Welcome back.
In our first module,
we focused on the why of design thinking,
how it differed from other approaches to decision-making,
and why it was particularly needed today,
in the complex systems and
the high uncertainty environment that social sector innovators operate in.
We discussed the four simple questions that design thinking asks;- what is,
what if, what wow's and what works.
And we looked at how it worked in action at the Kingwood Institute,
a nonprofit organization aimed at helping adults with autism lead fuller lives.
We also looked at one of design's most important tools, visualization.
Now in this module, we'll go deeper into the first of those four questions, what is.
We'll return to Kingwood trust to look in-depth
about how they involve their entire organization,
adults with autism, their families and staff to work together to answer it.
Following that, we'll visit a second organization who takes
quite a different approach to what is, travelling to Melbourne,
Australia to meet an extraordinary set
of clinical staff at the Monash University Medical Centre,
who are using Design Thinking to make
patient-centered care a reality and not just a slogan.
Along the way, you'll learn a few new tools that we hope you'll try at home.
You're also going to learn some patience.
In our four question methodology,
almost half of the project's duration can be spent laying
the foundation for innovative ideas well before we get around to generating them.
For those who've been taught that innovation starts with brainstorming,
this amount of time spent exploring the problem and
the current situation in what is can be tough to accept.
But the groundwork we lay in this exploration phase,
is the reason why creative ideas show up
when we're ready for them in the next phase in what if.
To better understand how this works in practice,
we'll look at the process in action.
So, let's get started.