VanderPalette

Can anyone expect to understand “design thinking” in a 2-day course? Well, yes, if you are talking about an event, rather than a habitual way of seeing the world and its possibilities. And what about the global consequences of design thinking events? Not all stuff we didn’t know we need is good for the planet. Where’s the concern for values in the value proposition that typically comes out of design thinking events?

Design seeing, thinking and doing

Designers draw on a whole lifetime of observation, imagination, exploration, navigation and concern for regeneration. This way of seeing allows them to leap forward with a “what if?” approach to self-limiting “if only__” beliefs.    “If only___” says we’re stuck. We can’t move until, or unless, something that is out of our control happens. This can be an excuse for inaction. But sometimes people are overwhelmed by complexity. Design seeing allows fresh answers to emerge.Narrow-seeing industrial era thinking worked when the consequences of decisions were hidden. Pollution, bad management-labor relations, smoking, building ugly junk—the fallout from such practices is self-evident today. Design seeing exposes consequences as well as possibilities.

-Sharon VanderKaay