You are probably familiar with both strategic and design thinking. These two approaches to thinking about business have different origins.
Strategic thinking, the first approach, is a rational exercise; the opposite design thinking stimulates our dormant creative genius.
The good news is that strategic design brings business strategy and design thinking together overcoming the gap between these somehow different thinking styles.
Rationality though has a definite limit; it can only advise us in choosing among an existing set of solutions to a specific and well-known problem.
Forced by more efficient competitors, companies need to innovate strategically to remain relevant, here rationality alone is no longer sufficient.
Creativity is the missing link between ‘conventional’ rational business strategies and sustainable innovation.
The problem: as toddlers facing the pool for the first time, the management of many organisations is not comfortable to jump into the water (experimenting with a new idea).
As seen in other posts - efficiency alone is not a source of sustainable advantage for organisations.
To innovate managers needs to combine their rational thinking with their dormant geniuses.
This online programme an introduction to Strategic Design is my way to jump into the pool, experiment something different which I believe will become the new standard - online corporate training.
As you enrol and start this free online programme, you see I’m not yet a pro behind the camera. As managers we focus on achieving perfection (incremental innovation) that we forget to try something new and show its result to the rest of the world (colleagues).
I have to admit it - it was hard to let things go, but I eventually pressed the Rec button! Every take was a struggle, and the final editing was a nightmare.
Creating something new is risky and takes guts, many people will criticise the lack of professionalism and minimum (industry) standards.
What they don’t know, though, is that we are not creating something better, faster or cheaper but something different, we are envisioning/designing a ‘different’ future.
When was the last time you experimented with a new ‘business’ idea?
