Well, we were very happy to have you at our Sustainable Brands 09 conference last year, where designers are in the minority (we so need more of them!). Audience diversity is so important for the spirit, especially on an intellectual vacation OR work group function. Our viewpoints of the world, our place within it, our capabilities as a member of a profession, are profoundly affected by the people we're around. It's the reason why conversing with strangers on extended flights or other scenarios CAN be profound.

As a marketer and business-minded person, our group perceptive flaw is in rationalizing what we believe the world needs, and making it. Oftentimes the justification is simply observing competitive behavior (which can feed its own endless cycle of pointless me-too innovation), but not critically trying to understand user needs and systematically deliver benefits, establish trust, and affinity (emotional & objective) through the product or in customer service.

But partly a designer because of my pursuit of delight in the holistic user experience with a brand, through empathy and other-orientation mind placement, my realization in the last couple years is that it's all about systems, interdependent teams, and adaptive & long term project management.

Thanks for sharing these points. They resonate across the business/design table as well!

When you elicit a debate or ask for a point of view, be open and encouraging even if it goes against the product or idea you are trying to pitch

Robert, thank you for the inspiration! I am a designer at Teach For America. I only started in September so I am still relatively learning about the organizations many details. While I am not the only designer, I am the only one with a interaction design background (others are mostly web or graphic designers).

I joined mostly because of the opportunity to use my design skills to help the education reform effort. And so far it has not been easy, you are right you need a lot of patience and commitment. Fortunately I work with a lot of great open minded people.

Lately I have had the opportunity to run design workshops with mostly non-designers. My goal is to try to teach various teams design techniques that they can go back to their teams and use. I am just beginning but I am hearing good feedback so far.

I am hoping that if things work out to report back to the design community to share my experiences. I agree too many designers don't want to do this kind of work, they want to work on more "popular" "cool" projects. To me, fixing our education problems is pretty cool

Safe travels in Africa!

John

Design has always been about change. And it always aspires to improve. Those aspects of design are timeless. Perhaps what has changed is understanding that the world is finite, and that our imagination is what makes us infinite.

This is a great list and hits home for me on a few projects I've been involved with. I think collaboration is a key part in this. As designers we want to be involved and part of the groups that change the world for the better. I do not think this is too different than a writer, engineer or scientist that is driven by the same passions. We all play a part in making this happen. The more we reach out to other fields and crossover our compartmentalized professions the better chance we can provide expertise that is meaningful and has an impact. Designers provide a much needed role, but it is not necessarily always the most needed.

Looking at your thoughts tracking back some of the issues when design thinking arouses nowadays, I was so inspired and resonated by what you just wrote. I am currently conducting some field research in a engineering oriented environment. The folks in other disciplines also have the capability on design thinking. Once they employed design thinking, the power is incredible. I recalled anti-art movement. We should probably need to think about how design thinking could diffuse. Designers will be everywhere. The power of design thinking will be unveiled.