I have to admit I judged Design Thinking too quickly, and it is true what they say first impressions are not always right. I assumed that Design Thinking was a concept that I could only apply to this class, but I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I was wrong. I watched a TED talk involving Design Thinking, and creative thinking in the real world. The talk was by Ted Brown and revolved around how designing can be so much more than just creating something “cool”. It made me realize that design thinking is all around me, and can be applied nicely to my Public Relations career path. In PR, you have to be able to come up with new ideas all the time, some of these ideas may involve putting your, or someone else’s reputation on the line.
This reminded me of a video on Lynda.com, about Design Thinking. We often have to problem solve in our every day lives, and while we can come up with ideas that are practical, they are often not overly creative. The point of the video was to try and teach yourself how to not old problem solve, but to do so creatively. In public relations, if you are solving a problem for a client, you are putting your name and their image on it. The problem at hand might have a simple solution, but there also might be a more creative, or innovative way to solve it. It occurred to me that I often follow routines every day in my life; the way I walk to class, the foods I eat, and my bedtime routine even. All of these have created boring patterns in my life. In order to practice thinking creatively I need to first practice losing certain routines, and trying new or innovative ways to go about those processes. For example, taking a different, perhaps more interesting route to class, or a different way of driving back to school.
There is a Wikipedia reading on Design Thinking, which discusses “Wicked Problems”. These are problems that are “often tricky or difficult to solve.” The reading discusses how these kinds of problems; do not always show all their cards right away. Meaning that it may take time and effort to identify all aspects of the problem. These relate to real world problem solving in public relations because nothing will very be cut and dry. For example, if I have to write a public statement for McDonalds regarding someone finding a Band-Aid in their burger, the way of going about that will require a lot of creativity. There are clearly man issues at hand with that situation, and in order to address the problem creatively, I would need to sue design-thinking skills that I have learned. The bottom line is, design thinking can be utilized in almost every aspect of any profession. Luckily I am entering into a field that often requires original ideas, and creativity.
