer perspective of what happens during each meeting . I think this would have added a lot of clarity between each group of officers .