Infusion to be better (maybe)

A comment recently passed by me that has made me pause, reflect, and try to understand how I can do better... 

I am confronted with things all over the place, things that stand solo and disconnected from all the other things.  With DEEPdt, I don't want it to be a thing and I especially do not want it to be a solo, disconnected thing.  My approach (yet, I understand there are countless others) is to infuse design thinking into daily life. If we lead with empathy in our Users, how can we go wrong? People-centered is where I want us to start...and stay. This is an easy answer and even easier to understand why others don't see how this is possible, yet. 

My experiences and learnings of design thinking push me to be in the camp of not scheduling or creating a design thinking class. DEEP design thinking is a methodology with roots that are growing deeper and deeper yet this metho is just one approach to learning, doing, and being. I am often asked about the schedule or how it is run as a class.  I can see it being part of a Design Course (as truth be told, I feel a lot of people label projects or design work as Design Thinking) as Design has so many different methodologies to utilize. Maybe more of these thoughts can be found HERE.  

Below is a bit of writing I used in an email this afternoon (I had written it to my K4 colleagues in September). It has jogged a few nuggets in my head and will serve as reminder to help me understand how I can do better. I hope it also conveys a bit of insight into the "when to do dt" questions. 

 

"Just as we do not put life on a schedule- it just happens and we take it from there. DEEP design thinking is intentionally not a scheduled course or special here at MV. DEEPdt is just one way of many to solve a problem yet the clear difference is it's people-centered and it is the User who defines the real problem and leads us to the solution.  

 

There are little bits of every day that could be redesigned and then there are bigger, more meatier and messier chunks in life that are full of problems/needs to tackle. And as always, this infusion of DEEPdt into the school environment can come in bits or chunks.  My hope is to support you in your instructional and learning endeavors in regards to DEEPdt and the various methods, tools, exercises, and techniques design thinking has to offer you and your students."