Blog
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“Helping Businesses Make Sense from Design Thinking” Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Paul Rustand is Director of Widgets & Stone, a studio that connects business with creativity. He brings us this update about an exciting event that Widgets is helping host tomorrow at green|spaces.
For the past several years, “innovation” has been the new buzzword in business. Publications like Fortune, BusinessWeek, Fast Company and many others all extol the virtues of radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, and organizations.
Professional associations, organizations, and businesses often offer seminars, workshops and conferences on innovation — what it is, how to do it, successful models and processes to imitate, and so on.
Because of design’s long relationship with innovation and iterative thinking, much attention has been given to prototyping methods and techniques that designers use to transform an idea into a real thing. Business schools and MFA programs have seen the value in “design thinking” and have begun to incorporate design thinking into classes and curriculum.
Businesses and entrepreneurial ventures, in large metropolitan areas and small cities alike, see the need to encourage innovation and creativity. Even so, conversations between design and business must go well beyond saying, “You need to be more creative.”
One common mistake that organizations make is to focus solely on the methods of design, such as research, prototyping, and storytelling while failing to focus on the sensibilities of design such as meaning, beauty, and delight. Both must be utilized in tandem in order to create real business value.
Enter R. Michael Hendrix of IDEO. As an Associate Partner and Location Head of the Boston office of the leading global design consultancy, Michael has a good deal of experience helping companies incorporate design thinking into their practices.
The success of Chattanooga’s community is inextricably tied with the success of our businesses and organizations. Meaning, beauty, productivity, and value are all essential components to a thriving and vital city.
AIGA Chattanooga, The Professional Association of Design, and Widgets & Stone are pleased to present “Helping Businesses Make Sense from Design Thinking” by R. Michael Hendrix. The presentation will be at 12:00 on Wednesday, July 7 at green|spaces (63 E Main St.). The cost of attendance is $25 per person and lunch is included. Please RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 423-266-2221.
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City Share: “Idea Exchange” Thursday, July 01, 2010
Next Wednesday July 7 from 12:00-1:00 pm, Urban League will be hosting City Share: “Idea Exchange,” a PechaKucha-style presentation featuring a variety of pitches from a handful of active citizens with ideas centered around crime prevention and increased safety in our city.
For the last month, Stand & Deliver: Safety has brought like-minded individuals from many proactive organizations across the city together around a common table to discuss how they can improve their services through interagency collaboration. Groups formed as part of this endeavor have addressed key concepts such as mentoring, women’s issues, and an athletic league to keep kids off the streets.
“Idea Exchange” has been designed to provide a platform for these new and existing initiatives—whether conceived as part Stand & Deliver: Safety or outside of it—to offer community members a chance to commit their time, energy, and expertise to address complex community issues above and beyond the confines of their day job.
It’s all part of our overarching goal for Stand & Deliver: we want to encourage individuals to become active citizens. At this point, we’re moving the process along from the conversation stage into an action stage. The time has come to get people involved in their communities in tangible ways that reach toward common solutions.
Come on out and join us from 12:00-1:00 pm on July 7 at Urban League (730 E. MLK Blvd.) for light lunch, inspiring ideas, and a unique chance to enlist in exciting and meaningful initiatives. As always, City Share is a free event, but please remember to RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or on the Facebook page.
