One of the pressing issues that the business seems to be experiencing is the lack of creativity and innovation. Creativity has a vital role in developing reliable means that can help in addressing problems. However, the business has an experienced a severe problem since there have been no ways that could help in integrating innovative practices in the workplace. The lack of innovation has also led to the slow development of the business since the environment does not provide practical ways to deal with challenges that emerge in the industry. Besides, the lack of a framework that could facilitate useful problems in solving further affects the business. To deal with the issue of the lack of innovation and creativity, three approaches could be effective, and they include creating diversity, create an open and creative environment motivate the team. However, to make this work, there is a need to use design thinking in the firm.

Application of design thinking

One of the ways design thinking can be applied in the workplace is in solving complex problems. Design thinking also referred to as human-centred thinking seeks to put the practices and the method of designers into the hands of the non-designer to find solutions to the problems. The focus of this approach is solution based. Through the path of early prototyping and exploring multiple solutions testing and adapting them it is possible to gain a greater understanding of the problem (Gottlieb et al., 2017). Therefore, through solving complex problems, it becomes possible to deal with the issue of creativity and thus find solutions to the current problem.

The second approach is in putting people at the centre of the planning process. The focus of design thinking is not about just finding solutions to issues, but instead on making people be an essential part of finding the answers to the problems. The focus is to encourage participation in the problem-solving process. Therefore in trying to develop the solutions to these issues there would an essential discussion on having direct conduct with the people. Through this personal connection, it becomes easy to understand the challenges, needs and the desires of the customers. The idea behind design thinking is to change their assumptions about issues and understands problems from the perspective of the people (Gottlieb et al., 2017). This is approach thus becomes effective in improving creativity and innovation n a business.

The last approach is on creating collaboration and participation. Design thinking focuses much on partnership. The focus is to bring together the diverse skills and perspectives within the organisation with the aim of developing solutions through a participatory exercise. In implementing this approach, there would be focused on breaking silos in an organisation and creating team alignment. Design thinking approach also helps to grow the skills that might increase collaboration. Collaboration, in this case, is not only limited to the office but also extend to the people that the business has to interact with. To foster such collaboration, there would need to focus on research and testing of ideas (Gottlieb et al., 2017). The approach thus helps to bring people together and enhance more interactions.

Barriers to collaborative thinking in an organisation

One of the biggest challenges to using design thinking is spontaneous reactions. When people are often faced with a challenge, the best way out is usually to look for the easiest solution. In most cases, people would seek to strike first without thinking of a working solution. In most cases, people tend to pinpoint on external factors and attack them directly without reviewing the broader issues. This is the biggest problem in trying to implement design thinking in the organisation. The lack of goodwill among the employees to analyses the issues and find the best solutions often limits the application of the process (Gottlieb et al., 2017). The only way to deal with this issue is to resist the urge to react to impulsive thinking.

The challenge of Egoistic thinking might also be one of the issues that might affect the use of design thinking in the organisation. At times working is usually impacted by the individual egos. In most cases, people are consumed with showing off and asserting who we are to others. The result is that the organisation will experience conflicts and everyone forcing on making their idea more paramount than other people. However, to deal with this problem, there is a need to focus on problem-solving space that will give room to each act to present their views (Gottlieb et al., 2017). The idea is to create a space for equality between each in the organisation.

The hammer syndrome is also one of the impediments to the application of design thinking. People that work on this basis would often seek to make problems look like a nail. Therefore, the only solutions that they might think about are to hammer it away. The challenge with this approach of dealing with issues is that it does not offer a solution, but instead it creates more questions. The problem might seem to have gone away, but that does not provide the exact answers. It only shelves them away.

References

Gottlieb, M., Wagner, E., Wagner, A., & Chan, T. (2017). Applying design thinking principles to curricular development in medical education. AEM education and training, 1(1), 21-26.