Design Thinking as a Management Model
I have argued many times in this blog that design thinking is not only an innovation method but also a powerful general purpose management method.
Jeneanne Rae in a recent post on design thinking in BusinessWeek, talks about the success P&G is having with this approach as a management model. To quote:
In his new book, The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation, P&G CEO A.G. Lafley explains the difference between the two methods: “Business schools tend to focus on inductive thinking (based on directly observable facts) and deductive thinking (logic and analysis, typically based on past evidence),” he writes. “Design schools emphasize abductive thinking—imagining what could be possible. This new thinking approach helps us challenge assumed constraints and add to ideas, versus discouraging them.”
For the cognitive designer then the question is how do we rethink leadership programs, management processes and other aspects of organizational design to support or even inspire abductive inference?
