How Design Thinking is changing the world of work
Inspired by the Bauhaus, developed at Stanford, and advanced in Germany: Design Thinking creates space for true innovation.
Our day-to-day lives have long been digital: we communicate across the world in seconds, navigate via apps, and even use artificial intelligence to create recipes. Yet our world of work often still runs on the principles of the industrial age – rigid hierarchies, separate departments, little room for shared thinking. How can companies and employees keep pace with an interconnected world? One answer lies in the creative method known as Design Thinking.
What is Design Thinking?
“The digital transformation demands the ability to react quickly to change and to take an active role in shaping it,” says Uli Weinberg, former head of the School of Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam and founder of the Global Design Thinking Alliance. “Design Thinking provides the right toolkit: teams learn to adapt to new situations, combine perspectives, and turn ideas into reality within a very short time.”
Where does Design Thinking come from?
The concept emerged in the 1990s at Stanford University in the United States. Inspired by the German art school Bauhaus, designer David Kelley brought people from different disciplines together to tackle problems collaboratively. He and Weinberg later introduced these ideas to Germany: in 2007, Weinberg established Europe’s first “School of Design Thinking” at the Hasso Plattner Institute.
How does Design Thinking foster creativity?
Creativity arises through doing. At the heart of Design Thinking is not a sudden flash of inspiration but collaboration: people from different fields develop ideas in open spaces, sketch them on whiteboards, build prototypes, and test them straight away. The process is iterative – every round of feedback leads to the next version. In this way, an idea gradually evolves into an innovation.
How are German companies applying Design Thinking?
Bosch has used Design Thinking to realign its structures. The technology group linked up previously separate business units and brought together teams that had rarely interacted before. “Medical technology teams discovered that in India, dentists were using drills from the crafts sector for cost reasons – and that led to new product ideas,” says Weinberg. Internal changes followed too: “Bonus systems were redesigned to reward team performance, which in turn triggered a shift in company culture and accelerated innovation.”
Where else could Design Thinking be used?
According to Weinberg, the principles of Design Thinking should also be applied more in classrooms and lecture halls – and also to tackling social challenges or the modernisation of public administration. “Singapore shows how it can be done,” says Weinberg. “There, Design Thinking has been used in ministries for years to make public services more citizen-centred.” Government agencies can now develop new digital services faster and design administrative processes that better reflect people’s needs.
