Design Thinking and Organizational Change: Developing a Human-Centered Culture

As practitioners work to incorporate design thinking in their innovation efforts, they often encounter roadblocks. Though comfortable employing design thinking tools and methods for product, process and service innovation, they find themselves on uncertain ground when it comes to infusing design thinking in their own organization's culture. As a result, there is a strong call for guidance on how to align company culture with a more human-centered and user-driven orientation to foster innovation and creativity in solving problems and creating new value. This paper discusses many successful endeavors in bringing about this organizational change. Examples of effective incorporation of design into organizational values and practice have been collected across a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, sales, service, and public sectors. This study demonstrates a strong marriage between organizational change processes and design thinking tools and methods. Several key themes emerge from this study. One theme involves the use of co-creation, whereby users and employees are engaged in identifying needs and developing solutions. Another theme relates to the use of an experimental process of moving from small prototypes to pilot tests to both gather information and garner organizational support. Visualization, a key tool in design thinking, is also used to develop organizational consensus around future direction and gain commitment for change. Change efforts were often facilitated by providing education and training in design practices used to incorporate user perspectives and create common understanding throughout the organization.