BUS 374 Week 4 Reflection

 This week focused on Design Thinking. This is the process of how to solve problems that puts humans at the center. The process starts by thinking about what the individual needs of people are. How do we find solutions that are going to actually help if we can't empathize with those experiencing the problem. So design thinking starts with the empathizing. Seeing what the human need is, leads to the next step of thinking of creative solutions. The more ideas, the better and the more creative, the better. Then the important step of the prototype comes in. You take an idea and try it out. This is a process though and not a final step because with the prototype you learn and change and learn and change. Then comes implementation. Because the problem started with human centered empathetic thought, the plan implemented can lead to changes that will meet the needs of the individuals facing the problem.

The TED talk by David Kelley really stood out to me this week. It was about creative confidence. He gave an example of a kid that was making something in school and someone didn't respond well to it and the kids never made a project like it again. This reminded me of an experiment done in an elementary school. Each grade level was asked the same questions and the number of hands raised was recorded. The questions were all about skill levels and were similar to Raise you hand if you are good at singing. Raise your hand if you are good at dancing. Raise you hand if you are able to draw well. Starting in kindergarten, nearly every student put their hands up for every question. Each grade level up, less and less hands would go up until in 5th grade, only 3-4 students would raise their hand for each question. It goes to show that as we go along in life, we loose confidence in things that we think we are not perfect in or we loose confidence to try because of the fear of rejection. I think David Kelley's TED talk on how to regain this confidence was wonderful and being willing to understand that mistake making is part of the process will help increase our ability to do just that.

Design Thinking is very important in social innovation because of the human aspect of design thinking. If the objective of social innovation is to creatively solve problems that face societies, then understanding the needs of the individuals in the societies ensures that the solutions will be real solutions and not just temporary fixes. Design thinking encourages creativity and trying, failing, learning, and trying again. This process will lead to the solutions that will be most helpful to those in need of the solution.