Design Thinking, Charting through the Uncertainties.
When there is lack of clarity, it is only normal to go through rollercoaster of emotions - sad, angry, confused, stressed, hopeless, and these emotions are exactly what many of us are going through. In this unprecedented period of time, where we lose grasp of what we can and cannot control, it seems like many aspects of life are no longer lingering with stability and security.
Design thinking to most is a methodology for technological innovation and solving-problem but I was lucky to have found it three years back, only to figure that - empathy, defining problem, ideating solutions, prototyping and testing are the ways to redesign my life post my mother’s passing.
Revisiting 4 years back, possibly sharing the current nervousness of not knowing what the future holds, I am going back to Design Thinking (DT) for few takeaways:
1) Empathy
We see it everywhere on the net ‘check on your family, friends, and colleagues if they are doing okay’, and if there should be another person to check in with, do include ourselves. Empathising with own-self could start by asking questions that are both difficult and easy to address. For an exercise, journaling is a good start and for better understanding of our very own tendencies, write a 500-750 words on what matters and why. This exercise leads us closer to what is known as ‘wayfinding’ which will bring us closer to be doing things and works that are aligned with our interests, values, and principles.
2) AEIOU
When the whole world is under lockdown, routines are disrupted and for many people, this leads to confusion and while for some adapting is easy, this could be a different case for others, and genuinely, that is fine too. For most of us, while it may take a while to adapt, grab this working from home period to recognise few aspects that we can pay extra attention to and perhaps once MCO is uplifted, we can tackle issues at current or future work better.
Activity
What is our current routine vs previous and notice how it makes you feel? Do we enjoy our work despite it being tough? Or we feel the mundaneness is killing us softly? The realisation brings us closer to understanding our interests, strengths, and weaknesses.
Environment
Notice how we adapt with our surrounding as well as our flexibility working in a new environment. Do we feel working at home enhances our productivity or our previous work-routine is not achievable during this period? This will also give us understanding on the nature of job that would suit us best be it office environment vs plant operations or corporate vs startup in which the later is better known for flexible working culture.
Interaction
Some people love or in serious need for human interaction dose while some may be better at interacting with machines. When there is no wrong or right answer, if we start to pay attention to our tendency, we may also figure how to maximise and utilise the good times we have at work.
Objects
When at work, do we have to deal with specific devices, machines, softwares? Have we thought of how these support us to get our jobs done at fullest capacity and if there is any further enhancement needed? These could be the few questions we can raise to understand if we are supported enough to do our work.
Users
Identifying stakeholders at work and their roles in making our life at work easier (or maybe vice versa). Good interaction and engagement with the leadership team as well as colleagues play a crucial part in nurturing optimism at work. Engagement, supports, appreciation and teamwork play a part in determining how we ‘feel’ not just within work-perimeter but also in accomplishing our tasks.
3) Prototype and Test It!
This is our chance - to prototype and re-prototype when things do not work out. ‘Fail Early Fail Often’ - that was what I used to preach to my participants as I coached them throughout the stages, and may it also be a good reminder that it works the same with aspects in life when making decision. It is very humanly of us to be afraid to making mistakes, bearing losses, and we will only get better from the learnings of it.
When being hit with uncertainties and instability, it is easy to go into that mode where we feel fragile, but the only way to move when being faced with situations we cannot control, we embrace it.
Hope we get to re-design our approaches, utilising this Design Thinking takeaways to empathise with ourselves more, understanding our tendencies at work better, and to be reminded that failure will only get us somewhere when we are not only used to it but also, when we do something about it.
This article and some of the contents are adopted and adapted from my favourite author, Bill Burnett’s Designing Your Life and please visit https://designingyour.life/the-book/ to get even more information.