1.1 Design Thinking: What is Design Thinking & Creative Intelligence?

Entry 2:

Use this week’s readings to help you write about what it means to use Design Thinking and Creative Intelligence in a real-world design scenario. Show examples of outcomes that you believe are results of effective DT and CI processes and write why you feel they fill the criteria.

Wow. Tough question. I work almost exclusively in capitalist corporations, either as a freelancer, associate consultant, or sub-contractor as a business architect or business analyst (& previously as a developer and project/implementation manager). My job ranges from identifying a problem and/or opportunity through to solutions design and delivery – conception to retirement.

The thing that strikes me the most is the business's enthusiasm for a silver bullet, or the adoption of the next greatest trend (think; ITIL, UML, RUP, Agile, etc.) yet their inability or refusal to fully understand or discipline themselves in the use of those tools or processes, before they jump in & half-ass their way around a piece of work, trying to cram a square peg in a round hole with brute force and frustration.

To be able to provide and meaningful answer to this, I would have to define DT & CI separately, and as a synergy. That said, this will only be as I currently (with bias) understand what I have learned on the subject.

Design Thinking is a systematic and collaborative approach (see: Figure 2.) for identifying and creatively solving problems, and includes two major phases:

· Identifying problems and

· Solving problems (Luchs et al., 2016)

Figure 2. (Gibson et al., 2015)

Design thinking is not exactly science, and there is no one “correct” take on the subject (Lockwood, 2011), but irrespective of it is interpretations, it can be thought of as "a set of rules that outlines the steps to follow and actions to take when designing something" (Torrens class notes).

Creative Intelligence is: A broad phrase known as "creative intelligence" (CQ) refers to the abilities needed to create, develop, locate, scrutinise, envisage, and make assumptions about ideas. It is impacted by the surroundings as well as the thought processes used in different contexts, such as the search for novel concepts, the lookout for unforeseen chances, and the formulation of plans to meet client wants or resolve various issues (Jager et al., 2020). High intelligence and use of working memory can enhance the perception and integration of stimuli during creative thought (Benedek et al., 2014) which can improve the results of creative thinking.

Gibson (Gibson et al., 2015) note his 8-step approach to design thinking which he framed under one of the four lenses:

1. Frame the specific challenge & resolve to focus on the problem.

2. Research the subject. Review your known works and knowledge, and that of your peers. Study your subject exhaustively.

3. Immerse yourself in the problem. Persistently and inexhaustibly explore a range of possible solutions (using what you know).

4. Reach a roadblock. (Allow yourself to) feel the creative frustration

5. Relax. If frustrations set in, take a break, relax &/or get playful… Detach from the problem. Let it incubate in the unconscious mind. Focus your attention of something else using one activity “as a relief from another”. Relieve the mental stress so that you can free-up your creativity and loosen any blocks.

6. Come to an illuminating insight that fundamentally shifts your perspective. In this loose state, reconsider the problem – possibly against the seemingly begin/non-problem-relevant environment that you are relaxing in. Surround yourself with a rich source of potentially inspiring insights (various stimuli).

7. Encourage active daydreaming, and allow any thoughts and ideas that pop up to flourish. Allow yourself to get excited about their potential and build the insight(s) you uncover, into big ideas.

8. Experiment with and test these new ideas and allow yourself to fail – in the spirit of judgement and creative development.

Gibson then also cited Thomas Edison’s (Gibson et al., 2015, p.216-218) approach to design which can not only be overlaid atop Gibson's 8-step approach, but which resonates with me as a practical day-to-day approach that I can directly relate to when I lead &/or undertake design, development, & deliver. To Paraphrase Gibson’s comparative analysis of Edison against his 8-step approach:

1. Frame a specific challenge and focus on solving it. According to Neil Baldwin's biography of Edison, the great genius had a "consuming obsession." When Edison and his team in Menlo Park saw a problem or opportunity they wanted to pursue — something they thought would solve a significant issue, they would concentrate on it intensely, working nonstop for weeks on end in the tireless search for a solution.

2. Research the subject. Learn from the work of others. To provide the groundwork for any endeavour, Edison first did a thorough study of the subject. He once told a reporter, "I start by reading up everything that has been done along that line in the past—that's what all these volumes in the library are for. When I want to discover something, I do that first. I can see the work that has been done in the past with a lot of effort and expense. As a starting point, I compile the results of hundreds of trials, and then I conduct thousands more.

