Five TED talks on how to apply design thinking to your life and work
Design thinking is at the core of what we do here at Wildwon but have you ever wondered what it’s all about?
"Design thinking is a process for creative problem solving" says Coe Leta Stafford from IDEO, a global design company creating positive impact through design... They see design thinking as a human centred approach to innovation, born out of the desire for businesses and organisations to differentiate their offering and understand human needs and behaviour.
Design thinking is about empathising with the people you’re creating for, generating ideas based on those insights and experimenting with them to come up with innovative solutions.
Harvard graduate and author, Roger Martin, explains that it’s the only way forward for businesses and is the "next competitive advantage", to survive in our ever-changing world, where disruptive innovation is constantly changing industries and the way we live.
Being a complex concept, we’ve put together a list of our favourite TED talks on the topic which delve into how design thinking can be applied to everyday scenarios and how it can help you lead a more meaningful and focused life. We hope the talks inspire and ignite your interest in the wonderful world of design thinking.
Did you know that we waste on average four hours a week in unproductive meetings every week? Lisa Kay Solomon dives into how we waste our time every day whether it is on long meetings, useless meetings or meetings without clear objectives, but most importantly, how we lose opportunities and creative talent when wasting our time. How do we get more meaning of our time? How do we design our time? Lisa says: "It’s not about meeting management, but about designing meaningful conversations."
When was the last time you were bored? When was the last time you spent more than five minutes without looking at your screen (phone or other device type) and just observing? Genevieve Bell, Intel Fellow and Director of the Interaction and Experience Research Group within the Intel Labs, explores the nature of boredom and how it actually is a fundamental state of being a human being. We need boredom to be creative but in a world where mobile phones’ purpose is the sole promise that you’ll never be bored again, it’s hard to find a space to be bored and hence activate creativity.
Where do ideas come from? How can we unlock creativity? Dr Tina Seeling, a pioneer in engineering education and an expert in creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, shows that framing questions can limit answers and so, limit creativity. In this fascinating talk, Tina explains that to unlock creativity we need to work through what she calls ‘the innovation engine’ - a combination of factors that together unleash our inner potential to be our most creative self.
"Design thinking should be a team sport for innovation," says Robyn Richardson. Not your typical designer, Robyn is a passionate musician and a teacher who uses design thinking principles in education. After graduating from a Masters in Design, she began using design thinking and collaboration to foster dynamic teams and find creative solutions to problems. In this talk, Robyn explains why diverse teams are so important to problem solving and why we should make thinking a practice and ‘team sport’ to help enhance innovation.
Stefan Sagmeister’s art will leave you speechless. A graphic designer at heart, his clients have included the Rolling Stones and Lou Reed. His design is said to be ‘timeless’ and is a product of his attention to detail and passion for design. In this talk, he takes you on a journey of how design shapes your life and contributes to the way we design our own happiness.