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by Alyssa Gallagher and Kami Thordarson
Table of Contents
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
—R. Buckminster Fuller
In the business world, design thinking has long been touted as a strategic way to generate innovative solutions. Some go so far as to suggest that design thinking is the key to successful innovation. However, design thinking has been slower to take hold in education settings. Although it is definitely an emerging problem-solving strategy—and although those using this process are experiencing success—it remains unknown to many education leaders, especially at the highest levels of organizations. Still, there are pockets across the education landscape where incredible things are happening as a result of design thinking and design thinking mindsets.
The University of Calgary has a design thinking-based course for undergraduate students that is a required component of their Bachelor of Education degree program. The focus is on the teacher as the designer of learning. Preservice teachers identify problems of practice from their practicum experiences, use a process of divergent and convergent thinking strategies to explore the possible underlying causes that manifest as a "problem," collaboratively identify various solutions, and test and refine these prototypes in their final practicum. It is a wonderful process that forces preservice teachers to think beyond the immediate problem in front of them and to look for solutions that they might not have considered. This design thinking course is an eye-opener for beginning teachers and emphasizes the importance of keeping students as the focus of their work. Think about how powerful this is: every teacher candidate at the University of Calgary is being taught to solve problems using design thinking.
There are design thinking success stories at every level of education. Harrisburg School District, a public K–12 school district in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has used design thinking to reimagine their elementary schools, creating a personalized learning program where students are no longer assigned to grade levels based solely on age and have more autonomy in how they are learning. In May 2019, Amanda Haughes, a 2nd grade teacher from Campbell Union School District in California, tweeted her students' reflections about the effects of design thinking:
We learn empathy by solving problems for other people.
We learn to try new things when something doesn't work.
We make things we can really use & not all of our projects look the same.
We figure out the problems we are having.
We get to do what we want and still do what the teacher wants.
We stick with it even when it gets hard.
We solve problems.
There is limited definitive research as to whether students who are taught design thinking benefit academically or retain the strategies and use them outside the classroom setting. A study by researchers at the Stanford Graduate School (Chin et al., 2019), however, found that students performed better on projects and were able to apply design thinking strategies they had learned to entirely new problems without any prompting. Doris B. Chin, who led the research, shared that
the overall takeaway is that we were able, through instruction, to change the way students were able to approach problems. The strategies we thought would be good are in fact good, and the kids are choosing to transfer them from classroom instruction to a different environment." (Quoted in Andrews, 2019, para. 7)
Imagine if every educator had the opportunity to engage with design thinking and walked away with the ability to approach problems from a different perspective, one that is grounded in empathy. We have to believe education would be in a very different place than it currently is.
Design thinking is well worth exploring; it offers a problem-solving and, ultimately, a change-management strategy that is grounded in empathy for the users. Because design thinking embraces the mindset of radical collaboration and is best embraced as a team sport, it offers many powerful co-creation opportunities. Top-down mandated change is not sustainable. Most people no longer want a solution dictated to them; they want to be a part of creating the solution. Contrary to the belief that people implement decisions they believe in, what we have come to find is that people implement solutions they understand. There is no better way to engage people in implementing ideas and solutions than to have them take part in co-creating new ideas and solutions that are designed to meet the needs of the end users. To effectively implement solutions, people need to understand them; because design thinking offers a path for co-creation of solutions to challenging problems, it promotes buy-in and ownership. Leaders of this effort also learn a new way of approaching problems and a new way of working with the people they serve.
Design thinking, a process for problem solving and a method for creative action, dates to the 1960s, when design methods and practices were being investigated as a way to solve wicked problems. Although wicked problems are often the most challenging, design thinking can be applied to any problem, whether in business, in school, or even in your personal life. Because the design process is grounded in empathy, designers always start by uncovering unmet human needs that may have otherwise been invisible. Uncovering these needs yields new insights and valuable information that may lead in new directions and down new problem-solving paths. Design thinking encourages a shift from an "inside-out" method of problem solving to an "outside-in" stance. The traditional inside-out method of problem solving most commonly used in schools prioritizes internal knowledge, experience, and skills to view and solve problems. Design thinking represents a shift in problem solving. Its outside-in stance incorporates fresh thinking and new perspectives and puts the user at the center of the problem to be solved. In education, that user may be the student, staff member, or parent.
Design thinking requires spending more time with the problem—you may even hear some designers talk about needing to "fall in love with the problem" to really understand it. Too often, educators are quick to identify a problem and move right into solving it, without true clarity. Design thinking challenges many of the notions around problem definition by suspending certainty. Many a "well-defined" problem turns out to have an entirely different definition based on discoveries through design thinking; such discoveries can help education teams move in completely new directions.
