So it would seem that design thinking is having a moment. I know, I know. This is not news. After all, once something has hit the twittersphere with the force that design thinking seems to have (#designthinking), the moment may actually be almost over. But this is exciting for me, because it means that the methods of problem solving that I am seeing designers engage in the studio space as a part of the Doing Design Thinking study are starting to break through into the ‘real world’ in more than just a business-book-of-the-day way. So maybe design thinking is having a moment.
But what is more interesting to me than the buzz word of design thinking, which has been tasked with fixing itself, and destroying itself, and replacing itself too (the poor term has a lot on it’s shoulders!) is how we can use it as a tool set to develop innovation, and how we can share it in a post-secondary setting to help students and researchers meet the challenges of the future.
Innovation is at the heart of all of what we do, especially at the Mount Royal University: it is our key to improving our competitiveness, to evolving how we look at existing problems and how we spot opportunities for change in our world. You can learn more about that part here, in a new essay series by the Centre for International Governance Innovation. We can think of innovation as the successful exploitation of new ideas, and as the vehicle for carrying those new ideas through to new products, new services, new solutions for challenges. Sustained success, especially in a research and teaching driven space like MRU – increasingly depends on our ability to innovate: to nurture, grow and share new ideas and new opportunities. I’m just so excited that the opportunities for our students to learn together with this approach is here, and that undergraduate students from across disciplines are coming together as a cohort to connect with these exciting ideas. Maybe design thinking innovation is having a moment after all.