Continuous learning is a value that is very dear to me.
Over 25 years of professional experience and 10-plus years of semi-retired life, I have regularly attended Executive programs/events across the world at various premier institutions.
I am deeply passionate about creativity and multidisciplinary thinking and am a big fan of Edward De Bono’s works. A few years ago, I met David Kelly at TED Vancouver. That is when I came to know about the “d.school” he founded at Stanford University. The world of Design Thinking then opened up to me. Since then, I have been keen on attending the Executive Boot camp at this school. After several failed attempts, I could finally make it this September.
Design Thinking uses five steps—Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test—to create solutions that are human-centered.
My life’s work is now focused primarily on Indian culture. Whether through cultural education or entrepreneurship, bringing about an Indic renaissance is my purpose. Big-ticket ideas fascinate me. For example, how can we open 25,000 Indian vegetarian/vegan restaurants around the world? How can we tap into the energy of the millions of just-retired professionals and help them age gracefully, meaningfully, and usefully? How can we tap into the talent of empty nesters? How can we help connect a billion-plus Indians to their civilizational past apolitically? How can we nurture transdisciplinary thinkers rooted in Indic thought and solving global challenges we face today? How can we apply Indic principles of sustainability to make the world a better place? How can we strive for the well-being of every being? These are some of the ideas that I am constantly thinking about.
The boot camp definitely helped me with the structure and thinking process. The emphasis on empathy and human-centered design was not a mere concept but was an experience that I learned from. Convergence and divergence were very useful frameworks in thinking about problems and solutions. Rapid prototyping and testing were, to me, the most useful takeaways. There was nothing like immediately seeing the usefulness of an idea. The feedback loop from prototyping is actually the most important key to innovation. As far as the process of brainstorming in a group, I was a bit underwhelmed. I felt the group dynamics would not easily permit the emergence of disruptive ideas and only incremental innovations could occur. Being a lone thinker also didn’t help.
All in all, I found the four days at the “d.school” very useful. Value to shareholders or society comes from innovation, and if you seek to create value for either of these stakeholders, then I would strongly urge you to explore design thinking as a subject and eventually attend this boot camp. The faculty is very knowledgeable and teach/guide very well. Lastly, I finally understood the utility of post-it notes! I cannot imagine Design Thinking without post it notes !