Podcasts about design thinkers

In this episode, IAB CEO Gai Le Roy dives into the fascinating topic of shifts in consumer behaviours, exploring the current changes in the market and their implications for marketers. Joined by industry leaders Michael Levine, Head of Advertising Sales for Uber AUNZ, and Nicola Mansfield, Founder of The Design Thinkers, the discussion reveals insights into how marketers can not only adapt but thrive amid evolving consumer expectations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do you get when you survey 70 designers and challenge 10 of the leading minds in design? You get "Game Time," an entertaining and insightful exploration of design concepts and trends.Join host Doug Shapiro in the latest creation from Imagine a Place Productions – a unique game show that merges engaging discussions with exciting gameplay! In this innovative format, two teams, composed of some of the industry's leading minds, go head-to-head in a lively debate and competition. Watch as our participants use their knowledge and wit to compete, all while diving deep into the issues that shape our spaces and lives.Don't miss this blend of competition, discussion, and discovery. Tune in to see who comes out on top in the ultimate design showdown! Watch now! Featuring: Ronnie Belizaire, HKS Erika Moody, Helix Architecture + Design Mark Bryan, Future Today Institute Cheryl Durst, International Interior Design Association Bill Bouchey, Gensler Stacey Crumbaker, Mahlum Architects Inc. Mike Johnson II, Hickok Cole Joe Pettipas, ARCADIS Ana Pinto-Alexander, HKS Abby Scott, HDR Follow Doug on LinkedIn.Click here to get your copy of Doug's children's book—Design Your World.Follow Imagine a Place on LinkedIn.

Nicola Mansfield is the founder and chief thinker at The Design Thinkers, a brand and experience business change maker. Nicola's career commenced as a designer at global brand consultancy Wolff Olins, she has also been the Global Creative Director at natural skincare brand, Jurlique, Director of experience design and brand at Deloitte and Managing Director at Interbrand Australia. While marketing spends a lot of time and effort discussing the importance of brand and branding, the brand is still not finding a place on the balance sheets of the world's corporations. Nicola shares her perspective on brands, the role of brands in business growth, the impact of customer experience in defining brands and the importance of managing a strong brand for business growth. Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/managing-marketing/id1018735190  Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/75mJ4Gt6MWzFWvmd3A64XW?si=a3b63c66ab6e4934  Listen on Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zb3VuZGNsb3VkLmNvbS91c2Vycy9zb3VuZGNsb3VkOnVzZXJzOjE2MTQ0MjA2NC9zb3VuZHMucnNz  Listen on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/managing-marketing  Listen on Podbean: https://managingmarketing.podbean.com/  For more episodes of TrinityP3's Managing Marketing podcast, visit https://www.trinityp3.com/managing-marketing-podcasts/  Recorded on RiversideFM and edited, mixed and managed by JML Audio with thanks to Jared Lattouf.

The attitude towards work has seen a fundamental shift as of late, what with the pandemic accelerating the phenomenon known as the Great Resignation, and it feels as though this is the moment to take a good, hard look at your work environment. How can it be improved, and what tools are at our disposal? Rosemary Phan, co-founder of Design Thinkers' Academy Singapore, discusses using design thinking to redesign the workplace and rehumanise working.Image Credit: DesignThinkers Academy Singapore Facebook Page

Do you want to create an effective learning community? It may be a community of practice within your organisation or a sense of community in your workshop or training session. This episode is PACKED AND OVERFLOWING with practical tips on how to do this. Anamaria's mission is to 'create a space where Facilitators, Workshoppers, Trainers, Design Thinkers, Innovation and Strategy Consultants can team up, share best practices, tackle challenges collectively, learn and accelerate their careers together with like-minded people'. She does this exceptionally well (and extended love and appreciation to the others who enable this through the L&D Shakers community). In this episode, Anamaria answers 23 how might we questions to help you create an effective learning community. Some include, how might we: - enable a community of practice to sustain itself? - create a community that enables knowledge to be constructed, not acquired? - accommodate introverts and extraverts? - create a community that enables learners to tackle real issues with real consequences? - create a community that is self-directed? - establish effective ground rules? - and more... Thanks, Anamaria for being a huge inspiration, providing thought-provoking learning opportunities and for the support that you bring to L&D practitioners globally. You are appreciated to infinity and beyond.

Learn a new way of thinking for new types of solutions Have you ever really wanted to know how to think about a problem in a new way? Maybe you need to improve your company's communications and conversations. Or your employees' motivation and productivity. Perhaps a Design Thinker could help you step back and objectively observe what the problem is and how you could conceptualize different ways to resolve it. Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Lisa Perrine. We have known each other for quite some time, and I am endlessly amazed at what she brings to our audience. Please listen, learn and share! Watch and listen to our conversation here Using Design Thinking to solve workplace problems in new ways Lisa and her colleagues focus on the human elements of communication: the interplay between workplace culture and communication, how people experience media, and how individuals interact with technology. As an anthropologist, I am particularly interested in the ROI of Design Thinking, in part because Design Thinkers have embraced ethnographic research and bring different types of observational thinking into their designs, much like we do at SAMC in our work with clients. During my interview with Lisa, you will learn a great deal about: Media Synchronicity for Virtual Meetings Psychological Safety in Workplace Teams The ROI of Design Thinking About Lisa Perrine Lisa is an experience designer, communication strategist and CEO of Cibola Systems. She approaches her work with a mixture of curiosity, creativity and the expertise gained from completing over 1000 consulting engagements for clients such as Netflix Los Angeles and London, Pacific Life Insurance Headquarters, Providence St. Joseph Health Donor Experience Design, SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles and New York, Sony Music West Coast Headquarters, TikTok Studio and United Talent Agency Headquarters. In 2013 Lisa successfully defended her dissertation for her doctorate degree in Organizational Leadership from Pepperdine University. She also earned an MBA from Pepperdine and a bachelor's degree in design from California State University, Long Beach. An avid researcher and frequent presenter, Lisa leads courses and workshops on Experience Design, Scenario Planning and Virtual Team Communication. You can connect with Lisa on LinkedIn or her website LisaPerrine.com, or email her at lperrine@cibolasystems.com. Want to find solutions to your most pressing business problems? Start here.  Blog: Innovative Applications of Corporate Anthropology in Business Blog: Need To Change Your Organization's Culture? 6 Best Ways To Do It. Podcast: Maybe You Need Anthropology To See Yourself In New Ways Additional resources for you My best-selling new book: "Rethink: Smashing The Myths of Women in Business" My award-winning first book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" Simon Associates Management Consultants website  

