How Design and Systems Thinking Can Help Elevate Business and Change the World

2020 will go down in history as being a nourish year as there has been social unrest, global pandemic. However, 2021 will bigger and more important as it will define us as humans. Income equity is getting worst, social mobility and poor education infrastructure. Although a vaccine has been found there are lasting ramifications from lose of jobs, health inequality, government debt, environmental and countless other shifts.    

I have been lucky enough to work with a variety of businesses, ranging from startups to large corporations, including Nike, Visa, and Lego. The wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has given way to various current business blockages that can be efficiently overcome by design thinking, systems thinking, and other well-planned strategies. His expertise goes a long way in assisting businesses to harness their creativity, think differently, and use new plus improved ways to efficiently solve problems.

Systems thinking is a mindset to think, communicate and learn about systems to make the full patterns clearer, improve and share the understanding of problems and see how to face them effectively.

Systems thinking is all about finding a wider view of looking at problems. It is about moving from a linear thought process to a well-rounded one that aims to connect dots outside of the central problem or situation.

 Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many challenges have presented themselves to businesses – especially startups with limited teams and funds, adding to the market challenges that have existed for years. With the pandemic being the most pressing issue of the year 2020, businesses are looking for advice on how to stay afloat during these hard times. Startups often tend to look at specific problems they are trying to solve rather than the larger picture.

The best course of action for business owners is to include stakeholders and customers in their problem solving and creative processes. This technique can help businesses break through barriers and creative blockages faster and achieve greater outcomes. Essentially, this process can help businesses adopt a holistic approach of problem solving, rather than a unilateral path. This process, however, can be a lengthy exercise that requires trust from all concerned parties.

How does one measure the success of business-building activities?

Partnering with stakeholders and building trust between a business and its customers is no small feat. Success is really seen on a case-by-case basis; but it can also be seen in the progress of knowing target customers and how well their problems are solved by a business’s services.”

Moreover, this progress is measured based on the energy exchange between the community being provided a service, stakeholders, and a business. Energy exchanges are simply the value given versus the value received.

It is in the interest of businesses to step out of their usual realms, and offer their partnership to unsuspecting or other sectors in order to build crucial and worthy trust between the public, stakeholders, and a business. For example, Disney graciously granted space to the NBA during the pandemic. The worldwide pandemic has caused businesses to naturally practice their design and systems’ thinking skills. Among the many questions, new businesses have during these difficult times, a relevant one that has stood out it is: How can businesses strive to recover or rebuild after the hit from the pandemic?

Businesses must have resilience. Except for large businesses that boast of massive worldwide corporations, most are unable to think and adapt quickly and end up placing themselves at a bit of a risk. Resilience in business can be seen in two ways. One being how well a business understands its customers; and two, how well it understands its business model and what its products or services are trying to achieve.

Through thorough and threadbare knowhow about these two aspects, businesses can use innovation and creativity to adjust their business operations according to trends. This adjustment will help a business sustain themselves even during worldwide pandemics. For example, a famous beer company in Europe, during the start of the pandemic, went on to produce their own hand sanitiser to minimize the loss in revenue from lockdown orders.

The beauty in building resilience in business and using design and systems thinking is that any business can learn and adopt it, no matter how diverse their business model is. Alignment in a business vision should be agreed on from the beginning. Of course, as a business develops, things are certain to change. However, the alignment of a business from its birth allows for flexibility and adaptability with respect to scaling, who to partner with and why, for what reasons, and what step to take next.

Design thinking will continue to evolve far into the future. It is crucial for businesses to attract and support a clear vision and team. It would be a dream for both customers and businesses if all business owners decide to adopt design thinking. The market world, in this way, will not run out of problems to solve. And, this is exactly why systems thinking will not just be increasingly useful but will create a worldwide market that is ideally more equal.

As some key takeaways for businesses and entrepreneurs, it is important to keep an open mind, and to remember to never assume that they know everything about a problem, solution, customer, or what the world needs next.

This is why systems’ thinking is so essential. Businesses should aim to make the world and market a better place. Businesses have the power to create solutions alongside a moral code, and systems thinking can help this shine through, as well.

Business owners not only have the power to create the next best technology, but to help design a better world.

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 The new P&L podcast hosted by Paul Spiers centered around giving viewers valuable information on all things business and innovation. The 44th episode featured the guest Daniel Tuitt, a business and service strategist and designer, innovator, speaker, and systems’ thinking specialist.

https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/18457/439408/the-new-p-l-speaks-to-design-systems-thinking-specialist-daniel-tuitt