Design Thinking for Business Agility

Most successful businesses in the years to come will balance analytical mastery and intuitive originality in a dynamic interplay that is called design thinking.

What happens when your back is up against the wall and you need to think quickly to come up with a solution because you may risk having grave consequences?

• Others need your solution to complete their part of the project

• Faced with a looming deadline

• Your job is on the line

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Somehow your brain shifts to another mode of thinking: re-wind – fast forward – sift and sort information – who else is involved – consider different solutions – run through solutions to test – choose one – and act. All this happens in seconds.

Everyone has this analytical ability. But is it only possible if faced with an extreme situation or challenge?

What if you could teach your brain to work through problems, think through the practical applications of an idea, make decisions, determine the best strategy and apply this concept to tackle all sorts of business challenges from idea discovery to concept-development to communication to sales?

The IDEAWIZ 7 Guiding Principles of Design Thinking can help you apply this critical thinking ability to any goal or problem to challenge ingrained assumptions, disrupt entrenched thinking and broaden the frame of reference.

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Crystallise: First get into gear – the right frame of mind where you define what you want and why. You can just about hear the click in your mind as you lock in and it all begins to ‘crystallise’.

Incorporate: Draw from multiple sources and make assumptions. How we interpret the world is unique to each one of us and determines our blind spots – what we notice and what we ignore.

When you look at a crystal you turn it around and study it from different angles, bring it up close, look at it from a distance, use a magnifying glass or bring it out into the sunlight to determine its unique characteristics. The same process applies to analysing a problem.

Explore: Begin to connect the dots by engaging with others -interview and observe. Showing it to someone else to get their point of view helps to broaden your perspective and build on what you already know or believe to be true.

Validate your assumptions and verify that the facts are correct, start to see patterns, what elements are related or irrelevant, how it all fits together to make sense in this context. Make sure you’re on the right path and adapt where needed -synthesise insights.

Imaginate: This is where it gets messy when you think of all the different possibilities – discover, envision, conceive. Next, put together different combinations and generate alternatives.

Experiment: Test the waters. Try out the best options and see what happens, what reaction you get, which if any get the desired impact or do they fall short. Choose the best one.

Review: Step away and shift your focus to something unrelated. Come back and look at what you have with a fresh eye. Adapt and re-organise based on any new insights. Ensure that all the important elements are included, in the right sequence, correct dose, and exact combination at the precise time.

Release: Once everyone is satisfied with the results and agrees to the action steps, the solution can be deployed.

This critical thinking process is called Design Thinking and it works. Give it a try.

Companies like Google and Facebook organise Hackathons to bring people together to work in teams and where they are encouraged to build, test new ideas and exchange knowledge in order to progress through collaboration. Breakthrough solutions have been created in this way.

Florence Mackay, MSc, Business Psychologist – www.awp.uk.com