Named “one of the most creative people in business” by Fast Company, and “one of the most influential designers working today” by Graphic Design USA, Debbie Millman is also an author, educator, curator and host of the podcast Design Matters. Debbie's podcast, Design Matters is one of the first and longest running podcasts, and as host and founder, Millman has interviewed nearly 500 of the most creative people in the world over the past 17 years. Design Matters won a 2011 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, in 2015 Apple designated it one of the best overall podcasts on iTunes, and in 2021 designated it one of their “All Time Favorite Podcasts.” In addition, the show has been nominated for six Webby Awards, and has been listed on over 100 “Best Podcasts” lists, including one of the best podcasts in the world by Business Insider and Vanity Fair. Debbie is the author of seven books, including two collections of interviews that have extended the ethos and editorial vision of Design Matters to the printed page: How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer and Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits. Both books have been published in over 10 languages. Her most recent book, Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People, will be published by Harper Collins in Fall 2021.  She is also the co-owner and Editorial Director of PrintMag.com. Debbie co-founded the world's first graduate program in branding at the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2010. Now in its eleventh year, the program has achieved international acclaim. The inaugural class wrote and designed the Rockport book Brand Bible: The Complete Guide to Building, Designing and Sustaining Brands, in 2013 the students created branding for the Museum of Modern Art's retail program, Destination: New York, the class of 2015 worked to reposition a Kappa Middle School in Harlem, the class of 2016 rebranded Mariska Hargitay's Joyful Heart Foundation, the class of 2017 worked with Kholsa Ventures, Performance Space New York and Chobani Incubators, and the class of 2018 worked with Brian Koppelman to design a logo for the television show Billions. The class of 2021, along with selected alumni, created the most recent design of the Sundance Institute Film Festival. For 20 years, Debbie was the President of Sterling Brands, one of the world's leading branding consultancies. She arrived in 1995 when the company was two years old and had 15 employees in one office. Under her leadership, Sterling grew to 150 employees in five offices and she was instrumental in the firm's acquisition by Omnicom in 2008. Omnicom is one of the world's largest holding companies. While there she worked on the logo and brand identity for Burger King, Hershey's, Haagen Dazs, Tropicana, Star Wars, Gillette, and the No More movement. Debbie's writing and illustrations have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Print Magazine, Baffler and Fast Company. She is the author of two books of illustrated essays: Look Both Ways and Self-Portrait As Your Traitor; the latter of which has been awarded a Gold Mobius, a Print Typography Award, and a medal from the Art Directors Club. Her artwork is included in the Boston Biennale, Chicago Design Museum, Anderson University, School of Visual Arts, Long Island University, The Wolfsonion Museum and the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art. She has been critic-in-residence at Cranbrook University, Old Dominion University and Notre Dame University, and has conducted visual storytelling workshops all over the world. Debbie is also President Emeritus of AIGA, one of five women to hold the position in the organization's 100-year history and was awarded a lifetime achievement award from AIGA in 2019. She is a frequent speaker on design and branding and has spoken at TED Women (her talk was one of the Top Ten most popular talks of 2020), moderated Design Yatra in India, presented keynote lectures at Rotman School of Management, Princeton University, Michigan Modern, the Hong Kong Design Association, the Melbourne Writers Festival, Design Thinkers in Toronto, the Festival of Art and Design in Barcelona, Webstock in New Zealand, QVED in Munich, ING in Dubai, ND2C in Pakistan, PS One in China, Web Summit in Lisbon and many more. She has been a juror for competitions including Cannes Lions, The Clio's, the One Club, the D&AD awards and many, many more. Debbie is currently working with Law & Order SVU actor and activist Mariska Hargitay's Joyful Heart Foundation to eradicate sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse and the rape-kit backlog. On this episode, Debbie shares her one way ticket to the few minutes before the “Big Bang”. She also talks podcasting, branding and her fabulous new book, Why Design Matters: Conversations With the World's Most Creative People. Debbie is just one of the engaging personalities featured on The One Way Ticket Show, where Host Steven Shalowitz explores with his guests where they would go if given a one way ticket, no coming back. Their destinations may be in the past, present, future, real, imaginary or a state of mind. Steven's guests have included: Nobel Peace Prize Winner, President Jose Ramos-Horta; Legendary Talk Show Host, Dick Cavett; Law Professor, Alan Dershowitz; Fashion Expert, Tim Gunn; Broadcast Legend, Charles Osgood; International Rescue Committee President & CEO, David Miliband; Former Senator, Joe Lieberman; Playwright, David Henry Hwang; Journalist-Humorist-Actor, Mo Rocca; SkyBridge Capital Founder & Co-Managing Partner, Anthony Scaramucci; Abercrombie & Kent Founder, Geoffrey Kent; Travel Expert, Pauline Frommer, as well as leading photographers, artists, chefs, writers, intellectuals and more.    

On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we sit down with New York Times bestselling author and founder of Moves The Needle, Brant Cooper. Brant and I talk about his upcoming book, Disruption Proof, and provide a sneak peek into our upcoming IO Live event on September 20. Let's get startedInside Outside Innovation is the podcast to help you rethink, reset, and remix yourself and your organization. Each week we'll bring you the latest innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneering businesses, as well as the tools, tactics, and trends you'll need as a new innovator.Interview Transcript with Brant Cooper, CEO of Moves The NeedleBrian Ardinger: [00:00:30] Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host, Brian Ardinger. And as always, we have another amazing guest. Today we have Brant Cooper. He's the founder of Moves The Needle, New York Times bestselling author of the Lean Entrepreneur, and author of an upcoming book, which I'm so excited to talk about called Disruption Proof: Empower People, Create Value and Drive Change. Welcome Brant. Brant Cooper: [00:01:07] Thanks Brian. Pleasure as always. Brian Ardinger: [00:01:10] I'm excited to have you back. As our audience knows you've been a part of the lean scene for a long time. You had a chance to speak at our IO2020 Summit. And we're going to do a little something different with this podcast episode, because we're having you back on September 29th for a live event. It's part of our IO Live series. Basically, we're going to have an hour to talk about the book and have audience questions and do a little bit more in depth stuff with you. So, I wanted to save this episode more as a preview to get folks excited about the book and excited about some of the things we're going to be talking about. So, with that, you got a new book out called Disruption Proof. Tell us how you got to the point of writing a new book and what's it all about? Brant Cooper: [00:01:50] Yeah. So, I guess it's been in the works for a couple of years, actually. It seems like so pandemic ready, but that was maybe just fortuitous that I was already embarking on it. And then of course the pandemic itself hit and business kind of dried up. So that gave you the opportunity to really crank it out. You know, over the last seven, eight years taking some of that lean stuff into the large enterprise. And it's just, that was an interesting journey in the sense that, you know, all of this lean startup, lean innovation stuff really started in Silicon Valley startups.I mean, honestly it preceeded all of that, but you know, us tech startup people like to feel like we've invented everything. There was a movement. Right. And so, starting in startups and then we bring it into the big companies. And inevitably we start with the innovation groups. As I'm trying to work through the change that is required inside of these companies, I really realized that there's uncertainty everywhere inside the enterprise.There's something happening here, way bigger. And this is perhaps obvious to a lot more people. It takes me awhile. I think really this fundamental shift from the industrial age and management practices and even management organization, that's based around the industrial, really this level of complexity and endless disruption that is in the digital age, leads to this uncertainty.And we continue to try to tackle the uncertainty the way we did in the industrial age. And it just creates more angst, and it creates more doubt and people just really wondering what the heck is going on. Then the pandemic hits. And I think we blame all of that angst and anxiety on the pandemic. And now people are like, ah, man, I can't wait to get back to the old normal. And yet the old normal was still filled with that uncertainty. And so that's really what the book ended up addressing. So again, I didn't start out with writing, you know, sort of this post pandemic book, but because I was writing it right in the middle of all of this, there really ends up being these pandemic…and how do you respond to it? And what does this mean in that bigger picture that ends up being what the book is about? Brian Ardinger: [00:04:05] It's interesting because I think, you and I have I've been talking about disruption forever. And innovation groups have been talking about it and trying to figure out how to do this. And the pandemic really seems to have taken that theory and made it real for most people.I mean, everybody on the planet to some extent has been disrupted by various means of, of what happened during the last 18 months. And it really, I think has brought out the conversation where it's no longer theory we're talking about. It's like, yeah, I get it. But now I really get it. But I still don't know what to do about it.So, you know, I've seen a proof of your book in that you really capture it and talk about the five elements of what you need to be doing to embrace this new world of work. So maybe talk through a little bit about that and some of the things you found out. Brant Cooper: [00:04:48] Yeah. So, to me, the key is to all of this, is that it's not really the technology, even though we're in a digital revolution and we're doing digital transformation and we're working in innovation. It just really isn't about the technology because there's not that much uncertainty around the technology.It's really about the mindset and the way we have to change our thinking and our behavior relative to this massive change in technology. And so, I described the behavior change that we need based upon these five elements. And so, empathy, exploration, which is basically admitting what we don't know. And so going out and learning. Leveraging evidence, so data plus insights to help us inform decisions. We don't want just algorithms and AI deciding for us, but certainly what we go and figure out needs to inform our decision. This concept of equilibrium, which is building a balance between the execution, everything that we know we have to get done, and this exploration work, meaning that we have to go and learn something first. That's a continuum throughout the organization. Even your core business needs to do some amount of exploration. It's not this bifurcation of one side of the house is execution. And one side is exploration. I think that's industrial age innovation thinking. And then the final one is ethics. And with all of the data problems that we have, and with livable wages and all of these other things that have really come to the fore, it's really incumbent upon businesses to figure out how they live up to their own values that they establish and that they broadcast.And again, that ends up being something that we have to drive down into the human behavior. And so rather than some of the big management theories on how you do change, which is very top down. I wanted to describe the behaviors of what people actually have to do day in, day out inside of their jobs. And it really is a ground up initiative.It requires obviously leaders to buy in and go, yes, we're going to change. It's kind of a pincer move, but you have to start with developing that behavior on the ground. And I guess the one other point I would make about it is the reason why I'm somewhat optimistic about that is this behavior already exists, right?The people that are subscribing to your podcast and that read your stuff, Brian, Design Thinkers, and Agile people, and Lean Startup people and entrepreneurs, people that are doing side gigs, these are people that already have this mindset. And so, what we have to take is not put them all in this silo, but rather get them to be the leaders of tomorrow, bringing this diverse mindset, this exploration skillset to the rest of the business. Brian Ardinger: [00:07:32] All the stuff you talked about, it's just so messy. And I think everybody's still looking for that silver bullet. Like if you do this, this, and this follow this particular path, you will have success. And Lean Startup was never meant to be the perfect path. Even if you follow lean startup 100 percent, you're still not guaranteed a successful product, service, whatever you're trying to create. It's that journey. You have to put on those exploration hats or backpack or whatever. I talk about going into a cave. The only way you can get out of the cave is you got to stumble around and figure it out. And the challenge is we don't reward that stumbling around. We don't provide the tool sets or the skillsets for folks that are not inherently like the entrepreneur that kind of has that built into their ecosystem. So, what can an average Joe hearing about this, understanding theoretically, like they need to do this. Are there tactics or things that you've seen that help start building that muscle? Brant Cooper: [00:08:26] There's a couple of things in there that come to mind. Number one is go find the like-minded people. Go find the people that maybe already exist inside of every big business. So go find them. And it could be just doing an innovation mindset happy hour once a week or every other week. But it's something that you want to try to spread throughout the organization, because these are your early adopters. And what you find is that there are leaders that actually belong to that group. And suddenly you make, you have these areas where you can start running experiments even with budget or even with permission. So, number one is finding like-minded people. Number two is to not wait for permission. To go and run experiments and come up with data. And then when you actually are seeking permission or advice or input. You're actually bringing evidence to the table and not just ideas. And I really do believe that ideas are a dime a dozen. Every big organization I've worked with has no problem with ideas. And I think leadership and middle management and all the rest go, yeah, we really need to empower the ideas of people. It's just not taking it far enough. If you've got thousands of ideas, literally it's how do you choose those ideas? The people on the ground need to themselves, not just go ask for stuff. They need to be able to provide evidence for what they're asking for. And I think that that added layer is actually going to start changing the conversation.And then the third thing that I really encourage people to do is to try to go and get empathy for their leadership. And so, it's kind of a funny concept because we often in that hierarchical command and control structure, are either afraid to do that, or don't think that we're even allowed to do that.And it doesn't mean that we are to whatever the whims are of the leaders. There's a selfish aspect of developing empathy in the sense that the more I understand my bosses, the more I understand how I'm going to get what I think that I need. Right. So, you're learning just as if they were a customer. You're learning how to navigate your relationship with the leader in order to get what you think is the right thing for yourself, your team, and your company. For More InformationBrian Ardinger: [00:10:45] Yeah. Oftentimes it is a balance. You still have to hit those quarterly numbers and still do what you're designed to execute on and optimize but knowing full well that if you do that and only that you're not going to get to where you need to be or not create the next future, whatever ends up on it.Again, we can go and talk for hours and we're going to do that here in the coming months. So, I encourage people to go to Insideoutside.IO. We'll have information posted there about signing up for the IO Live event here with Brant Cooper and in the interim, if people want to get a little sneak preview, find out more about yourself, more about the book, what's the best way to do that?Brant Cooper: [00:11:20] Yeah. So, I'm brant@brantcooper.com. Brant Cooper on all the social media. And I really encourage people to reach out. I respond to everyone. The website is Brantcooper.com right now. And people can pre-order the book as well as get some other goodies and we'll be sharing a content from the book in the coming months. As we prepare to join you on your show. Reach out, say hello and join the conversation. Really. I think that one of the things that you said, Brian, is that there isn't a formula. I mean, there's actually not one way out of that cave. And that's what complexity is right. Is that there's no best practices. And so, all of these different variables that people face based upon their businesses and based upon the history and based upon the people that are inside that business, everybody's going to have to figure out their way out of the cave, but there are some fundamentals.And also, what we want to do is try to create community around what works. We can share, what works and what doesn't work and those types of things. So, all of these people can start figuring it out, what works in their organization. Brian Ardinger: [00:12:21] Excellent. Well, Brant I'm excited for this conversation. Thanks for being a part of it. I look forward to having, again, a more in-depth conversation with the audience and encourage people to come out for that. Participate in that. And we look forward to talking in about a month or so. Thanks again for coming on. We'll talk to you soon. Brant Cooper: [00:12:35] Thank you, Brian. Great to catch up, man.Brian Ardinger: That's it for another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. If you want to learn more about our team, our content, our services, check out InsideOutside.io or follow us on Twitter @theIOpodcast or @Ardinger. Until next time, go out and innovate.FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER & TOOLSGet the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HEREYou can also search every Inside Outside Innovation Podcast by Topic and Company.  For more innovations resources, check out IO's Innovation Article Database, Innovation Tools Database, Innovation Book Database, and Innovation Video Database.  

