CLO-Blog

Published August 2008

Design Thinking and Learning

Lindsay Edmonds Wickman

I’ve seen more and more articles about design thinking, and they’ve got me wondering about the intersection of design thinking and learning. Design thinking actively engages both creative right-brained thinking and analytical left-brained thinking to develop solutions to problems or issues. It seems that facilitating design thinking means opening up the discussion to a point where everyone feels comfortable in expressing their ideas.

Procter & Gamble is currently using the approach to change its culture, according to a recent article in BusinessWeek. They are using design-thinking workshops to not only develop new products, but also to brainstorm on “strategy, retail relationship building and matters of operational excellence.” And as a result, P&G is cultivating a culture of creativity, innovation and, ultimately, learning.

Where do learning and design thinking intersect? Are they related? How can learning support the design thinking process? And isn’t design thinking what learning hopes to achieve, an open forum where thoughts flow freely and innovation is harvested? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Lindsay Edmonds Wickman is an associate editor for Chief Learning Officer magazine. She can be reached at editor@clomedia.com.

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