Reflective Journal #4

 DESIGN THINKING

Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test

    Design thinking allows innovation when looking at social issues. Empathizing and understanding the people involved and effected by issues. Homelessness and poverty are not sterile abstract issues, they effect people and impact generational trajectories. Design thinking begins with empathizing and understanding the individuals involved and working to define problems through the lens of empathy and individual understanding. After empathizing and define, ideation and brainstorming can begin to come up with potential solutions. Prototyping a solution and testing are final steps that  are informed by the foundational design steps. This type of thinking allows for a true attempt to understand problems before proposing solutions.



Erzsebet Szekeres
Hungarian Social Innovator

    I am so impressed by Ms. Szekeres and her ability to use design thinking to create innovation that effects an entire population in her country. Her son was born disabled and her countries solution to disability care was institutionalization. Through empathizing and understanding Ms. Szekeres determined that life differences were quantitative not qualitative between disabled and non-disabled. By using this step, she was able to ideate solutions and then prototype and test those. Now there are over a dozen areas in Hungary that provide living and work opportunities for the disabled. Her work changed options for disabled individuals across her country.


    How does this apply to social innovation? Look to Ms. Szekeres for an example. She empathized with her son and other disabled individuals who did not have empowering options in their lives. She defined problems by seeing that there needed to be better housing and work options. She ideated options for work and living and developed a prototype, getting government funding and work contracts to set up a framework for disabled individuals' to love engaged, productive lives. She tested this by putting it into practice and then expanding to additional locations.

    She could have developed a solution to the problems that she saw in the institutionalization of disabled individuals as the first step, but would not have had a full picture of the needs and abilities of disabled people. She would not have incorporated work opportunities and skill development, and she would not have discovered capabilities and skills that were important to nurture in helping individuals develop full, well-rounded lives.

    Design thinking has an important foundational step of empathizing and understanding people and issues which in social innovation is essential to understand before thinking that solutions will help situations. Keeping a personal focus and working to empathize and understand needs rather than projecting your own idea of the issue make a huge difference in being able to develop a workable, impactful solution.




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