On this week's episode of Inside Outside Innovation, we sit down with New York Times bestselling author and founder of Moves The Needle, Brant Cooper. Brant and I talk about his upcoming book, Disruption Proof, and provide a sneak peek into our upcoming IO Live event on September 20. Let's get startedInside Outside Innovation is the podcast to help you rethink, reset, and remix yourself and your organization. Each week we'll bring you the latest innovators, entrepreneurs, and pioneering businesses, as well as the tools, tactics, and trends you'll need as a new innovator.Interview Transcript with Brant Cooper, CEO of Moves The NeedleBrian Ardinger: [00:00:30] Welcome to another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. I'm your host, Brian Ardinger. And as always, we have another amazing guest. Today we have Brant Cooper. He's the founder of Moves The Needle, New York Times bestselling author of the Lean Entrepreneur, and author of an upcoming book, which I'm so excited to talk about called Disruption Proof: Empower People, Create Value and Drive Change. Welcome Brant. Brant Cooper: [00:01:07] Thanks Brian. Pleasure as always. Brian Ardinger: [00:01:10] I'm excited to have you back. As our audience knows you've been a part of the lean scene for a long time. You had a chance to speak at our IO2020 Summit. And we're going to do a little something different with this podcast episode, because we're having you back on September 29th for a live event. It's part of our IO Live series. Basically, we're going to have an hour to talk about the book and have audience questions and do a little bit more in depth stuff with you. So, I wanted to save this episode more as a preview to get folks excited about the book and excited about some of the things we're going to be talking about. So, with that, you got a new book out called Disruption Proof. Tell us how you got to the point of writing a new book and what's it all about? Brant Cooper: [00:01:50] Yeah. So, I guess it's been in the works for a couple of years, actually. It seems like so pandemic ready, but that was maybe just fortuitous that I was already embarking on it. And then of course the pandemic itself hit and business kind of dried up. So that gave you the opportunity to really crank it out. You know, over the last seven, eight years taking some of that lean stuff into the large enterprise. And it's just, that was an interesting journey in the sense that, you know, all of this lean startup, lean innovation stuff really started in Silicon Valley startups.I mean, honestly it preceeded all of that, but you know, us tech startup people like to feel like we've invented everything. There was a movement. Right. And so, starting in startups and then we bring it into the big companies. And inevitably we start with the innovation groups. As I'm trying to work through the change that is required inside of these companies, I really realized that there's uncertainty everywhere inside the enterprise.There's something happening here, way bigger. And this is perhaps obvious to a lot more people. It takes me awhile. I think really this fundamental shift from the industrial age and management practices and even management organization, that's based around the industrial, really this level of complexity and endless disruption that is in the digital age, leads to this uncertainty.And we continue to try to tackle the uncertainty the way we did in the industrial age. And it just creates more angst, and it creates more doubt and people just really wondering what the heck is going on. Then the pandemic hits. And I think we blame all of that angst and anxiety on the pandemic. And now people are like, ah, man, I can't wait to get back to the old normal. And yet the old normal was still filled with that uncertainty. And so that's really what the book ended up addressing. So again, I didn't start out with writing, you know, sort of this post pandemic book, but because I was writing it right in the middle of all of this, there really ends up being these pandemic…and how do you respond to it? And what does this mean in that bigger picture that ends up being what the book is about? Brian Ardinger: [00:04:05] It's interesting because I think, you and I have I've been talking about disruption forever. And innovation groups have been talking about it and trying to figure out how to do this. And the pandemic really seems to have taken that theory and made it real for most people.I mean, everybody on the planet to some extent has been disrupted by various means of, of what happened during the last 18 months. And it really, I think has brought out the conversation where it's no longer theory we're talking about. It's like, yeah, I get it. But now I really get it. But I still don't know what to do about it.So, you know, I've seen a proof of your book in that you really capture it and talk about the five elements of what you need to be doing to embrace this new world of work. So maybe talk through a little bit about that and some of the things you found out. Brant Cooper: [00:04:48] Yeah. So, to me, the key is to all of this, is that it's not really the technology, even though we're in a digital revolution and we're doing digital transformation and we're working in innovation. It just really isn't about the technology because there's not that much uncertainty around the technology.It's really about the mindset and the way we have to change our thinking and our behavior relative to this massive change in technology. And so, I described the behavior change that we need based upon these five elements. And so, empathy, exploration, which is basically admitting what we don't know. And so going out and learning. Leveraging evidence, so data plus insights to help us inform decisions. We don't want just algorithms and AI deciding for us, but certainly what we go and figure out needs to inform our decision. This concept of equilibrium, which is building a balance between the execution, everything that we know we have to get done, and this exploration work, meaning that we have to go and learn something first. That's a continuum throughout the organization. Even your core business needs to do some amount of exploration. It's not this bifurcation of one side of the house is execution. And one side is exploration. I think that's industrial age innovation thinking. And then the final one is ethics. And with all of the data problems that we have, and with livable wages and all of these other things that have really come to the fore, it's really incumbent upon businesses to figure out how they live up to their own values that they establish and that they broadcast.And again, that ends up being something that we have to drive down into the human behavior. And so rather than some of the big management theories on how you do change, which is very top down. I wanted to describe the behaviors of what people actually have to do day in, day out inside of their jobs. And it really is a ground up initiative.It requires obviously leaders to buy in and go, yes, we're going to change. It's kind of a pincer move, but you have to start with developing that behavior on the ground. And I guess the one other point I would make about it is the reason why I'm somewhat optimistic about that is this behavior already exists, right?The people that are subscribing to your podcast and that read your stuff, Brian, Design Thinkers, and Agile people, and Lean Startup people and entrepreneurs, people that are doing side gigs, these are people that already have this mindset. And so, what we have to take is not put them all in this silo, but rather get them to be the leaders of tomorrow, bringing this diverse mindset, this exploration skillset to the rest of the business. Brian Ardinger: [00:07:32] All the stuff you talked about, it's just so messy. And I think everybody's still looking for that silver bullet. Like if you do this, this, and this follow this particular path, you will have success. And Lean Startup was never meant to be the perfect path. Even if you follow lean startup 100 percent, you're still not guaranteed a successful product, service, whatever you're trying to create. It's that journey. You have to put on those exploration hats or backpack or whatever. I talk about going into a cave. The only way you can get out of the cave is you got to stumble around and figure it out. And the challenge is we don't reward that stumbling around. We don't provide the tool sets or the skillsets for folks that are not inherently like the entrepreneur that kind of has that built into their ecosystem. So, what can an average Joe hearing about this, understanding theoretically, like they need to do this. Are there tactics or things that you've seen that help start building that muscle? Brant Cooper: [00:08:26] There's a couple of things in there that come to mind. Number one is go find the like-minded people. Go find the people that maybe already exist inside of every big business. So go find them. And it could be just doing an innovation mindset happy hour once a week or every other week. But it's something that you want to try to spread throughout the organization, because these are your early adopters. And what you find is that there are leaders that actually belong to that group. And suddenly you make, you have these areas where you can start running experiments even with budget or even with permission. So, number one is finding like-minded people. Number two is to not wait for permission. To go and run experiments and come up with data. And then when you actually are seeking permission or advice or input. You're actually bringing evidence to the table and not just ideas. And I really do believe that ideas are a dime a dozen. Every big organization I've worked with has no problem with ideas. And I think leadership and middle management and all the rest go, yeah, we really need to empower the ideas of people. It's just not taking it far enough. If you've got thousands of ideas, literally it's how do you choose those ideas? The people on the ground need to themselves, not just go ask for stuff. They need to be able to provide evidence for what they're asking for. And I think that that added layer is actually going to start changing the conversation.And then the third thing that I really encourage people to do is to try to go and get empathy for their leadership. And so, it's kind of a funny concept because we often in that hierarchical command and control structure, are either afraid to do that, or don't think that we're even allowed to do that.And it doesn't mean that we are to whatever the whims are of the leaders. There's a selfish aspect of developing empathy in the sense that the more I understand my bosses, the more I understand how I'm going to get what I think that I need. Right. So, you're learning just as if they were a customer. You're learning how to navigate your relationship with the leader in order to get what you think is the right thing for yourself, your team, and your company. For More InformationBrian Ardinger: [00:10:45] Yeah. Oftentimes it is a balance. You still have to hit those quarterly numbers and still do what you're designed to execute on and optimize but knowing full well that if you do that and only that you're not going to get to where you need to be or not create the next future, whatever ends up on it.Again, we can go and talk for hours and we're going to do that here in the coming months. So, I encourage people to go to Insideoutside.IO. We'll have information posted there about signing up for the IO Live event here with Brant Cooper and in the interim, if people want to get a little sneak preview, find out more about yourself, more about the book, what's the best way to do that?Brant Cooper: [00:11:20] Yeah. So, I'm brant@brantcooper.com. Brant Cooper on all the social media. And I really encourage people to reach out. I respond to everyone. The website is Brantcooper.com right now. And people can pre-order the book as well as get some other goodies and we'll be sharing a content from the book in the coming months. As we prepare to join you on your show. Reach out, say hello and join the conversation. Really. I think that one of the things that you said, Brian, is that there isn't a formula. I mean, there's actually not one way out of that cave. And that's what complexity is right. Is that there's no best practices. And so, all of these different variables that people face based upon their businesses and based upon the history and based upon the people that are inside that business, everybody's going to have to figure out their way out of the cave, but there are some fundamentals.And also, what we want to do is try to create community around what works. We can share, what works and what doesn't work and those types of things. So, all of these people can start figuring it out, what works in their organization. Brian Ardinger: [00:12:21] Excellent. Well, Brant I'm excited for this conversation. Thanks for being a part of it. I look forward to having, again, a more in-depth conversation with the audience and encourage people to come out for that. Participate in that. And we look forward to talking in about a month or so. Thanks again for coming on. We'll talk to you soon. Brant Cooper: [00:12:35] Thank you, Brian. Great to catch up, man.Brian Ardinger: That's it for another episode of Inside Outside Innovation. If you want to learn more about our team, our content, our services, check out InsideOutside.io or follow us on Twitter @theIOpodcast or @Ardinger. Until next time, go out and innovate.FREE INNOVATION NEWSLETTER & TOOLSGet the latest episodes of the Inside Outside Innovation podcast, in addition to thought leadership in the form of blogs, innovation resources, videos, and invitations to exclusive events. SUBSCRIBE HEREYou can also search every Inside Outside Innovation Podcast by Topic and Company.  For more innovations resources, check out IO's Innovation Article Database, Innovation Tools Database, Innovation Book Database, and Innovation Video Database.  

