Design Thinking @Infosys

In line with my earlier blog post titled: "Design Thinking @SAP – Lessons for India" (12 June 2012), it is good to see the following (The Hindu, Business Line dated 21 Sep 2014): How Infosys is switching to ‘design thinking’     [Click here]

Design Commons & Uncommon Common Sense

This refers to one interesting extract by Carliss Baldwin [Source: Citings, Economic Times, 4th Sept 2014, Thursday] that lends credence to sourcing ideas from the commons for common good (while designing new infrastructure development projects). It is quite relevant for the Indian context now with its own inclusive growth and developmental challenges ahead. Here is the extract:

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Design Commons

By Carliss Baldwin

This study empirically investigates the relationship between design structure and organisation structure in the context of new infrastructure development projects. Our research setting is a capital programme to develop new school buildings in Manchester, UK.

Instead of creating a controlled, hierarchical organisation that would mirror the buildings' design structure, the Manchester City Council created a 'commons organisation', and chose to share decision-rights with local claimants.

So, each school's faculty was given rights equal to council staff to participate in the design process and to approve the school's design. In the natural resources literature, commons theory predicts that if a robust governance structure is created, this complex form of organising gives claimants incentives to contribute to the enterprise whilst dampening collective action problems....

The design commons induced teachers to communicate their knowledge, but created corresponding tensions over interdependent choices for the final design. Yet, none of the projects succumbed to collective action problems such as budget overruns or users feeling disenfranchised.... We also discuss design flexibility that was critical in reconciling differences. We describe why a commons organisation can be advantageous for production of designs.

From "Sharing Design Rights: A Commons Approach for Developing Infrastructure"

Source:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/41654481.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

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The HBS working paper# 14-025 by Gil & Baldwin dated 21 Jan 2014 can be downloaded here => [Web link]

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The above goals are guided by design thinking for developing human-centered universal designs by using design commons. It shows the power of democratizing design for ease of implementation – which ought to make good common sense. Yet here is a common refrain: “Common sense is not so common” (Voltaire).

Just like the precepts of Total Quality Management (TQM), which some may say is common sense. Yet, organizations claiming to have adopted TQM practices continue to dismiss customer focus. Likewise, while seeking total employee involvement and empowerment, managers remain reluctant as ever to surrender control for empowering their sub-ordinates.

Recently, seeing too much positivism in the air, there was a need to share the following links (with a cautionary note) from my earlier blog posts:

Bubbles of positivism  (18 Oct 2008)

Design thinking and appreciative inquiry...  (24 May 2012)

The following excerpt from an article titled "Multicultural Critical Theory. At B-School?" is related to the above posts:

[Quote] In 1999, few others in the business-school world shared Mr. [Roger] Martin’s view. But a decade and a seismic economic downturn later, things have changed. “I think there’s a feeling that people need to sharpen their thinking skills, whether it’s questioning assumptions, or looking at problems from multiple points of view,” says David A. Garvin, a Harvard Business School professor who is co-author with Srikant M. Datar and Patrick G. Cullen of an upcoming book, “Rethinking the M.B.A.: Business Education at a Crossroads.” [Unquote]

[Source: The New York Times dated January 9, 2010 ]

Hence, as suggested quite often in my blog posts, “It is time Indian schools adopted these concepts for redefining education” – once again seen by some as application of common sense.

Yet…"Common sense is not so common"......Moving away from "Taylorism to Tailorism" is not an easy task (even though most of it is common sense). All it requires is questioning the status quo (read “old assumptions of the times past”). Perhaps "not to question" the state of affairs is considered more commonsensical - a trait that is "not so common" in a few who want to bring changes. They do this repeatedly with a hope to bring some positive changes around their place of work. Hoping that, as one senior colleague-cum-mentor said, "in each such iteration, a few fence sitters would change their ways--to become sharper, questioning, multi-minded..."---definitely a positive step toward "Tailorism" (i.e., not "one-size-for-all")....One interesting Learning Twig (click)…..[Note: The few who question are often seen as the whistle blowers – and hence gag orders are passed.]