Design Thinking for the Greater Good: Innovation in the Social Sector

by Jeanne Liedtka, Randy Salzman, Daisy Azer

Facing especially wicked problems, social sector organizations are searching for powerful new methods to understand and address them. Design Thinking for the Greater Good goes in depth on both the how of using new tools and the why. As a way to reframe problems, ideate solutions, and iterate toward better answers, design thinking is already well established in the commercial world. Through ten stories of struggles and successes in fields such as health care, education, agriculture, transportation, social services, and security, the authors show how collaborative creativity can shake up even the most entrenched bureaucracies—and provide a practical roadmap for readers to implement these tools.The design thinkers Jeanne Liedtka, Randy Salzman, and Daisy Azer explore how major agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the Transportation and Security Administration in the United States, as well as organizations in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, have instituted principles of design thinking. In each case, these groups have used the tools of design thinking to reduce risk, manage change, use resources more effectively, bridge the communication gap between parties, and manage the competing demands of diverse stakeholders. Along the way, they have improved the quality of their products and enhanced the experiences of those they serve. These strategies are accessible to analytical and creative types alike, and their benefits extend throughout an organization. This book will help today's leaders and thinkers implement these practices in their own pursuit of creative solutions that are both innovative and achievable.

Genres: Business, Design

354 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 5, 2017

About the author

ِAn American strategist and professor of business administration at the Darden School of the University of Virginia, particularly known for her work on strategic thinking, design thinking and organic growth.

Reviews

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Innovation is not restricted just to the technology industry and big business, even social-sector organizations are looking for new ways to benefit from innovation to help them and their challenges. This book seeks to transplant the concept of design thinking and provide a new, powerful way of thinking and working.

It is an interesting read about a challenging implementation, built around case studies in sectors such as social services, education, agriculture and healthcare, showing how ‘big business’ thinking and collaborative working can yield benefits, even if it is not necessarily an easy shoe-in for many. Metaphorical blood, sweat and tears may need to be expended, but the sacrifice may be worth it. The focus is on how big government-backed agencies in the USA as well as others in Canada, the UK and Australia, have took design thinking to their heart to reap many benefits and boost service to stakeholders.

When suitably deployed, design thinking can even kick the most entrenched bureaucrat out of a complacent state, it is claimed, and the authors give practical advice and tools to achieve this aim. It is a specialist read but it will have you smiling and being frustrated at the same time due to the excellent examples given, such as the ‘case of the smoking cucumber’ that created a right old hoo-hah for the US Office of Personnel Management (you will need to read the book for more!).

The book expertly introduces and seduces the reader to the concept of design thinking. The only downside is the book’s style as it grated a bit to this reviewer. It seemed to portray mixed messages and wavered between being engaging and waffling. You may need a bit more a focus on the book that should be strictly necessary, which can be a risk if you are not seized on the ideas being discussed. Yet, if you can get on with it, then there is certainly a lot of goodness waiting for you. Fortunately, once you get to the actual cases, the waffle quotient is much reduced, so you can focus on implementation stories and learn from them.

It is worthy of closer consideration if you have a need for its intelligence.

[Daniel Te · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the ideas in this book are really cool and really essential for anyone planning to enter any kind of entrepreneurial or social innovation pursuit. Design thinking is truly an innovative way of thinking about things. However, I feel that this book got bogged down a lot by the fact that there are 10 case studies. Some of them definitely got repetitive or redundant towards the end. I think this book could have done well with five case studies and still have gotten the point across clearly. The last section is yet another case study, which I found hard to get through having already read 10.

I like the ideas, dislike the execution in this book.

[Lance McNeill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical framework for design thinking in many different contexts

I thoroughly enjoyed learning from these authors. They offered an effective mix of case studies, overview of tools, advice, etc. This is a practical book for those in the social sector, government and business.

[Tamilselvan]

Nice book

[Jimmie Munoz, Jr.]

Good book to understand design thinking.

A great overview of methodology to bring innovation spirit into projects and organizations as a whole. Creating a culture is design needs innovation through confidence and team member pride is ownership. This is a good book to start understanding design thinking because the examples are concrete and real world, while the authors do their best to break down their meaning through lessons learned.