In this episode we speak with Yvonne Carlson the founder of Design Thinkers LLC. She shares a wealth of practical knowledge ranging from how ministries can use design thinking to pinpoint problems and develop solutions, to why every team needs a data advocate if you want to scale. Guest Speaker Yvonne Carlson https://designthinkers.llc/ (DesignThinkers.online) https://www.linkedin.com/in/ycarlson/ (Connect with Yvonne on LinkedIn)

On today’s episode of Board Gaming with Education, Dustin sits down with Nick Metzler, a game designer at Spin Master and past winner of Chicago’s Toy and Game Week’s Young Inventor Challenge. The two discuss contextual learning and strategies for gamifying a classroom to effectively motivate young learners. We learn about Nick’s journey as a contestant in the Young Inventor’s Challenge and how it opened up his career and pushed him into the professional sphere of the game and toy industry. We also get insight on Nick’s day to day activities as a full-time game designer and learn about some of the games he developed. Episode Topics and Interviews Board Gaming with Education Updates- GBL Course 00:53 Who is Nick Metzler? - 1:49 Learning through Gaming: Contextual Learning and Gamification - 4:24 From Hobby to Career - 7:48 Gamification in the Classroom - 13:02 "That's Cheating" and "Squashed" - 19:54 Game Design Full-Time - 22:34 Last Words of Advice: Growing Design Thinkers - 25:21 Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down Rapid Fire Round - 31:19 How can you support us? There are many free and paid ways to support the show. Be sure to check out our support page!  Support our podcast! Thank you to Purple Planet Music for the wonderful contribution of their song "Retro Gamer" for our Interview Segment. This song can be found in full on this music archive. Also, thank you to Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for his creative commons 4.0 contribution of "Getting it Done" for our Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down Rapid Fire Round. Thank you to Dallas Welk, the editor of this episode! Always be sure to check out our show notes (website blog post) to read a recap of the episode topics and games mentioned in the episode. https://www.boardgamingwitheducation.com/nick-metzler