Empathy is really what differentiates design thinking from other problem-solving processes and is often successful when working to shift large systems that have become path-dependent, so wedded to habit that it is challenging for anyone to try something different. All systems are layered with ingrained traditions, habits, and mindsets that create, if not immunity to change, at least a strong resistance to it. There is a complicated paradox in education: although education leaders often observe that systems are not working, they are also comfortable existing in those systems. Let's face it—for most of us in education, our "internship" began at the age of 5 or 6. We have spent the better part of our lives being a part of a system (good or bad) that we have grown up with and, thus, unintentionally replicate. Collectively, we need a process that will jolt us out of this normalcy and support us as we work to question the underlying values and beliefs of the broader education system. Because it is grounded in empathy, design thinking offers an opportunity to completely reframe the education system and the problems we have been trying to solve for decades.
Empathy places the user in the center of the problem-solving process; rather than starting with the identification and solving of the problem, design thinking requires first seeking to understand more about the experience of end users. What are they struggling with? Why are they struggling? Empathy enables speaking in a different language that recognizes others' long-held ideas and establishes understanding and common ground. This, in turn, enables really digging into a problem while seeking to understand both the obvious needs and, more important, the hidden and often unexpressed needs—which offer the greatest opportunity for change.
As Steve Jobs called out in 1997, "A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." We see this a lot in school when we ask students questions like What do you want school to be? When you consider that their conception of school is often limited to what they have experienced, it's no wonder they can struggle to articulate what would be better for them. It's the job of the designer to propose new solutions based on the needs they uncover. Homing in on the unexpressed needs of, say, the students who come to school every day but remain chronically disengaged, or the teachers who feel caught in a system that prioritizes achievement data over actual learning experiences challenges entrenched beliefs and helps leaders create sustainable change.
Empathy must be the driving force behind any changes made in our nation's schools. Empathy can and should act as guardrails to change, keeping us on the road to constantly and consistently improving the experience for our users. Nothing else matters. To effectively move our schools forward, we must be willing to listen, to compromise, and to meet people where they are.
This book unpacks each phase of the design thinking process (see Figure 1.1):
IDEO, one of the most well-known design firms in the world, simplifies this process into three phases: inspiration, ideation, and implementation, defining inspiration as "the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions," ideation as "the process of generating, developing, and testing ideas," and implementation as "the path that leads from the project stage into people's lives" (Brown, 2009, p. 16). Even though the number of phases differs, all of the same core components and mindsets are embedded in the process we use in this book. All design processes share the same foundational components (Ertel & Solomon, 2014):
Power pieces are strategies that are infused and embedded throughout the entire design thinking process.
Notice, wonder, and question. Learning to notice, wonder, and question as a part of your daily practice will help create many of the habits and mindsets of designers and open you up to new possibilities. These skills are built through reconnecting with your inner child, becoming more curious, and learning to use questioning in a new way. These strategies are so important that we'll dive deep into them in Chapter 2.
Tell a story. Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools leaders have at their disposal. Telling stories creates connections and provides entry points for the new solution, vision, or future that is being created. Intentionally telling the story throughout the process will help create fertile ground for implementation.
Produce. Design thinking embraces a bias to action. After all, coming up with new solutions doesn't matter if they are never implemented. Raising awareness of the work of a producer will help you bring hustle to the process, maintain momentum, and build the team you need to do the work. Chapter 7 will help you, as the producer of your project, toggle between creating a compelling vision and diving into the nitty-gritty details of implementation.
Good design isn't about making something that looks good or is left up to a select group to determine. In the context of design thinking, good design solves a problem for an end user using insights gained from empathy work. Tim Brown (2009) of IDEO has described good design as the intersection of desirability, feasibility, and viability:
The intersection of these three qualities—desirability, feasibility, and viability—is the sweet spot for innovation and for solving problems in a way that delights the end user (see Figure 1.2). As you work to create solutions that meet the needs of your user, test solutions against this intersection of desirability, feasibility, and viability. You'll know you've hit the jackpot of design when all three are met.
The design thinking process involves shifting between divergent and convergent thinking, between flaring and focusing, between problem finding and solution seeking. Skilled design thinkers are able to intentionally toggle between these vastly different modes of thinking and working.
