Change by design, Tim Brown (2009)

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Tim Brown has spent his career in the famous idea shop IDEO and shares the secrets to their success. The book is an easy read with clear explanations, excellent examples, and easy to remember principles.

Premise:

Brown argues design and innovation provide hope for solving our most vexing problems, but management and organizations aren’t good at it. “A management philosophy based only on selecting from existing strategies is likely to be overwhelmed by new development at home or abroad. What we need are new choices – new products. . . new ideas. . . new strategies that result in differences that matter and a sense of purpose that engages everyone affected by them.”

Brown’s book provides “an approach to innovation that is powerful, effective, and broadly accessible, that can be integrated into all aspects of business and society, and that individuals and teams can use to generate breakthrough ideas that are implemented and that therefore have an impact.”

THE HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN-PROCESS:

An emphasis on fundamental human needs – as opposed to fleeting desires – drives design thinking away from the status quo. The continuum of innovation is a system of overlapping spaces that include:

  • INSPIRATION
  • IDEATION
  • IMPLEMENTATION

Through this process, the design thinker must bring 3 key elements into harmonious balance (these are design constraints that actually can be seen as liberating when enthusiastically accepted and embraced):

  • FEASIBILITY
  • VIABILITY
  • DESIRABILITY

In short the process involves:

  1. Field Observation
  2. Rapid Prototyping
  3. Visual Storytelling

Key rules to a bottom-up experimentation/guidance from above approach:

  1. The best ideas emerge when the whole organizational ecosystem has room to experiment.
  2. Those most exposed to changing externalities are the ones best placed to respond and most motivated to do so.
  3. Ideas should not be favored based on who creates them. (repeat this statement)
  4. Ideas that create a buzz should be favored – ideas that garner a vocal following should garner the organizational support.
  5. The “gardening” skills of senior leadership should be used to tend, prune, and harvest ideas.
  6. An overarching purpose should provide a sense of direction so innovators don’t feel the need for constant supervision.