design thinking

During our recent Presidential Elections, I was introduced to a great concept that I had been theretofore unaware of, “the illusion of explanatory depth.”  

(And yes, I did intend to write “theretofore” in the opening. But, full disclosure, I’ve never used that word before and had to look it up to be sure it was a “real” word.)

We let our guard down during this Friday’s Transcribe and discussed what we fear as facilitators of change. Though each member of our team has varying degrees of experience as a facilitator, we found many shared fears and effective practices to overcome them.

As the newest member of Collective Next, I was excited to participate in my first Transcribe session. As it turns out, it was a busy day around the office, and only Mason and I were able to participate. We took the opportunity to share with each other our histories with CN, and the driving forces behind our decisions to join.

We regularly deal with complicated, complex issues: challenges of cultural change, market fluctuations, leadership, and more. And, personally, there is a part of me that loves that challenge, that impulse to understand the whole picture, all the moving parts and potential risks. And the thrill that comes from pulling it all together into an elegant design, that solution that just hums. It can be intoxicating and all-encompassing.

In a recent post, we shared that graphics allow us to cut past the need for descriptive words and personalize our own understanding of an idea without getting caught up in someone else’s description of it.

I don’t get to do very many DesignShopÒ events these days. A typical DesignShop event, as invented and practiced by MG Taylor Corporation, involves bringing together 30 to 80 client participants for three long days (10 hours, 12 hours, and 10 hours) of facilitated collaborative work. DesignShop events are impactful, transformational, exhilarating, and often supremely strenuous experiences. They are also an enormous, lump-sum investment of time and money for a client.

You are a business professional. You know your stuff. Before tackling any major business task, you familiarize yourself with best practices, design a plan, organize the appropriate people and watch a clip from your favorite comedy. Like many people, you may find the last step in this list out of place. Yet, it may be the most important step you can take to maximize your effectiveness.

Infographics, data visualizations, visual knowledge…whatever you call it, it’s everywhere, and most of the time, it’s pretty interesting.

Trolling a couple of good discussion boards on the discipline of Design Thinking, inevitably someone will ask the group - "know any good books on DT?".  The ensuing thread usually makes reference to some timeless classics as well as a good book that may have just been released.  No self-promoting authors promoting their works, just recommendations from discussion group participants.  The Design Thinking LinkedIn group, as well as the Design Management Institute (DMI) provide a rich archive of just these kinds of threads.  Over the past year or so I have been trying to bu