Summary: Move beyond problem solving. Use design thinking to stay action-oriented and create a better future for your company. Then, you are in the driver’s seat of the fastest car that will get you from here to where you want to go. Design thinking is the winner.
Dear Dr. Sylvia,
I would like some ideas on how to stay at the head of the pack with my lifestyle products.
Just know that what we sell is for trend setters. Our clothing line and jewelry have been show-stoppers, at least until recently.
We finally hit a dry spot, and I want to give my creative team all the ideas I can find.
I know you work with all types of organizations. I wonder what advice you have for us.
Signed,
Smart and Sassy
What Taylor Swift concerts and opera have in common.
Dear Smart and Sassy,
I hope you find some inspiration in my response.
While there are so many ideas to consider using technology, the need for humans to connect and share is basic to our species.
I will start with an odd question. “How do you get a line of people stretching around the block to come to a funky bar where opera is the big draw?”
No Taylor Swift, no Beyoncé, just plain old-fashioned opera? That’s right, opera.
Problem-solving is short-lived, while design thinking has a long shelf life
Consider the term “thinking out of the box.”
What do you think it means? It takes more than just a demand for unique thinking; it takes community, empathy, the ability to handle conflict, and comfort with, rather than fear of change.
These elements are necessary for out-of-the-box thinking to be more than business hogwash.
I love to learn from the best, and I invite you to join me here; please learn from a master about creative thinking for your business.
Years ago, I spent an afternoon with Bob Sutton, PhD, management science and engineering professor at Stanford University.
Bob is a true creative. He can hold ten ideas at once and make you understand all of them within minutes. What fun.
BusinessWeek named him “One of the 10 “B” Schools All Stars” for influencing contemporary business thinking far beyond academia.
So, when Bob speaks, it pays to listen.
First, we talked about his super successful book, “The No Asshole Rule,” that the issues of bullying are still way too rampant in the workplace.
When I thanked him for his endorsement of my book “Don’t Bring It to Work” and added that I was ambivalent about having the word ‘asshole’ on my cover, he smiled and said he decided to use this title so people would pay attention. And they have.
We did a deep dive into “D School” as the way of the future. Bob is a crucial proponent of discussing design and making it a living area of the business world. He became animated as he discussed several projects that took design thinking to higher levels than expected.
Use Design Thinking to solve creative problems
Back to that line at that bar in San Francisco. The question was: “How do you get younger people to want to attend the opera?”
Do you think your products and services have no relationship to operas?
Many see opera as way too old-fashioned, slow, and even, well, yes, boring.
The San Francisco Opera is in its second century. That cannot be said about many organizations. This is a time of extremes. One of tremendous creativity when new audiences connect with opera in new ways. On the other hand, it is also a time of fiscal difficulty,
Bob Sutton gives one example of how to keep the lights on in the opera house while audiences can find community, inspiration, joy, and even catharsis.
It takes unique ideas to keep the older art forms fiscally sound as well as culturally
Bob explained that design thinking relies on logic, imagination, intuition, and systems reasoning. It’s a mindset that includes everyone. It incorporates people’s needs with technology. Design is more than just what something looks like; it’s about how it works.
Design thinking is also systems thinking, about how the parts fit together in ways that complement each other.
Bob described the Opera project: Remember, logic, imagination, intuition, and systems reasoning. Here’s the overview of what happened.
When change is needed, there is always resistance coupled with fear
The Opera staff were introduced to new ways of thinking. Initially, you guessed it: resistance.
That was until they saw the line around the corner.
A more traditional route was to name the drinks after various operas. Yet, that was only a start.,
It wasn’t just drinks with unique opera names.
There was a roulette wheel that would spin to add excitement about the next musical piece.
Think “Wheel of Fortune.” There were so many ways to engage the clientele that opera became fun. Something new and unusual. Read more here: https://hbr.org/2016/06/what-design-thinking-is-doing-for-the-san-francisco-opera
Learn how you and your team can get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.
Design thinking, per Sutton, is good because you get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. And that’s a good thing. It’s when new ideas and magic happen.
Everyone gets involved, and situations are authentic, real, and unpredictable. Over time, the aversion to change and the fear of failure also change.
Here is the power of design thinking: It helps you develop empathy for others, generate new ideas quickly, test rough prototypes, and fuel rapid learning for teams and organizations.
This experiential way of working together is the wave of the future. Still trying to figure it out? Sutton co-launched the Designing Organizational Change Project as a hub for leaders and academics intrigued by new thinking.
In conclusion, design thinking is a faster route to transforming all types of outdated behavior patterns in a shorter time. Just ask the folks at the San Francisco Opera.
To your success,
Sylvia Lafair
PS. Enjoy this article about design thinking and Bob Sutton.
