• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

Can design thinking help solve our problems?

Design Thinking

“We spend a lot of time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.” –  Prabhjot Singh, Director of Systems Design at the Earth Institute

Ever thought of the best way to solve some of the intractable socio-economic and political problems in a developing economy like Nigeria? Problems and challenges are universal realities, but when it comes to Nigeria, one would want to take exception. The flashy cars and beautiful structures notwithstanding, more than ninety-one million citizens are living in extreme poverty. Nigeria has got a burgeoning population where more than 50% of the entire population of 196,000,000 are below 35 years of age, yet the unemployment rate stands as high as 23%. It is scary to note further that a whopping 36% of the unemployed population is between the ages of 18-24. The country GDP crawls between 1.8% to 2.5%, though the population is projected to hit 400million by 2050 the national infrastructure to support businesses, education and healthcare are still in acute paralysis.

Self-centeredness at individual and institutional level sits at the heart of this lacklustre performance because individualism is elevated above collectivism. Unhealthy competition and rivalry are promoted above unity and collaboration. An intentional mind switch is required to solve this national crisis that has seeped into the pores of corporate organisations.

 

Can Design Thinking Facilitate New Thinking and Culture Change?

Design Thinking is a human-centred socio innovation. Regardless of disciplines, sectors and contexts, it is an essential tool for innovation-minded people. A deep understanding of the Design Thinking makes you walk in another person’s shoe so you can understand and feel where the shoe pinches. This is called Empathy, and it is one of the rudiments of the Design Thinking concepts. Design Thinking trains you to think human first; therefore, you examined every problem with human-centeredness.

It quells the strong sense of individualism and self-acclaimed superior knowledge and empowers the users with collective wisdom, nudging collaboration with different stakeholders. Design thinking nudges workforce to allow all ideas without labelling anyone stupid and by collectively agreeing on the idea that best delivers value and creates greater goods. No institution can survive without being innovative and most innovative effort fail even before they are started because they leave out a critical success driver: Human Centeredness. Whether it is a policy, service or product innovation, every design should come with strong human feelings for the users, and this should be done taking into consideration their current state and possible stages in the future.

Human kindness makes us have a deep understanding of what people need, it makes us celebrate people above self, therefore, superior products, services and policies are designed and roll-out, when this resonates well with the people there will be a better and improved society, excellent performance by businesses because the products or services align well with the users.

The following are the benefits of Design Thinking.

Promotes Empathy: walking in someone else’s shoe is a powerful metaphor in Design Thinking. If you don’t know where it hurts, how would you be able to nurse the wounds? This is what happens when leaders and service providers leave their comfort zone to walk in the zone of their customers and potential customers. There are two ways to know what your customer wants; you can either ask them, or you can be them. When you ask them you are still at whims and caprices of interpretation, but when you step into their shoes, you get to see life from their perspective, and you gain valuable insights.

It increases tolerance level: Patience and tolerance are on the paths that you will take in the school of Design Thinking. Design Thinking will assist you to leave your biases, everybody’s view is welcomed, and none is labelled stupid, so there is no pressure to subscribe to Group Think or the Think Alike Look Alike strategy. Without tolerance innovation and diversity of thinking cannot become the norm in any society or organisation.

It facilitative Inclusiveness: Design Thinking encourages the culture of diversity and inclusion. A proper understanding of Design Thinking will defuse exclusive practices and will promote diversity and inclusion. By embracing the culture of inclusion, the country can solve problems for a greater good. Our multiplicity of tribes and tongue will be envied if we harnessed our separate abilities

Free Flow of Ideas without intimidation: ideas rule the world, and many organisations and societal problems in a society like Nigeria would have been resolved if ideas were properly treated. There are few places where one can learn how to treat ideas as a good brainstorming session in Design Thinking. From the unhindered generation of ideas (everybody has a voice) to the filtering of the ideas (dispassionately, without bias), the most practical or most innovative that will inspire better and improved solutions surfaces. If we can apply this to the formulation of policies and the passing of bills in Nigeria, how beautiful will it be?

Improves the existing system: Design Thinking stretches our thinking capacities; it allows us to ask critical questions that produce answers that ultimately lead to revolutionary solutions. Some questions can cause unease in the room and most times, and these are avoided to prevent offence. Until some of these questions are genuinely asked and attended to, the status quo continues. Great leaders are never turn off by uncomfortable questions as long as they are genuine. They hold potential solutions to the most complex problems.

Help identify opportunities and unlocks innovation: a compelling benefit of the Design Thinking process is its ability to spot opportunities and unlock innovation. As you embark on the ethnographic research in the Design Thinking Process, fresh opportunities are spotted which are hitherto unknown to you. These discoveries enable you to come up with innovative products and services which could create an entirely new service line for the good of the society and open up channels that were never in the initial roadmap.

Conclusion

Beyond the provision of services or the design of goods, design thinking changes everything, from how we see things to who we are. As a developing nation or emerging indigenous corporation that aspires to become best-in-class, it is important that everyone understands design. It brings all, from the president, governor, executive leadership to those in engineering, sciences, human resources, marketing etc. to the same page. At the end of it all, there will be happy citizens, happy societies, happy leaders, happy followers – it is going to be a happy world.

 

Olukunle A. Iyanda

Dr Iyanda is a Strategy and Innovation Advisor.