Are you a Pixel Pusher or a Design Thinker? Do you exude confidence when dealing with your design clients? If you answered no, you could be losing out on valuable business. Designers usually fall into one of two categories: PixelPushers, and Design Thinkers. Pixel Pushers rely mostly on instructions to do their job. A client or art director tells them precisely what they need, and the designer uses his or her skills to create it. Pixel Pushers can be amazing designers. Capable of turning those simple or vague instructions into something beautiful. However, Pixel Pushers tend not to exercise their creative powers as much, since they let other people do the conceptual thinking for them. Design Thinkers, on the other hand, not only know how to use the tools at their disposal to create stunning designs, but they also have the skills to imagine and conceptualize those designs from scratch. They think up vague ideas, the smallest of thoughts and massage and expand on them until they turn it into something amazing. Now, of course, I am harsh with these distinctions. There is no hard line separating Pixel Pushers and Design Thinkers. Pixel Pushers do require design thinking skills to turn someone else’s ideas into reality, just as Design Thinkers need the technical expertise to turn their own ideas into reality. In fact, in most cases. Design Thinkers started their careers as Pixel Pushers. Following the instructions of someone more experienced than them. Think of your path. Were you ever a junior designer? Did you ever follow the instructions of a more senior designer? That’s how I started. The print shop hired me straight out of college, and without any experience working with real clients, I relied upon the other, more knowledgable designers around me for guidance. It’s how most of us start and grow as designers. Some designers are content with that life, content with the limited creative freedom they have, as they design things based on someone else’s ideas. There’s nothing wrong with that. I know several designers who enjoy what they do, while recognizing the pressure of the design concept, dealing with the clients, the success or failure of a design campaign, is all on someone else’s shoulders. But for people like you and me, being a Pixel Pusher isn’t fulfilling enough. We want more. We want to deal directly with the clients. We want to come up with the design ideas ourselves. We want to manipulate those pixels and bring the images from our head to life. We want to revel at the successful campaigns we design for our clients and learn from the failed ones because that’s what makes us better designers. But how do you go from being a Pixel Pusher to a Design Thinker? One word, confidence. Confidence in your skills. Confidence in your knowledge. And confidence in your ability to do what it is you do, without the need for instructions from anyone else. You’re probably reading this because you either run your own part-time or full-time design business or you’re dreaming of one day starting one. So chances are, you fall into the Design Thinker category. Congratulations, and welcome to the club. But, just how much confidence do you have? There’s a wide range of Design Thinkers, and where you stand among them is mostly determined by your confidence level. That’s why you see some self-employed graphic and web designers who are struggling and barely getting by, while others are hugely successful. It’s not their design skills that separate them. It’s their confidence level. Their confidence when they deal with clients. Their confidence in their abilities. Their confidence in what they charge. All of this adds up to greater success. Think about it. How much confidence would you have in a lawyer who tells you they’re not sure about your case? How about a surgeon who says they’ve seen the procedure they’re about to perform on you many times, but have never done it themselves? What about an auto mechanic who says, “sure, I’ll have a look at your car, but I have no idea what I’m looking for?” Your trust in them would be very low, giving you second thoughts about proceeding with them. Now imagine your interactions with your design clients. From the client’s perspective, how are you coming off? Are you exuding enough confidence for them to know you’re the right person for their project? If you quote with confidence, clients are more likely to accept your price and hire you. If you present your project proposal with confidence, clients are more likely to trust your instincts. If you submit your design concepts with confidence, clients are more likely to agree with your ideas. So, how do you exude confidence? Here are my thoughts combined with a few ideas I read on articles about confidence in business from entrepreneur.comand wisdomtimes.com. Stop waiting to feel confident. Confidence is a state of mind that grows the more you practice. You don’t have to feel fully confident before starting anything. Start small and expand on it. Begin by “acting confident,” even though you don’t feel it. The more you practice this, the more your mind will shift, and soon you’ll stop acting and actually start to feel confident. Keep in mind that a little fear and nervousness are healthy. Even the most confident people still experience these emotions. Don’t let them stop you from feeling confident. Focus on the benefits to your clients. A great way to grow your confidence is by focusing on the benefits you bring to your clients. Concentrate more on how your work will help your client and less on how you’re going to accomplish that work. If you show confidence and make it clear what the client is getting by working with you, you’re halfway to getting them to agree with you. Be direct. Tell your clients exactly how it is and how it’s going to be. This is your price. This is my proposal. Here are my designs. Clients will appreciate your directness and see you as a professional. Learn to accept rejection. If you want to be confident, you need to be able to accept NO as an answer and move on. Every time someone says no to you, think of it as one step closer to getting a yes response. If you confidently give a quote and the client rejects it, move on. If need be, use what you learned and adjust your price on the next similar project to quote. Package yourself for success. To show confidence, you should look the part. Dress well for the client. Wear formal attire for corporate business clients and something clean, casual and yet still professional for more relaxed clients. Correct your posture. Your posture is a clear indication of your confidence level. If you’re slouching, you come off as insecure, lazy or disinterested. The straiter you sit or stand, without looking stiff, the more confidence you’ll exude. Do your best, and worry less. Stop worrying about what others think of you. If you doubt yourself, people will sense it. Focus on the things you do well and learn and grow from your mistakes. If there are things you don’t do well, hire someone else to do them for you. Focus on your future. Gain confidence by focusing on your Vision Statement.Your business’ Vision Statement will help guide you towards your long term goals and give you confidence in your decision making. It will help you refocus on what is the most important moves for you and your business. Proceed with confidence with anything that enables you to reach that destination. Embrace positivity. The more positive you are, the more confidence you’ll exude. When dealing with clients, look for the positive aspects in their criticism. Focus and expand on what they liked about your design, and put aside and forget the things they didn’t like. Let go of small mistakes. Nobody is perfect; we all make mistakes. Don’t dwell on small errors. Don’t obsess over what you did wrong, Instead, take responsibility, apologize if you need to, fix the mistake if you can and move on. Practice and continue to grow and improve. The more you know, the more your skills improve, the more confident you’ll be. Confidence is like a muscle; it gets stronger the more you use it. So keep practicing it in your day to day life. Try acting more confident with family and friends and everyone you deal with on a day to day basis. You’ll soon see a positive change in the way they react to you. Invest in yourself and your business will grow. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice. One of the best ways to show confidence is by admitting you don’t know something. Let your client know with confidence that what they’re asking is beyond your abilities, but you’ll find someone with the required skills for their project. Conclusion. If you want to be a highly successful design business owner and not a struggling artist, you need to show confidence in all your business dealings. The more confident you are, the more money you can charge. The more confident you are, the more focus and dedication you’ll put into your work. The more confident you are, the more your clients will trust and enjoy working with you. The more confident you are, the more your clients will refer you to others. The more confident you are, the less stressed you’ll be while running your design business. So go out there and be confident in everything you do. How confident are you in your business? Let me know by leaving a comment for this episode. Resource of the week SiteGround SiteGround, in my opinion, is one of the best website hosting companies out there. I have several of my own as well as clients' websites at SiteGround. They offer easy 1-clickWordPress installation and allow multiple domains and websites on one hosting package. And if you are already hosting your site elsewhere you can take advantage of their free migration tool to have your site moved from your old host to SiteGround.

A quick update, and an extension of our focus, to ask How Might We as 'design thinkers'  help?Support the show (https://weareten.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=4ed5154e0f1cdbad62b378156&id=dc1a8d24c1)

Are the skills we need to thrive in a rapidly changing world ones that we have had all along? Is it that we need to learn new skills or do we need to unlearn old ones? In this episode with Duncan Wardle, former VP of Creativity and Innovation at Disney and international speaker on design thinking, shares the four skills he believes you already have that a machine cannot replace - creativity, intuition, curiosity and imagination. We discuss what design thinking is and how it can help you enhance and strengthen these four key skills that you’ll need to thrive in this upcoming decade and beyond. We’d love to hear your thoughts and questions about the episode, reach out to us or take a screenshot and tag us in a post online. To connect with Duncan Website: https://duncanwardle.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duncanwardle/ To connect with Me, Sabba Website: https://www.askmsq.com  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/askmsq  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabba-quidwai  To listen on Sabba's website: https://askmsq.com/blog-home/duncan-wardle-we-were-all-born-design-thinkers

