By:charles Ikem
Design
Thinking can help solve the myriad of problems in our society today. By
applying the methods of design as a problem-solving machine to a broader set of
issues in social, business and the environment.
But
what is Design Thinking?.., It means applying the designer’s sensibility and
methods to problem solving. No matter what the problem is. It is a process of
innovation. I define it to first-timers as,’’thinking like a designer’’. How does a designer think.?, He gets an
idea, he asks questions, he observes, notes down, sketches, he experiments/prototypes
and then he creates, he refines it and learns from the process…the cycle will
always repeat itself sometimes in no particular order.
Design thinking has 3
phases; first is Inspiration,
second: Ideation, Third: Implementation. How might we apply
design thinking to social problems in Nigeria. Let us start with understanding the
first phase of design thinking- Inspiration.
It
has always been said that if you want to get better at what you do, then you
have to step-out, take risks, get out of your comfort zone and things like
that. If you are a business and you want to be creative enough. Then you have to
surround yourself with inspiration.
What
about our society, our communities, its leaders and policy makers? How inspired
are they. What is inspiration; it could mean getting out of your comfort-zone,
seeking-unconsciously. Inspiration is about getting to know the wider-context
of problems or opportunities.
It is well known that our leaders have
lost touch with the common-man. They live in big houses, fly jets, send their
kids to grad school abroad and most importantly…share loots. It’s hard for them
to understand the impact of issues like; poverty, unemployment, Hunger or lack
of shelter. There is a problem with our society. Not just about quants and
left-brainers. We believe there is only one answer to a question. So we say, if
you are an engineer you work in oil and gas industry, if you are an economist
you work in a bank or a trading house and then we leave politics to
politicians. This mentality is limiting our ability to widening our sources of
inspiration in solving problems in corporate management or Government.
The
Omni-presence of wicked problems is permeating our world; rising unemployment,
poverty, terrorism, financial-meltdown, crime. So tell me.., why does the
police want us to help them fight crime? We are neither armed nor intelligent..?
It is becoming obvious in our complicated world that not one discipline can
solve these problems. Many of our so-called disciplines have even failed in the
face of these wicked problems..Example is economics in the wake of the global
financial crisis.
When
we set-out to seek inspiration; it can come in many ways; through research,
observation, ethnography, immersion, collaboration. We can all be inspired to
solving problems when we know everything there is to know about the problem. You
will be marvelled on getting out there and you find out that what you think or
assume is not even the case. The way to being inspired is to start by asking
ourselves the right questions. I find this very useful- It is known as ‘The 5 Whys’.
Just see how magical the word (WHY) sounds by reading through this;
Why are there too many
young people without jobs?
Why are we corrupt?
Why are many young girls
hawking on the streets of Lagos, Onitsha and Aba?
Why can’t small businesses
grow to employ more people?
Why are water-satchets littering
our streets?
The NHS also uses ‘The 5 Whys’ as part of
their root-cause analysis of problems or errors. Here is an example; A PATIENT HAD
THE WRONG LEG AMPUTATED:
1. Why: Patient gave consent
for amputation the night before the proposed surgery to
Registrar (who was not going to
undertake procedure).
2. Why: Amputation site marked
with a biro (wrong leg).
3. Why: Registrar unaware of
hospital policy on amputation sites being marked with a skin
pencil and with bodily part
being fully visible to Doctor.
4. Why: The department had no
induction procedures for new medical staff working in
the department.
5. Why: Because “we’ve never
been asked to”. (Source: Root Cause Analysis Tool Kit. NHS,UK).
When we ask questions, we
open our thought-process and broaden our thinking. It sets us on the path to
discovery and then inspires us to action. The failure to solve our own problems
is not asking the right questions and then taking it from there. Let us now take
a scenario from the rising unemployment in Nigeria for example; the presidency
gets a
briefing from his economic
advisers and the labour minister and youth minister based on stats developed by
the bureau of statistics. We don’t know how?.But they briefed the
presidency and the conclusion was to set-up a training programme to teach young
entrepreneurs about business skills. The initiative was developed, millions
sunked in. The consultants think it was transformative and media thinks it was
ground-breaking.
Then
a year later, there are no entrepreneurs or their footprints. All gone!. This
has been the uninspiring way of developing public programmes in this country.
Every year millions of dollars is spent in training entrepreneurs People that
don’t get to where the problem is. Who told you that entrepreneurs need
business skills. Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs. Like Muhammad Yunus would
say, ‘’they know what they want and they will always learn by doing’’. No one
thought an entrepreneur how to become an entrepreneur until he becomes an
entrepreneur. So what do you want to teach an entrepreneur. For some inspiration;
start by asking why these people are entrepreneurs? Why are they not
established? Why are they not selling their goods or services or why are they
not making money? When we ask these questions, it becomes obvious whether the ‘entrepreneur’
that needs capital to buy raw materials to make clothes for his/ her
cloth-making business really need business skills/ to learn how to write a business
proposal/for a bank/that lends only to/ to the oil sector/or to devil investors,
may be.
We
start boardroom meeting believing our brands dwindling market share is not a
problem, so we jump to approve more marketing budget., Alas, the problem wasn’t
marketing, The government trains entrepreneurs believing entrepreneurs and
graduates lack business skills but they don’t, we approve fertilizer for
farmers but do they need fertiliser?., yet we have FADAMA 1,2,3,4,5,6.. to
infinity. About 80% of public development programmes in this country is not
informed by research or inspiration. So, the
government for years are just throwing good money after bad..
My
point is if we don’t seek inspiration beyond our boardrooms, classrooms,
barracks, disciplines and Aso Rock, we may all be heading for the rocks. But
thinking like a designer enables us to improve the odds of solving these
age-old, socio-economic problems.
It’s
pathetic how we may never solve any of our many problems if we don’t ask why
the problem was there in the first place. It can never be worse than it already
is. The time to expand our thinking, to getting out there, to look at each
other as partners in solution, to embrace design thinking as an approach to
finding answers to these wicked problems is now. By widening our sources of
inspiration we can better understand the contexts underlying these problems and
ultimately.., solve them.
Charles Ikem is the Design Director @ HOUSE OF LOGIC.A Design & Innovation Consultancy Based in Lagos, Nigeria. He
leads a team of abnormal youths and zombie slayers using design to
solve problems from; Telecoms to security, healthcare, financial
services and business strategy.
Twitter:@apache22
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