"Occasionally, a new way of organizing work leads to extraordinary improvements. Total quality management did that in manufacturing in the 1980s by combining a set of tools-kanban cards, quality circles, and so on-with the insight that people on the shop floor could do much higher level work than they usually were asked to. That blend of tools and insight, applied to a work process, can be thought of as a social technology."
"In a recent seven-year study in which I looked in depth at 50 projects from a range of sectors, including business, health care, and social services, I have seen that another social technology, design thinking, has the potential to do for innovation exactly what TQM did for manufacturing: unleash people's full creative energies, win their commitment, and radically improve processes."
Design thinking operates as a social technology that reorganizes work to improve innovation outcomes. It uses ethnographic research, problem reframing, rapid experimentation, and diverse teams to link customer insights directly to implementation. Evidence from a seven-year study of fifty projects across business, health care, and social services shows design thinking can unleash creative energy, increase stakeholder commitment, and radically improve processes. The approach immerses teams in customers' experiences, challenges internal biases, and emphasizes testing and review so changes become effective innovations rather than superficial adjustments. Design thinking creates a structured flow from research through prototyping to rollout.
Read at Harvard Business Review
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