Fred

Lastly, I’m just glad to have found people who think the way I do.

All my best. PM

and thanks for dropping bye! Actually I do fully agree with your thoughts and ideas :-) Similar to you I don’t see DT as something that can be nailed down to ‘one’ universal definition or to be discussed in terms of ‘wrong/right’ as I’ve said in my posting … and yes the journey is the reward! What I’m sharing (and not teaching or preaching ;-) is my journey and I’m curious to see other journeys like yours. Hope to get back in touch soon!

Design Thinking is a concept that I stumbled upon recently and speaks to the way I’ve approached nearly everything — to the frustration of many around me.

I’m wondering though: Can Design Thinking be reduced to a heuristic? Or is it more dynamic, more fluid? Design thinking — while the business community demands a definition — is it more reasonable to see design thinking as a moving target?

From what I’ve learned, design thinking cannot be pinned down to a single methodology. Aye, but you’re the teacher and I’m the student. I would venture to say that DT is first and foremost personal and visceral. Do the ends provide the means? If the result is something that contains empathy…dare I say, shalom (not just peace, but also completeness)… then there’s something there to suggest that the means must provide the end?

That’s a ramble-full. Again, thanks for the post.

@ Paula: Thanks for your contribution and challenging thoughts! I’ve checked some of your postings over at: http://www.fastforwardblog.com/ and found your elaborations on Visual Thinking highly interesting! We should definitively stay in touch on this and exchange ideas in the future!

@ Jens: Thanks for dropping bye after all this time. Seems ages since we’ve been in touch! Actually you’re right, the posting is sort of ‘wild’ touching various things and issues, but I wouldn’t be still blogging if I would stick to my otherwise ‘German’ attitude of making things 100% polished and ready to be delivered (but to whom am I talking to, you expatriate ;-)

@ Mike: Thanks for the mental support, as always, Mike! Hope you’re also doing well now that your country seems to wake up from 8 years of … well I lack the right words … numbness?! Greetings to Iowa (where it all started :-)

Keep creating…classes worth taking,
Mike

a slightly wild but enthusiastic compendium of valuable quotes, links and ideas which only prove: zollverein may be dead - but thinking and teaching design thinking is ferociously alive.

plus: chaotic it still may be … but the plot is slowly thickening all over the place. - and ralf is still standing strong right in the middle of it all.

well done.

What we need is an open conversation to evolve the thought. For example, all fine for IDEO to support the concepts, but classic example in their earliest book is very ‘anti-design-thinking’. They did not reduce the problem before they attempted to solve it and missed the true innovation gap.

I’ve attempted in my own small way to start local conversations via Design Thinking 2007 conference (model/brand all open source). Good number of people attending didn’t understand the value or distinction of the conversation…they’re not strategic thinkers. They’re decorators, not designers.

Highest uptake on the concepts, business strategists/architects, physicists — I’d suggest those who understand also to be found in Intelligent Design (core principle, follow the truth wherever it leads) and Complexity. They’re both highly exploratory fields.

Natural overlap with Visual Thinking, especially of the variety engaged by Group Partners.