The art of intention is not only a key player in many places during the design process; intentionality is the difference between a good designer and a great designer. At the start of any design project, empathy and need finding make up the "problem" space. This is in direct contrast to traditional problem solving, where the "solution" space—searching for an answer before completely understanding the problem—is the origin point. Intentionality is key to shifting the origin point from solution seeking to problem finding. The objective in this early phase is to dig deep into the heart of the problem, identifying the underlying beliefs, values, and habits that are at its core. We want you to fall in love with the problem you are solving before falling for any potential solutions. It can be difficult to suspend certainty and resist jumping into solution mode, but with new strategies to guide you, and with practice, you can approach any problem confidently from a new direction.
As illustrated in Figure 1.3, empathy and need finding—the work of understanding the problem from the perspective of your end user—occupies most of the problem identification space. This shift in approach often results in a shift in solution. Being able to name the problem is a great place to start, but spending time swirling around in the problem to develop a deeper understanding will no doubt lead to a more innovative solution.
It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem.
—Malcolm Forbes
VisionSpring, a low-cost eye care provider based in India, had successfully served adults for years but was interested in improving eye care for children. (Brown & Wyatt, 2010). Although the company had experienced success with adults, it had had limited success getting children into clinics. The VisionSpring team approached this challenge by first exploring the question "How might we get more parents to understand the importance of eye care?" After engaging with their users, they uncovered new insights and shifted their focus to "How might we create a clinic experience that children find safe and enjoyable?" Their first prototype involved an eye care technician doing vision screenings at schools; children still found it scary. Their second prototype involved teachers doing vision screenings, and their third and successful prototype had students involved in helping to screen other students. Had the VisionSpring team not taken the time to understand the problem of children not getting eye care and stayed with their original problem definition, they would have likely gone down a different path of problem solving. Starting with a more interesting question will help you create a more innovative solution.
The more you learn about the end user's experience, the clearer the opportunities for innovative solutions become. Once you have gathered insights and homed in on the problem definition, you'll diverge again in the ideation phase. Divergent thinking in the ideation phase is all about dreaming big and looking for connections between ideas that might create interesting options to prototype. When you finally converge on an idea or two, you're ready to start building to learn and testing possible solutions. When testing solutions, be sure to create space for listening without letting your own judgments, opinions, or emotional attachment to any of the ideas push you toward favoring a solution that might not be the best solution to meet the needs of your end user. There must be intentionality every step of the way to create more space, more thinking, less judgment, and less pressure to immediately get it "right." This space that gets created is simultaneously a beautiful part of design thinking and a source of frustration for many the first time they experience it.
Design thinking embraces the notion of radical collaboration, encouraging collaboration with others both inside and outside an industry. The "T-shaped thinker" was first mentioned by David Guest in a 1991 article in The Independent and then embraced by Tim Brown, CEO and head of the design firm IDEO, as a way to find the right workers for that organization (Hansen, 2010). Essentially, a T-shaped thinker has not only deep knowledge and expertise in his or her field but also curiosity about and working knowledge of a lot of other areas. This broad base of knowledge helps circumvent the "paradox of expertise," where deep knowledge can sometimes cloud one's ability to see new ideas (Berkun, 2015).
The world of education is filled with T-shaped thinkers, people who are both deeply knowledgeable about the craft of teaching and also have expertise and interest in other topics and disciplines. As you are assembling your design team, seek out the T-shaped thinkers. They are inventive, intellectually curious, and highly collaborative, and getting them on your team sets you up to deliver an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving that can offer more creative solutions. The entire process will be enriched as a result.
Design thinking is much more than a process; it is about learning to think and problem-solve differently. It has the power to help you solve your wicked problems and to help transform your culture. Globalization and technological advances are causing disruptions in many industries; companies that embrace design thinking as a problem-solving model are better able to connect with customers and find a competitive advantage. When Airbnb began in 2009, founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nate Blecharczyk were located in Mountain View, California. In the beginning, they were wildly successful, but then their customer base started to flatline. The three owners turned their attention to data and reworking their website, but when they reached out for business advice, Paul Graham, the head of startup incubator Y Combinator, sent them in a very different direction. Graham asked them where the majority of their customers were located (at the time, New York City) and told them, "Go to your users." They followed his words of wisdom, headed to New York, and began interacting directly with their customers. Through observations, interviews, and conversations with customers, they were able to develop new creative breakthroughs that propelled the company forward. They learned that there is power in empathy and have created a company culture that not only relies on data and technology but also values the face-to-face conversations that give their insights more depth. As a result, Airbnb encourages every employee to be part of the process: to host, travel, and experience the brand from every aspect (Gallagher, 2017).