Questions need silence. Great questions are provocative. Great questions defy easy answers. Answering them takes time - they can be the work of a lifetime or a workshop. A great question can guide an organization, a Design Sprint or an educational program. Great Facilitators ask great questions - on purpose.   In this episode I sit down with the effortlessly scintillating Nancy McGaw, Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program (Aspen BSP). Nancy also leads corporate programs designed to cultivate leaders and achieve Aspen BSP's mission of aligning business with the long-term health of society.   In 2009 she founded (and still directs) the First Movers Fellowship Program, an innovation lab for exceptional business professionals who have demonstrated an ability and passion for imagining new products, services, and management practices that achieve profitable business growth and lasting, positive social impacts.   I would suggest you listen to this episode at 1X speed if for no other reason than it's good to slow down sometimes - it's a point that Nancy makes early on in our conversation.   Nancy and I meditate on the power of questions: Asking instead of telling lights people up and will surprise you, the asker, if you design your questions with care.    Nancy shares three of her favorite questions.   Tell me about a time when you were working at your best…? What would have to be true…? Why do you do the work you do?   Starting with Stories The first question shows the power of Starting with stories. Any user experience researchers or Design Thinkers listening will know this to be true - if you're talking to a customer or a client, the best way to get rich and detailed information is to ask a “tell me about a time when…” question. Stories light up our brains in ways facts cannot, and starting our gatherings with a story is a luxurious and powerful way to generate energy and connectedness.   Appreciative Inquiry   This first question also connects to one of the most important ideas in this episode - even though it's mentioned only briefly: Asking with focus on the positive and the functional over the negative and dysfunctional. Appreciative Inquiry is a rich body of work and a unique approach to change.   The Art of Possibility Nancy's second question is an excellent act of conversational Judo. Asking “What would have to be true…” can transform conflict into collaboration...or at least, honest inquiry. Asking this question can allow skeptics to dream a little and open the door into possibility.   That question came out of another question, from Michael Robertson, who attended the recent cohort of my 12 week Innovation Leadership Accelerator. He wanted to know if an “us vs them” mentality is ever appropriate when trying to lead deeply important change. Nancy's answer is profoundly empathetic. As a side note, the next cohort of the ILA is in February - we're accepting applications through January. If you want to dive more deeply into your own personal leadership, head over to ILAprogram.com to learn more and apply.   Why over what I love the idea of asking people “Why do you do what you do?” without even knowing what they do. This question also points to understanding people's history, which is one of the key components to change - how did we get to now? What was the arc of the story? Nancy has added some amazing books to my reading list - check out the show notes for links to them all and enjoy the episode! Nancy at the Aspen Institute   Business and Society Program   First Movers Fellowship Program   Edgar Schein's Humble Inquiry   The Four Quadrants of Conversational Leadership   Appreciative Inquiry   John McPhee's Draft No. 4    The Four Truths of Storytelling    Carmine Gallo's Storytelling Secrets   Rosamund and Ben Zander's Art of Possibility   Leading change with and without a Burning Platform   Hal Gregersen's Questions are the Answer   Elise Foster's The Multiplier Effect   Full Transcription at https://theconversationfactory.com/podcast/2019/12/24/leading-through-asking  

What's this about then? Where did it come from and who's it for? This short episode explains the history of Designer Psychology and the transition from ¡Design Thinkers! Sorry for a rather self-indulgent opener, but it gave me the chance to practice getting the audio sounding sharp before we really get going.

This episode of First Things First was recorded live on stage at Design Thinkers in Toronto with Bonnie Sielger about her book, Dear Client. Siegler was voted one of the 50 most influential designers working today by GDUSA. Her career spans a wide range of influential clients and projects like the Trump parody autobiography You Can’t Spell America Without Me. Other recent clients of her design studio, Eight and a Half, include The New Yorker, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. In this episode we talk about the good and the bad when it comes to working as a designer with clients.   First Things First is produced as part of Frontier Media. Learn more at www.frontier.is   Host: Paddy Harrington Producer and Editor: Max Cotter   Frontier’s sponsor music is an edited version of “sketch (rum-portrait)” by Jahzzar from the album “Sketches.” The original can be found at http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/Sketches/sketch_rum-portrait_1585 This episode features an edited version of “get out” by Jahzzar from the album “Sketches.” The original can be found at http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jahzzar/Sketches/get_out_1716 This episode features an edited version of “Humble Pie” by Podington Bear from the album “Uplifting.” The original can be found at http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Uplifting/Humble_Pie This episode features an edited version of “Everybody” by Podington Bear from the album “Carefree.” The original can be found at http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Carefree/Everybody This episode features an edited version of “Only Knows” by Broke For Free from the album “Layers.” The original can be found at http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Layers/Only_Knows

On this episode, we speak with a Dani Chesson who is a Business Transformation Consultant with Chesson Consulting in New Zealand.  Dani shares her journey from New York to New Zealand with a few stops in between and shares her excitement for helping businesses to not only becoming more profitable but also more rewarding.  Dani’s work and passion are in building the capabilities needed for change!BiographyDani Chesson, Ph.D.With a unique blend of design, business, and organizations development skills, Dr. Dani Chesson’s helps companies tackle complex challenges to reach their full potential. Dani is the creator of Chesson’s DESIGN THINKER PROFILE, Dani takes a Design Thinking approach to creating innovative yet pragmatic solutions to complex business challenges.Throughout her career, Dani has taken a design perspective to help organizations create new products and services, adopt emerging technologies, and successfully implement large-scale transformational change. Prior to starting Chesson Consulting, Dani was a former Vice President at Bank of America where she led global teams in operationalizing innovation, managing change, and responding to regulatory requirements. She has also held leadership and consulting roles at Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting, Sherpa, LLC, and HSBC.Dani holds a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communications with a focus in graphic design. She holds a Master of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Science in Organization Development from Queens University of Charlotte where her research focused on how designers approach their work. As part of her graduate work, Dani also completed a Certificate in Executive Coaching. She is also accredited in the DISC Value Index, a certified Six Sigma Green Belt, and a trained facilitator of the Immunity to Change process. Dani earned her Ph.D. in Leadership and Organizational Change from Antioch University where her research involved developing an assessment for measuring the capabilities of Design Thinkers and expanding the use of Design Thinking in organizations. Dani is a scholar-practitioner who brings insights from research into organizations and whose research is informed by her work with clients.LinksDani Chesson contact – dani@chessonconsulting.comhttp://www.chessonconsulting.comhttps://designthinkerprofile.com/

The Design Thinker: Turning Childhood Dreams Into Business Success “People come to me realizing that something’s not working, or, that they have an aspiration of what they want. At the end of the day, they want to make a pivot to something else. In order to get down there and make that pivot they need a strategy. And what I tell people is that it may take multiple strategies for you to get where you want to be. And we will get there. The question is, are you ready for a marathon? Because, it’s not a sprint.” - Carla A. Fleming, CEO and Founder of Pivoting Strategies, LLC Carla Fleming’s gloriously happy childhood dreams of doing meaningful work included being a teacher, a doctor, and a journalist. To the casual observer, work dreams such as these seem disconnected, but not to Fleming, who says that, together, they pointed her to a career that’s all about solving difficult business problems: “A teacher helps you learn to be better, a doctor makes diagnoses to make you better, and the journalist figures out what’s going on.” These, Fleming recalls, “laid the groundwork for consulting.” And now, Fleming, uses design thinking in her consultancy to help business clients to thrive, scale revenues, and most important, connect with their consumers in what she calls “wearing the customer’s badge.” In this episode of The Tightrope with Dan Smolen podcast, Carla the design thinker: Recalls her early childhood dreams and the profound influence of loving parents and grandparents on her life and career as a problem-solver [starts at 2:00] Describes in detail the process she has used to repurpose and reposition one of her clients [starts at 16:13] Defines her concept of “wearing the customer’s badge” and why it is important for today’s businesses to embrace in our digitally connected economy [starts at 22:43] About our guest: Carla A. Fleming received a Bachelor of Science in Management, with coursework concentration in Journalism and Mass Media, from Rutgers University. She also earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from The George Washington University. A successful marketing and management executive who held multiple executive roles at IBM, Fleming founded and is the CEO of business consultancy Pivoting Strategies, LLC. She lives and works in the Washington, D.C. suburbs of Northern Virginia. EPISODE DATE: October 26, 2018 Social media: Pivoting Strategies, LLC – Website LinkedIn Profile Twitter Instagram Photo credits: Design Thinkers, Getty Images; Portrait, Carla A. Fleming