3. Immerse yourself in the problem. Explore possible solutions. The goal of Edison's never-ending "trial and error" studies was to test every potential outcome relentlessly and endlessly until the ideal solution was discovered. In the development of their incandescent light bulb, he and his engineering colleagues infamously tested over 3,000 different filament materials. It is less commonly known that in their efforts to create the first alkaline storage battery, Edison's team carried out close to 50,000 trials.

4. Reach a roadblock. Feel the creative frustration. With so many experiments leading Edison and his team down blind alleys, there were inevitably times when they felt a deep sense of frustration. Edison expressed it as follows: “In trying to perfect a thing, I sometimes run straight up against a granite wall a hundred feet high. If, after trying and trying, I can’t get over it, I turn to something else.”

5. Relax. Detach from the problem. Let it incubate in the unconscious mind. Edison regularly took a break from a project to read a different book, using one activity as a reprieve from another.vIntelligenceHe was adept at balancing intense focus with restful pauses. The team enjoyed midnight lunches around a large table, sharing pie, beer or coffee, jokes, smokes, and songs while someone played the lab's pipe organ. Edison valued time off for “loafing” since he enjoyed walking, gardening, and fishing. He has been observed sitting for hours with a baitless hook, peering at the rippling water. The naps followed. A couple of times a day Edison would climb on his desk and rest to re-energize, and his wife Mina later brought a cot to his workplace. Franklin Dyer, known as “muckers” among Edison’s Menlo Park experimenters, co-authored Edison: His Life and Inventions with Thomas Martin in 1910. According to the book, Edison used multiple volumes of Watt's Dictionary of Chemistry as pillows during his sleeps. Employees reported that he assimilated information while sleeping, judging by the rush of new ideas upon waking.

6. Come to an illuminating insight that fundamentally shifts your perspective. Edison surrounded himself with opportunities for inspiration. In his Menlo Park lab, he had a vast array of machinery, materials, and chemicals that could be combined to develop new ideas. Carbon is a prevalent substance found around. Previously, the Lab produced lampblack, a pure carbon soot scraped from kerosene lamps burning in a neighbouring shed. During the development of the light bulb, Thomas Edison experimented with various filament materials, including paper, cardboard, fishing line, twine, cedar shavings, platinum, coconut hair, and vine and bamboo fibres. Legend has it that he inadvertently rolled a piece of lampblack between his fingers while working on another project. Mixing lampblack with tar made it pliable, and rolling it resulted in a fine thread. Edison realised that carbon lampblack may be an excellent filament while looking at his fingers.

7. Build the insight (or insights) into a big idea—a new combination of thoughts. Although Edison investigated employing carbon filament in the light bulb project, oxygen in the atmosphere burned it quickly. Instead, he chose platinum for its greater melting point. Platinum melted at a lower temperature after absorbing oxygen from the atmosphere, according to research. Vacuum technology was developed to remove air from the bulb's glass chamber. This enhanced platinum filament performance, but their high cost and low electrical resistance made them unsuitable for commercial use. Edison required a cheap, slow-burning, high-resistance material to lower electricity distribution costs. Despite trying 40 metals and fibres from 1,000 bamboo species, none produced the desired lighting effect. He noticed the lampblack thread and realised that carbon might burn longer without oxygen, making it a feasible option. His insight was that carbon, which is cheap, easy to make, and has high electrical resistance, could be the ideal filament.

The approach of saturating oneself in the problem and all known research until mental knots and frustrations ensue, and then relaxing with some other type of distraction is a personally proven approach. Once an idea takes root it can be nurtured to its potential and then tested for its worth. Irrespective of its success, the creative delivery inertia is broken, and progress will start rolling.

Benedek, M., Jauk, E., Sommer, M., Arendasy, M., & Neubauer, A. C. (2014). Intelligence, creativity, and cognitive control: The common and differential involvement of executive functions in intelligence and creativity. Intelligence, 46, 73–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2014.05.007

Gibson, R. (2015). Part 4: How Big Ideas Are Built. In The four lenses of innovation: A power tool for creative thinking (pp. 204–285). essay, John Wiley & Sons.

Jager, C. de, & Muller, A. (2020). Chapter 3: Creative Intelligence (CQ). In Creative intelligence cq@play shaping your future in the fourth industrial revolution (pp. 39–45). essay, Knowledge Resources.

Lockwood, T. (2011). Thinking from Both Sides. In Design Thinking Integrating Innovation, customer experience and brand value (p. 13). essay, Allworth Press u.a.

Luchs, M. G., Swan, K. S., & Griffin, A. (2016). Design thinking: New product development essentials for the PDMA. Wiley.