Design Thinking

 Design Thinking.  I immediately thought that this was going to be about me changing the way I think, and in a way it is, but in a bigger sense - it's not that at all.

Design Thinking as it relates to Social Innovation is the process of thinking about the problem with purpose.  We spent the last week understanding that Wicked problems cannot be "solved," but can only be improved.  There is the possibility of becoming sad or depressed when one dives too deeply into the root causes only to find there are many, and complex at that.  

But Design Thinking is the life saver in what might feel like an ocean of issues. 

I learned about 5 steps and 4 of them were no brainers.  But the first step was the one that surprised me the most: Empathize. It makes sense if you think about it, but I guess I had avoided thinking about big problems so much that I had stopped looking at them.  I didn't observe them, I didn't engage with those in the thick of the problems.  

Not until this class. 

As I looked more clearly and purposefully at wicked problems and complex issues, I was in danger of feeling like I was drowning in evil. But Design thinking, beginning from a place of love and  understanding (that is what empathizing really is), saves the process. 

It's important to utilize all 5 steps because if you skip one, the others will be less effective.  I have seen people try to "solve" problems without first empathyzing with those in the thick of the problem. For instance, Michelle Obama getting the whole country to chagne school lunches.  Or Federal Governements with Common Core math.  It is obvious that they did not spend enough time to step one to make the other steps useful at all - let alone the final step.  In the first example, all we have now are whole grain tasteless, poorly shipped and prepared food for our children. Yes, it's free, but it's so gross no one will eat it.  Children continue to go hungry and cannot focus in school, or rely on the contents of vending machines for their lunches. 

Common Core math is leaving kids in the dust. I was working with a very smart kid yesterday who is an external processer - meaning he needs to talk out loud in order to think well. He's focused, he's capable, he just needs to be able to say it out loud.  The public school situation doesn't serve him and Common Core math standards/laws, have shunted him forward in a grade with no math remediation available.  But getting to sit with him and read the test to him, I was able to observe and discover that reading wasn't his issue:  having to be silent while testing was. 

That first step is the one that really got me this week. 

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