Airbnb isn't alone; many corporate leaders are embracing design thinking to gain insight into how to truly connect and delight their customers. Imagine the possibilities in education if we were able to uncover new insights and create experiences that would truly delight our users—students, teachers, and parents.
Organizational cultures that invest in teaching design thinking experience the by-products of creating a more innovative culture. Put most simply, culture is a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization. When you work to embrace design thinking—both the process and the mindsets—you are laying the foundation for a design-inspired culture, an environment where the mindsets and practices of designers are shared and become the "new normal." These new practices and mindsets have the power to shift postures toward the possible and create space for more creativity and innovation.
There are other tangible benefits that come from design thinking work, including increased collaboration by all stakeholders. District and school design teams who dig into empathy work have a greater understanding of purpose and thus are more connected to the solutions that are being developed. When interviewing leaders successfully using the design thinking process, we have heard over and over again, "We don't do things to people; we do things with people." It's a great statement to make as a leader—and a hard statement to put into action. The practice of empathy, however, makes this statement a reality. Those you are leading feel heard and that they are part of the decision-making process, even when the decisions are high level.
With all of the design thinking success stories and positive by-products, you may be wondering why design thinking has been slow to spread in the world of K–12 education. We have questioned this as well and believe there are four main reasons design thinking hasn't yet been embraced.
Design thinking is chaotic and unpredictable. Although the design thinking process is often laid out as a linear progression, it is most often messy and can be challenging to manage. There are many moving pieces (and people!) in the process, presenting different aspects during the divergent phases. It can be difficult to predict where the convergence will occur. This unpredictability can make people uncomfortable and oftentimes frustrated by the lack of a quick solution.
Design thinking is more than just a process. The design thinking process is a way of being, a way of approaching a challenge, and your orientation to the world. It requires the ability to change one's point of view at a moment's notice. It is also a practice of visualization and looking forward. As David J. Schwartz advised in The Magic of Thinking Big (1959/1987), "Look at things not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value to everything. A big thinker always visualizes what can be done in the future. He isn't stuck with the present" (p. 84).
Design thinking is time intensive. There is no quick fix. Because design thinking is empathy based, it requires time to gain deeper understanding. Although data and technology can help provide some surface insights, it is the conversations that stem from curious questions that enable the development of a more valuable and suitable solution to a challenge. It takes time to have conversations; it takes time to schedule empathy interviews; it takes time to observe. Even once you start creating solutions, design thinking is an iterative process that requires time, something that is in high demand in education.
Design thinking creates tension and challenges the status quo. Because design thinking has the potential to challenge prevailing practices and culture in education, the process may create tension between the articulated practices of an organization and the possible unknown. In addition, the design thinking process can bring to light additional problems or challenges, creating even more discomfort with the current status quo. This can be a positive by-product for those who are ready and willing to tackle challenges, but it can also be overwhelming. When you dig below the surface, there is a lot of work to be done and many problems to be solved; for some people, it is simply easier to go about things the way they always have.
How many parts of the system, however, are no longer working for today's students? As Margaret Wheatley (2001) noted,
Sometimes we hesitate to listen for differences because we don't want to change. We're comfortable with our lives, and if we listened to anyone who raised questions, we'd have to get engaged in changing things. If we don't listen, things can stay as they are. But most of us do see things in our life or in the world that we would like to be different. If that's true, we have to listen more, not less. And we have to be willing to move into the discomfort of uncertainty and confusion. (para. 12)
Change is hard, and design thinking is a messy process that requires a bit of time in the land of uncertainty. Although this feels uncomfortable at first, the more you experience it, the more comfortable you will become working within it.
Sometimes when school or district administrators get interested in design thinking, they believe they have to hire consultants or professional designers. Sure, there are times when bringing in outside expertise is beneficial for all involved, but there is also value in building internal capability. We believe educators are capable of learning how to think and behave more like designers. Design thinking is a problem-solving process that is accessible to everyone.
In the world of design thinking, there are several terms that relate to people within the process. In this book, we use these terms as follows:
Every time you solve a problem or create a plan, you are designing. Most of this is done unintentionally; however, with a little awareness and practice, you can intentionally design everything around you. Design thinking is the process needed to make the intentionality and process visible. By embracing design thinking, you and your team can become a catalyst for changing the culture of powerlessness that exists in many of today's schools. Engaging in this process will help you look at your leadership, your team, and your school with fresh eyes and a sense of possibility. You are a designer, capable of solving wicked problems, and there are a lot of wicked problems in education. We have work to do—let's get started!
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