The Design Thinker: Turning Childhood Dreams Into Business Success “People come to me realizing that something's not working, or, that they have an aspiration of what they want. At the end of the day, they want to make a pivot to something else. In order to get down there and make that pivot they need a strategy. And what I tell people is that it may take multiple strategies for you to get where you want to be. And we will get there. The question is, are you ready for a marathon? Because, it's not a sprint.” - Carla A. Fleming, CEO and Founder of Pivoting Strategies, LLC Carla Fleming's gloriously happy childhood dreams of doing meaningful work included being a teacher, a doctor, and a journalist. To the casual observer, work dreams such as these seem disconnected, but not to Fleming, who says that, together, they pointed her to a career that's all about solving difficult business problems: “A teacher helps you learn to be better, a doctor makes diagnoses to make you better, and the journalist figures out what's going on.” These, Fleming recalls, “laid the groundwork for consulting.” And now, Fleming, uses design thinking in her consultancy to help business clients to thrive, scale revenues, and most important, connect with their consumers in what she calls “wearing the customer's badge.” In this episode of The Tightrope with Dan Smolen podcast, Carla the design thinker: Recalls her early childhood dreams and the profound influence of loving parents and grandparents on her life and career as a problem-solver [starts at 2:00] Describes in detail the process she has used to repurpose and reposition one of her clients [starts at 16:13] Defines her concept of “wearing the customer's badge” and why it is important for today's businesses to embrace in our digitally connected economy [starts at 22:43] About our guest: Carla A. Fleming received a Bachelor of Science in Management, with coursework concentration in Journalism and Mass Media, from Rutgers University. She also earned a Master's degree in Business Administration from The George Washington University. A successful marketing and management executive who held multiple executive roles at IBM, Fleming founded and is the CEO of business consultancy Pivoting Strategies, LLC. She lives and works in the Washington, D.C. suburbs of Northern Virginia. EPISODE DATE: October 26, 2018 Social media: Pivoting Strategies, LLC – Website LinkedIn Profile Twitter Instagram Photo credits: Design Thinkers, Getty Images; Portrait, Carla A. Fleming

Dr. Dani Chesson is a thought leader in design thinking. Through her research she identified six core capabilities that design thinkers possess. In this episode, she walks us through those six core capabilities and helps us understand how to be better at coming up with creative solutions to problems. What You'll Learn The six core capabilities of design thinkers Why visual expression helps creative problem solving The importance of separating out the ideation and evaluation of ideas How one company saved millions on a benefit program by using design thinking. [powerpress] [Tweet ""Failure isn't a bad thing. Failure is about learning. Design thinkers have gotten comfortable with taking risks and learning from them. " - @DaniChesson on The Deliberate Creative Podcast"] About Dr. Dani Chesson Designer turned change manager, turned strategy consultant, Dr. Dani Chesson is the creator of Chesson's Design Thinker Profile, an assessment that measures design thinking capabilities in individuals and teams. As a Design Thinker Coach, Dani helps her clients discover untapped opportunities and put them into action so they can reach their full potential. Design thinking has been the center of Dani's career and research interest. Throughout her career, Dani has leveraged her training as a graphic designer to help organizations create new products and services, adopt emerging technologies, and successfully implement large-scale change. A former Vice President at Bank of America, Dani has over a decade of experience leading global teams through large-scale innovation and change projects. She has also held leadership and consulting roles at Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting, Sherpa, LLC, and HSBC. Dani holds a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication with a focus in graphic design. She holds a Master of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Science in Organization Development from Queens University of Charlotte where her research focused on how designers approach problem solving. Dani earned a PhD in Leadership and Organizational Change from Antioch University where her research involved developing an assessment for measuring the capabilities of Design Thinkers. You can learn more about Dani's work at www.designthinkerprofile.com and, she can be contacted via email at dani@chessonconsulting.com   Resources Dani Chesson's website: designthinkerprofile.com Dr. Tina Seelig's Failure Resume Assignment What I Learned from a Big Failure (inspired by Amy's interview with Dani) The Deliberate Creative on C-suite Radio Leave a review on iTunes Weekly Challenge Share with one person one failure event in your life and what you learned from it. Then, journal about it. You can listen to Amy's episode about a big failure she experience a few years ago. What's yours? Post your failures below. Transcript Feel like reading instead of listening? The transcript will be available in a few days. Note: The links on this page may be affiliate links. That means I get a small commission of your sale, at no cost to you. However, I only share links to products that I or my guests believe in. Enjoy them! 

In town from London, England for the 2017 Design Thinkers conference, MAXIM CRAMER stops by the Creative Niche offices (on a Sunday, no less!) to meet and chat with Kristian. MAXIM is a software engineer for Artsy, an online platform aiming to make the world’s art accessible to anybody with an internet connection and is hoping to, one day, make art as accessible and popular as television, films and music. MAXIM tells Kristian how she got into public speaking, upcoming and exciting projects she’s working on, how she became fascinated by computers and computer science, the intersections between science and art and much more. Follow MAXIM on twitter @mennenia and check out her website mennenia.com. If you haven’t already, follow Talent & Titan on all social medias @talentandtitan. If you’d like to subscribe to Talent & Titan, you may do so at http://talentandtitan.simplecast.fm and on iTunes. Talent & Titan is produced by Creative Niche and recorded in downtown Toronto.

Natalie is a hybrid thinker, comfortably synthesizing creative and analytical thought processes from design and business to arrive at innovative opportunities. At Philadelphia University Natalie holds the endowed G. Allen Mebane IV ’52 Chair for Design Thinkers and is the Director of the Strategic Design MBA program and an Associate Professor. A practitioner and researcher of design thinking, she is noted for being savvy at connecting the dots between theory and practice and is a bridge builder to the creative side of strategy. In her public speaking engagements, she helps a range of audiences understand and apply user-centered principles to their particular work. Her consultancy, Figure 8 Thinking, LLC, helps organizations leverage creativity as an innovation resource. We connected with her after Transform to learn more about her, her work, and the role of design thinking in the future of work.

Arne van Oosterom is the founder of the Design Thinkers Group and now the Design Thinkers Academy. DesignThinkers is one of the leading 'design driven' Innovation Agencies helping organizations around the world making the transition from being strictly product orientated and sales driven, towards being service orientated and human centered. I really enjoyed talking with Arne. He gave insights into how companies have a great challenge on their hands as small nible companies compete on a global stage. Arne talks about the importance of design and how it is being reintroduced into companies like SAP and how the youth of today are looking for personal development rather than a 30 year career at one company. Arne explains how we are moving from product dominant logic to service dominant logic. Design thinking is a mindset and The is Service Design a book that Arne also contributed to introduces this service design thinking which is a valuable resource for all businesses to embrace. Learn about the "airsandwich" and how if you want to change the world service design might just be your calling. Resources: Design Thinkers Tools Design Thinkers Design Thinkers Academy