In the recent article about our upcoming Design Thinking unConference, Vancouver Observer’s Jenny Uechi used a quote from our interview that really expresses why I am drawn to Design Thinking as a process:
Creative ideas can’t succeed if you don’t have resources, but design thinkers tend to see resources where others don’t. Perhaps this is the greatest identifier of design thinkers: we tend to see limitations as challenges and in some way this offers hope, where that may be in short supply, particularly with longstanding problems or entrenched issues.
Throughout the planning of this first (of what will be annual) DT unConference, it was important to me that the high-concept discussions of design and design thinking that exist on the DT LinkedIn group be mixed with the messy – and often isolated – experience of practitioners from the social innovation sector.
With DT being taught in design schools and implemented in the business sector, there is a danger of the label supplanting the usefulness of the organic process ‘as practiced’ on the ground. Getting the ‘container’ right and having a great mix of diverse backgrounds, ideas and expectations in the room for an unConference is how we create impact: the richest experience and the most surprising consequences possible.
Whatever you call it, the use of design principles and approaches is not limited to those trained in the discipline. In my experience it is the oddball, outside-the-box perspective or willingness to look at the same situation ‘one more time but upside down’ that characterizes the design thinker in a group. This can ignite new approaches to old problems without losing the context and history, something our international development community has had to learn the hard way.
We encourage everyone who recognizes themselves as a design thinker in any field, but particularly those whose work at the level of community development and social change, to come along and take part in this conference on August 19 & 20, 2011.
Some bursaries are available (thanks to our sponsors) to those who really ‘should’ be there but for whom the fee is a barrier. Just use the contact form on our website to let us know and we will send you the info you need.
