Imagine a day when our children’s teachers are efficient but not empathetic, competent but not compassionate, rational but not creative. A day when the vibrant classroom mix of visual and verbal learning is reduced to monotonous fill-in-the-blank tests and year-end grades. As our nation moves forward into the Creativity Economy our schools may be forced backwards—toward a future where students are not taught the right-brain cognitive skills needed for life success. Read the Rest of the Entry.

Imagine a day when our children’s teachers are efficient but not empathetic, competent but not compassionate, rational but not creative. A day when the vibrant classroom mix of visual and verbal learning is reduced to monotonous fill-in-the-blank tests and year-end grades. As our nation moves forward into the Creativity Economy our schools may be forced backwards—toward a future where students are not taught the right-brain cognitive skills needed for life success. Read the Rest of the Entry.

Is there such a thing as Entrepreneurial Thinking? Is it something like Design Thinking? While I was preparing for a panel discussion on Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce it dawned on me how similar processes drive both.

The business world has finally caught on to the fact that innovation is not born of divine inspiration and eureka moments, but is more often the result of diligent effort guided by process. Business writers and MBA programs now recognize this process—Design Thinking, if you like—as replicable and learnable.

We also know that entrepreneurs have a process. Business author Jim Collins described how the term entrepreneur had negative connotations prior to the 1980s. Entrepreneurship was considered a black art employed by people with wild ideas who chose not to work with other people, but rather strike off and do it on their own. But in the ’80s there was a huge shift, and we began to realize that entrepreneurship was a systematic, replicable process. Innovation is fundamental to that process. Management guru Peter Drucker wrote that innovation is the “specific instrument of the entrepreneur.” In fact, Drucker believed that innovation is the mission of the entrepreneur above all else.

So if you are looking for a businessperson steeped in the processes associated with Design Thinking, find your local entrepreneur.

Design Thinking today is being called upon to solve wicked problems—problems of global scale and critical importance. This is good. But the little problems of life have always had the attention of designers. The problems of cleaning, cooking, and storing at home—problems that Karrie Jacobs in Metropolis called “design size problems”—don’t threaten our society, but often piss us off. As consumers we tolerate these little annoyances, and don’t recognize them as problems because we cannot imagine a better way. But designers are programmed to see problems as opportunities. We love being annoyed because we get to imagine solutions and then shape those imaginings into real products.
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I’ve been thinking how Design Thinking can help businesses innovate, and I hear the voices of some peers who worry design thinkers will get caught up in the Design Thinking process (immerse/analyze/ideate/validate), and lose the creative purity of design instinct and craft (perceive/react/make). I agree there is that risk, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take…because business management today is screaming for a new reality.

Something Roger Martin said has helped me transcend the debate. Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, in his work on Integrative Thinking says, “Reality is the enemy of innovation.” Business people are taught to think in terms of realities and existing models whereas integrative thinkers (design thinkers) are taught to think about possibilities and new improved models. Read the Rest of the Entry.