When I wrote this article called “Creativity Comes to B-School” in 2006, I didn’t realize it would be the seminal article for so much of my future work – both in business school and beyond. I’d originally pitched the piece to my editors because the techniques and thinking displayed by the schools and professors were so appealing to me personally. Who would have thought that, since then, the idea of design thinking would be splashed across business publications of all sorts?
Today, this article called "Multicultural Critical Theory. At Business School?" was published in the New York Times. In a sense, it feels like the ideas I discovered for myself (and hopefully one or two readers) have officially entered the mainstream of business education. One could easily argue that they did so long ago, but permit me the dramatic entrance, if you will.
Whenever something officially enters the mainstream, a couple of things happen (in my experience, that is): they occasionally get vastly misinterpreted, and they often get hopelessly watered-down. Since I -- like many people -- feel some connection to this field for reasons I'll discuss in future posts, I'll attempt to add to the conversation by casting an at-once critical and adoring eye on this field of design thinking, particularly as it relates to business school education.
In this blogging forum, I plan to examine the design field (firms like IDEO, Ziba Design, Frog Design, and Design Continuum) to determine if the business press is right when it asserts that companies like these "might just help to change the world, community by community."
I’ll take a look at whether the hype around these companies is backed up by commercial successes – or not. I also plan to detail in some small way my own experiences of trying to infuse design thinking into my own life and work.
Since I’m something of a novice in the field, I plan to use this forum for discovery. Along the way, I’m sure I’ll put forth the occasional opinion that would benefit from further pondering, but as they say, that’s what blogs are for (do they say that?). And I hope you’ll chime in with misguided or thoughtful ponderances of your own.
Between now and my second post (when I'll reveal more about me and why I think I'm qualified to write on this topic), here's a video that gets to the heart of where I'm going through this blog:
Today, this article called "Multicultural Critical Theory. At Business School?" was published in the New York Times. In a sense, it feels like the ideas I discovered for myself (and hopefully one or two readers) have officially entered the mainstream of business education. One could easily argue that they did so long ago, but permit me the dramatic entrance, if you will.
Whenever something officially enters the mainstream, a couple of things happen (in my experience, that is): they occasionally get vastly misinterpreted, and they often get hopelessly watered-down. Since I -- like many people -- feel some connection to this field for reasons I'll discuss in future posts, I'll attempt to add to the conversation by casting an at-once critical and adoring eye on this field of design thinking, particularly as it relates to business school education.
In this blogging forum, I plan to examine the design field (firms like IDEO, Ziba Design, Frog Design, and Design Continuum) to determine if the business press is right when it asserts that companies like these "might just help to change the world, community by community."
I’ll take a look at whether the hype around these companies is backed up by commercial successes – or not. I also plan to detail in some small way my own experiences of trying to infuse design thinking into my own life and work.
Since I’m something of a novice in the field, I plan to use this forum for discovery. Along the way, I’m sure I’ll put forth the occasional opinion that would benefit from further pondering, but as they say, that’s what blogs are for (do they say that?). And I hope you’ll chime in with misguided or thoughtful ponderances of your own.
Between now and my second post (when I'll reveal more about me and why I think I'm qualified to write on this topic), here's a video that gets to the heart of where I'm going through this blog:
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