The design thinker, in the words of novelist Saul Bellow, is “a first-class noticer.” 
Design is not art…  Behind the apparent chaos is discipline. 
For many of us, imagination is underdeveloped. 
Mastery without originality becomes rote…  Make a continuing, conscious effort to counteract this tendency by nurturing your originality, even in the smallest of ways.  Flex your creative muscles, volunteer for a committee outside your area of expertise, and stretch outside of your area of mastery.   
Excerpts from:  The Design of Business — Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage by Roger Martin

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I downloaded the sample pages of Rotman on Design: The Best on Design Thinking from Rotman Magazine, Roger Martin and Karen Christensen, Co-Editors, after Bob Morris’ excellent review of this book on our blog.  And decided, again, that I needed to brush up on my own understanding of this important discipline.

I asked Bob where to start, and he took me back to The Design of Business by Roger Martin.  I presented my synopsis of this book back in February, 2010, and I guess there have been too many books between then and now – or, my memory is simply fading.  Anyway, I revisited my synopsis handout.  It is a terrific “this is what design thinking is” book.

We might think –too quickly, too simplistically — that design is simply about the look of a product.  The actual “design” of the product.  And, yes, that is part of the picture.  Consider the simple, clean lines of the iPhone, and its enhanced simplicity with each new version.

But design thinking is about much more than the “outer” look of a product.  It is about creating a process that is “easy” to follow – the ease of use, the “naturalness” of function – the “oh, yes, this is what should go next – it’s obvious” brilliance of any process, any web site, any organizational structure.  So, no matter what the product or service is, or what an organization seeks to pursue, every element has to be well-designed, and the over-all connectedness — how individual aspects need to fit together perfectly.

From the description in the book:

Design thinking is the form of thought that enables movement along the knowledge funnel, and the firms that master it will gain a nearly inexhaustible, long-term business advantage.  The advantage, which emerges from the design-thinking firms’ unwavering focus on the creative design of systems, will eventually extend to the wider world.  From these firms will emerge the breakthroughs that move the world forward. 

Here are some of the key concepts from the book:

• the two paths – analytical thinking vs. intuitive thinking

• analytical thinking
• judgment, bias, variation are enemies

• intuitive thinking  — the art of knowing without reasoning;
the world of originality and invention.

• The knowledge funnel:
• stage 1 – a mystery
• stage 2 – a heuristic (a rule of thumb that helps narrow the field of inquiry and work the mystery down to a manageable size)
• stage 3 – an algorithm (a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem)

In The Design of Business, Mr. Martin describes how one starts with “exploration,” and then moves to “exploitation” of that which is “discovered.”  Here’s a chart to help you think about the characteristics of each:

Characteristics of exploration and exploitation:

	Exploration	Exploitation
Organizational focus	The invention of business	The administration of business
Overriding Goal	Dynamically moving from the current knowledge stage to the next	Systematically honing and refining within the current knowledge stage
Future Orientation	Long-term	Short-term
Progress	Uneven, scattered, characterized by false starts and significant leaps forward	Accomplished by measured, careful incremental steps
Risk and Reward	High risk, uncertain but potentially high reward	Minimal risk, predictable but smaller rewards
Challenge	Failure to consolidate and exploit returns	Exhaustion and obsolescence

 

Though I have dabbled in reading business books for close to 40 years, when we began the First Friday Book Synopsis fifteen+ years ago, I started what has become an extensive reading program of business books – kind of a “self-education of Randy Mayeux” endeavor.  (My academic training is in Theology, and Communication).  I have learned a lot, but know that I have so very much more to learn.

I’ve certainly learned this — I’ve learned that modern business presents a very complex challenge – a challenge that needs to somehow be then understood, and communicated, and “executed,” simply.  Design Thinking is about this striving for simplicity in the midst of complexity.

In fact, I think I need to “design” my own reading plan – my own “book selection” plan – following the principles of good design thinking.  Just as I need to pay far more attention to design thinking in all aspects of my work.

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(A “footnote” – I think the rollout of the web site for the Affordable Care Act, HealthCare.gov, provides a pretty stark example of a failure to follow good design thinking principles).

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You can purchase my synopsis of The Design of Business by Roger Martin, with my multi-page, comprehensive handout, plus the audio of my presentation, at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.