One of the participants at our UK Theatre/SoLT webinars asked
Any thoughts on how we support our teams to go on the journey of the Double Diamond?
We have written before briefly about the importance of Design Thinking and the Double Diamond Model so thought we would take the opportunity to share some more thoughts about design thinking in practice.
Susan
The Double Diamond is one of the key frameworks from the emerging field of Design Thinking. Design is not new to the arts sector but applying it to business as opposed to artistic problems is not yet common in our experience.
Design Thinking is not an exclusive property of designers—all great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering, and business have practiced it. So, why call it Design Thinking? What’s special about Design Thinking is that designers’ work processes can help us systematically extract, teach, learn and apply these human-centered techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way – in our designs, in our businesses, in our countries, in our lives. (Siang, Dam 2020)
In an international study (Bason & Austin, 2019) of over twenty private and public sector organisations that have introduced design thinking recently, four factors were identified among successful organisations:
- Strong leadership –to counter the discomfort of doing things differently and model the behaviours that are needed to make it work
- Leveraging empathy to build deeper user/customer understanding
- Encouraging divergence and helping staff to navigate ambiguity
- Rehearsing new futures
Drawing on my experience of working with a number of theatres to introduce design thinking I would suggest some practical insights in addition:
- Make the process as enjoyable as you can. There is a reason why consultants bring coloured stationery, care about the layout of rooms and try to vary the format and pace of a session – the aim is to support a creative, energised and relaxed environment in which to work. Working solely online makes this harder but consider how you can bring fun into your work and do break your work together up into manageable chunks – two hour zoom marathons are neither creative nor productive!
- Design thinking is likely be a new way of thinking, at least in the context of planning. Spend some time with your team exploring how this approach may be different to how you have done things in past. Emphasise that the process will involve two rounds of generating and focusing ideas, not just the usual one. Try and make the connections with areas of creative practice where this approach is common e.g. set and lighting design, exhibition design,
- Design thinking is a process so work together to map out the process, at a high level. Think milestones not to do lists. This gives people a level of certainty – they know where they are.
- Design thinking involves developing a deep understanding of your users/customers, what they want and need from you. This needs empathy and a real willingness to learn from the people you want to engage with rather than making assumptions in advance about what they want. People who usually have regular contact with your audiences such as Front-of-House staff and those working in community and education settings could contribute a great deal to the process.
- One of the elements that makes the Double Diamond is useful is the emphasis on the necessity of using two different kinds of thinking: divergent/generating and convergent/focusing in order and in two rounds. Most people will naturally be more comfortable with one type of thinking than the other. Be open about this and use this strength to allow people to play different roles; don’t expect equal contributions at every stage. Think about you can support people to grow their thinking skills through creative group exercises and decision-making frameworks.
- Avoid the rush to judgement, emphasise that the conclusions need to be held lightly and possible solutions tested before any final decision is made. For some people this can feel like a waste of time, but it is not: you are investing in a better plan in which you can have much greater confidence. As a good American friend of mine says ‘You don’t have time to do it right, but you do have time to do it over/’
Dawn
The beauty of the Double Diamond for me is that it sets out a clear process and gives everyone permission to develop ideas and use trial and error, no-one has to have the right answer from the outset.
The graphic included above also identifies the kinds of activities you might undertake during each phase, which is helpful for building a toolbox of different interventions. These too can be tested to find those that work best for you and/or your team. We’ll pick up some of these tools in more detail in future posts.
The final phase ‘Evolve’ is particularly important, and I know there is often a temptation at this stage to move on because new projects or challenges will have already emerged. I would really encourage you to take time and put resources into this stage. I have worked with a number of theatre companies and venues where this stage has been an important way to remind people what was achieved, reassure them about their approach and build confidence.
Finally, I also see it being closely related to action learning and action research. One of the benefits of action research for me is that it encourages you to set out a series of exploratory questions that frame any action you take, you can then reflect on the outcomes of those actions in the light of what you were trying to discover.
I think the two can be neatly combined so you can pose a question of each design phase to help everyone understand what you are looking to gain from the process.
Design thinking resources
Design Council: Double Diamond evolved
Interaction Design Foundation: why design thinking is popular
IDEOU: what is design thinking
Harvard Business Review
Related posts
- Give people a chance to fail safely
- A deeper dive into scenario planning
- We’re all innovators now
- Strengthening our organisations and organising
- Realigning assumptions
Susan & Dawn
References
BASON, C. and AUSTIN, R.D., 2019. The right way to lead design thinking: how to help project teams overcome the inevitable inefficiencies, uncertainties, and emotional flare-ups. Harvard Business Review, 97(2), pp. 82.
SIANG, T.Y. and DAM, R.F., 2020-last update, What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular? . Available: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design-thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular.