innovation

I would imagine that the majority of us when we were kids had a Lego set bought for us and of course, Lego is still around today … what a great success story. The kind of Lego sets that you probably had bought for you normally consisted of specific bricks and pieces + a set of instructions that showed you how to build whatever it was on the box. Great so away you went opening the box and tipping out all the individual pieces onto the table or floor or whatever.

Over the past two decades, Design Thinking has emerged as a practice that enables innovation, change, and complex problem solving. Many companies hoping to benefit from Design Thinking invest in training workshops to learn the Design Thinking way of working. While training workshops are an effective way to learn new skills, putting new skills to use requires taking the learning beyond the workshop. It is when organizations put new skills into practice that they start to see the benefits. So, how can you continue to foster Design Thinking capabilities after the workshops?

In practice, Design Thinking happens in stages: Understanding, Conceptualizing, and Experimenting. It is important to remember that while these stages are described in a linear fashion, in practice Design Thinking is iterative. The iterative nature of Design Thinking means that stages are cyclical rather than linear in reality.

We are seeing an exciting trend in recent months as more client organisations structure their people vision alongside innovative and practical deployment plans that are very specifically matched to their business goals. 

Over recent years, businesses have been focused on cost utilisation and spend, understandably given the economic environment we've been in. 

As a start-up you can do two things. Create a digital service which falls in the wow category of social mobile app, cool gadget, another cryptocurrency, or similar. Nothing that will make this world a better place. Alternatively, you can try to solve a really hard problem with some really clever technology and try to sell your new product or service.

Design Thinking is currently enjoying a surge in popularity and not without good reason. Processes for creation and innovation are worth their salt and are indeed integral to Digital Transformation. Having said that, one is not a substitute for the other. Here is my take on Design Thinking and where it fits with Digital Transformation.

Business School must come before Design School.

In my opinion, most enter the room of Design Thinking assuming they’re bringing the right diagnosed challenge to the table to be fixed.

Uber or Black Cab – Which is Your HR Function?

I’ve used Uber a few times, but have to say I’ve been a Black Cab kind of girl for years and there is something familiar about them that makes me stick with them.

Yesterday though I started to think differently.  My last few trips to London have involved a Cab ride, none of the drivers have known where to go and the cost, compared to what an Uber would have been almost double the cost and the card machines haven’t been working so cash has been paid, one driver even dropping me at a cash machine.

Strategy creates competitive advantage,

People and a culture of innovation sustains it and

Technology and communications are the means by which it is delivered.

Over the past decade or so, the concept of Design Thinking has become a popular approach to problem-solving. In some circles, Design Thinking is viewed as a methodology with several different process models (see IDEO, Hasso Plattner Institut, as examples) that provide guidance on how to engage in this process. In other circles, Design Thinking is viewed as a philosophy or a mindset that guides problem-solving.

Digital is all the buzz today. You need to have a mobile app, be agile, invest in startups, move to Office360 & Yammer, do sprints, have scrum masters, use AI, build IoT, add BlockChain, ... BUT the dirty little secret of the innovators is that you will not be one. You might actually be putting lipstick on a pig!