I occurred to me this morning that one of my issues with “design thinking” and the way that it has been adopted is that it’s turned into the ultimate post-modern device. It has an uncanny ability to claim credit for, or apply itself to, any type of creative or unusual thinking after the fact.
I’ve seen a number of conversations, including one on CBC radio this morning, about Occupy as a design movement, or a design thinking solution to a wicked problem. To me this feels like imposing a framework on something once it’s already happened… Occupy is what happens when people are pushed to their limits and are disenfranchised. We’ve seen this before and it will happen again. Just because the approach is different and people are thinking about how to stage a protest in a new way does not make it “design thinking.”
Is every innovation “design thinking” now? Let’s be fair to real design, and to the people who are doing interesting things that aren’t design, and not diminish their creativity by lumping it all under this new philosophical umbrella, that was intended as a business tool more than anything.
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