On 21 June 2018, School of Gumption was honored to partner the
Director of Design For Change, Singapore to co-design and co-facilitate a
one-day Design Thinking workshop for a primary school in the East. The
aim of this workshop was to empower 30 innovation champions, including
teachers, middle managers and school leaders to lead and build
innovation culture in the school.
One of SoG’s underlying
believes was that each of us hold a deep inner wisdom and an unlimited
creative source within, when it comes to innovation for a purpose. As
such, in designing the workshop, we focused a lot in facilitating the
environment and conditions for our participants to access their
intelligence of the heart, connecting back to the original purpose of
why the participants have chosen education as their careers on the first
day.
We selected role play on user interview to bring out the
deepest empathy in the participants’ hearts. One participant from each
group was requested to step into the being of their “user”, truly living
the thought, feeling, behaviors and languages, while the others would
assume the roles of interviewers and observers. These educators suddenly
realized with the depth of their being how “difficult” pupils were
struggling with the lack of parental care, the feeling these pupils had
when being transferred to a new school. The role-play interview
successfully opened the mind and the heart of all the participants with a
radical insight “We thought we understand; now we realize we don’t”.
We also guided the participants through a mindful envisioning process,
when we requested the participants to sit comfortably with their eyes
closed, and visualize a desired future that they wish to create for
their pupils. What do change look like? Do you see your pupils there?
What are they doing? What are the looks on their faces? Do you feel what
they feel? Connect to your feeling now when you see the looks on your
pupils’ faces? How do you feel now? What if you can bring about that
change for your pupils? Now, open your eyes and sketch a collective
vision of what you visualized with your group.
Silence across the room. Participants were so connected to their feeling. I have never felt such a sense of deep love vibrating through a room having 30 educators. All of us know, we are here to make changes for a purpose.
And indeed, a strong sense of purpose fueled the buzzing discussion and enthusiastic prototype building later on.
After the one-day workshop on Design Thinking with these passionate
educators, I thought about innovation as very much the work of heart,
hand and head together. In building the culture of innovation, we need
to facilitate the environment when people are often connected to their
heart’s purpose, for it is the pathway that opens the door for the head
and the hands to build a better future for all.
