Other Tomorrows had the pleasure of being invited to lead a design workshop at the Harvard German American Conference, navigating a global audience of college students from a wide range of fields through tackling wicked problems with design. In an hour and a half the group was introduced to their wicked problems, how to focus an opportunity area, and ideating around a defined problem.
"Wicked problems can be mitigated through the process of design, which is an approach that emphasizes empathy, abductive reasoning, and rapid prototyping"
The participants were split into small groups organized around a single wicked problem (a complex, interconnected problem with no clear solution), ranging from finding justice in climate colonization to breaking our militarized nuclear world order. They were then lead through a series of strategic design activities aimed at getting them to think in novel ways and exposing them to as many parts of the design process as possible. For many participants, this was their first exposure to design thinking and this unique approach to a problem. The workshop provided them with a delicate balance between definitions and explanations, and time actively applying the concepts through a design exercise.
While often doing the design work ourselves, much of what we do also involves instilling a culture of design within an organization. For an audience with such different backgrounds and focuses, it was exciting to be able to do the same things—foster collaboration, nurture their creativity, and provide them tangible skills and tools to solve complex problems in the future—knowing they would then become agents of design processes in their own organizations.
We're always interested in helping organizations think differently, drop us a line if you're interested in hearing more about one of our workshops.
