Design

In The Akadimi, we adapt the ancient concepts of Plato’s olive garden outside Athens. We see the strategic thinking process as a safe opportunity for small groups to explore and master the application of strategic thinking and learning to complex community and societal problems. We bring this philosophy forward in curated “Design Thinking Tools” to address today’s organizational challenges.

The Design Thinking methodology is participatory in nature, and it works best when harnessing a multitude of ideas and viewpoints. So if endless Zoom calls are sucking the creativity out of your team, it might be time to reinvigorate your remote design thinking workshops. We’ve curated a list of design thinking tools and activities you can use today to strengthen and accelerate your strategy sessions

We can support you to design a customized “Governance Enhancement Plan” (GEP) or “Strategic Imperatives Plan” for your organization.

With proven assessment and engagement tools, we can support the evaluation of the strategic position and situation of your organization, as well as the effectiveness of both your governing body and of governing body leaders and executives.

A design thinking methodology can be divided into three distinct phases: immersion, idea generation, and implementation. This structure is further broken down into usually five actionable steps that make up the design thinking process:

• Empathize with the needs of service users and/or partners
• Define key elements of the challenge or obstacles to accomplish your preliminary goals
• The idea that packages design features into manageable elements
• The prototype that simulates on paper or lab-like settings the implementation of the service or process
• Testing the solution features in ways to refine the solution can earn ownership among partners and people needed for the ultimate implementation

Of course, all of these steps can be performed sequentially, but you can also change the order because design thinking does not follow a strictly linear process. Design thinking is an iterative process where a team may need to repeat steps and even return to previous actions.

As a resource for Design Thinking, we like the work of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota (https://libraryguides.mayo.edu/InnovationResources/DesignThinking) and the Garfield Innovation Center at Kaiser in California (https://garfieldcenter.kaiserpermanente.org/ )

To explore how you can apply Design Thinking to your unique needs, please contact us at contact@governakadimi.org

We have conducted successful Design Studios in Singapore for hospital leaders from across Southeast Asia, and in a rural community in Southwest Minnesota for community leaders interested in healthier population initiatives. While the topics focused on by participants in Design Studios can vary dramatically, the process has three essential characteristics:

1. A complicated and important performance challenge that demands bold performance results.
2. Diverse participants bring to the process different life experiences, social and economic backgrounds, educational disciplines, work experiences, and eclectic age, gender, religious and ethnic perspectives.
3. Scenario-based exploration in open space conference rooms and community venues enables participants to map alternate ways to convert the challenge to positive solutions and anticipate obstacles to the execution that can be proactively reduced or eliminated.

To explore how you can conduct a Design Studio for your unique needs, please contact us at contact@governakadimi.org

Large and community-based groups may need more space and more comprehensive consideration of strategy development analyses and plans. The Charrette can fill this need and has been used for several decades by urban planners, architects, and collective impact initiatives.

Rather than chipping away at a problem, one meeting at a time, over a period of weeks or months, the Charrette approach brings specialists and end-users together for a small number of uninterrupted work sessions to break through to a creative solution. What typically takes months, is accomplished in a fraction of the time. And the participants that develop the strategy are more likely to own the solution and be willing to help get it implemented in the most cost-effective manner. Additional insights can be found here.

To explore how you can develop a performance-driven Charrette for your unique needs, please contact us at contact@governakadimi.org