Design Thinking

The term "design thinking" is still somewhat new to health care.       

Design thinking is a problem solving process that turns on three principles: (1) empathy, (2) invention and (3) iteration.  

In the case of empathy, design thinking asks us to "mind the gaps" and to put ourselves in the customers' shoes.  In terms of invention, we must act as creators who are all about possibilities.    Finally, iteration means we need to test, fail early and often, and to test again so to learn from our re-iterations (and our failures) along the way.  With a wide-eyed gaze, you question the value of learning from failure, particularly in health care.  For now, I ask that you hold that thought.         

In their book,  Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers, Jean Liedtka and Tim Oglivie identify four basic questions that drive the design thinking process.  

What Is?  

What If?  

What Wows? 

What Works?  

The question "What Is?" requires us to step away from the crystal ball, ever so briefly, and to collect meaningful information about our current customer (or other) reality.   This is often where we mine data or use observation,  surveys, interviews and focus groups to obtain information.    The use of "a mind mapping" tool is often used to assemble, organize and draw insights from all of the information before moving to the next stage of generating ideas,  which is referred to as "What If?" 

The "What If" stage is all about possibilities.  Here, we want to move from insights to ideas through the use of a brainstorming process that ensures useful output .  The next task is to "cluster" the ideas into one or more robust concepts or hypotheses through the use of a concept development tool.  

The "What Wows?" stage finds the sweet spot where one or more of the concepts or hypotheses at the top of the list are given a "run for their money", both in terms of customer value and profit potential, through the use of an assumption testing tool.   Rapid prototyping, a 3-D modeling process which often resembles a kindergarten arts and craft frenzy, is also used to clarify what a new product might look like or how it would work.  

The "What Works" stage is the time to "get real" and test (and re-test) those prototypes with prospective customers until they are ready for the marketplace as part of a learning launch tool.  Throughout this stage, a willingness to seek input and to fail early (and often) is essential in order to succeed sooner.  

So back to failures, a term that is definitely not new to health care.  Failures -- whether a medication error, a wrong site surgery or a HIPAA breach -- are all unfortunate events to be sure.  But they must also be reckoned with as an essential ingredient to organizational learning.  

In an article entitled "Why Hospitals Don't Learn From Failure," authors Anita Tucker and Amy Edmondson review the many different forces that often inhibit the ability of hospitals (and other health care organizations) to re-frame failure as a meaningful source of learning, not just for managers but also for personnel. 

So, are you curious about this "design thinking" process?  Give Liedka and Ogilvie's book a read.  It is filled with case studies and stories about moving through the four stages of design thinking in pursuit of new and/or improved customer services. If their "fail early (and often)" advice raises your team's collective heart rate, check out the Tucker/Edmondson article which re-purposes failure into feedback.  Feedback that will ultimately take you and your organization to a higher order of problem solving and change over the long run.