February 15, 2017
Newsletter

Let’s Talk About:

Leading for Creativity

It’s easy to grow numb to the notion that innovation equals success for many businesses—startup to enterprise—in the twenty-first century. The fact remains, though, that business leaders are more intent to foster outside-the-box thinking within their companies, and the charge has moved from a simple "hire creative types” to the more complex "unleash creativity within your company."

Tim Brown of IDEO puts it this way: “Creative leadership ... is about individuals leading for creativity. That means you, as a leader, must unlock the creative potential of your organization, no matter the industry. It’s your job to set the conditions for your organization to generate, embrace, and execute on new ideas. It’s a competitive imperative that will keep you ahead in the marketplace.”

Enter design thinking, the empathy-first, group-problem-solving “framework" that offers a starting point (or perhaps a reminder) for how human-centered thinking can ignite cultures of innovation. Here are some resources:

Design Thinking via "Explorations"

Community Thoughts on Leading for Creativity...

  1. 1. 7 Qualities of Design Thinking Leaders by Jonathan Lewis via Invision “Design-thinking leaders should look for ways to prototype and test out different visions for their organization. This could include things like role-playing, or writing magazine articles about the future success of the company."
  2. 2. Unlock your Organization’s Creative Potential by Tim Brown via Design Thinking @ IDEO “Holding a curious mindset is a great starting point when you’re leading your team or organization. If you’re in a truly new space, you won’t always know the answers.”
  3. 3. 5 Key Trends In Design Leadership by Thomas Lockwood via Co.Design “It’s the latest sign that corporations are shifting from engineering driven to design driven, product-centric to customer-centric, marketing focused to user experience focused.”
  4. 4. The “Leading for Creativity” Course by Tim Brown via IDEO U “Creativity is what keeps organizations ahead in the marketplace. That means you, as a leader, need to empower your team to generate and execute bold ideas.”
  5. 5. IBM’s Got a Plan to Bring Design Thinking to Big Business by Liz Stinson via WIRED “For going on four years now, IBM has been working to reinvent itself as a design-led business. In 2012, the computing behemoth employed just one designer for every 80 coders. Today, that ratio stands at 1:20.”

We are designers, engineers, and strategists.

We believe the best work happens when talented people trust each other enough to be real and take risks. We’re looking to grow our team and are especially interested in finding the right people for the following roles:

Have an unsolvable problem or audacious idea? We’d love to hear about it.

We work with clients around the globe to solve their biggest challenges with a vision to create an elegantly connected, digitally enhanced, well-communicated world.

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