Design Thinking

Are you where you want to be?

Today I ran across an article at Innovation Tools with this wonderful quote: “Your processes are perfectly designed to give you the results you are getting right now.” This certainly has the ring of truth, whether you are speaking in terms of business or life.

A strategy map has similarities to goal setting in considering metrics to measure success. The underlying principles are: “you cannot manage what you cannot measure” and “you cannot measure what you cannot describe.”

So how do we design the life we want right now?

An article by Steven J Bell called Design Thinking in American Libraries applies ideas from the book “The Art of Innovation” by Tom Kelley to the library world. They are equally useful in setting goals. The IDEO method is an approach to planning or problem solving with five steps: understand, observe, visualize, evaluate and refine, and implement.

Plan creatively to build a better experience.

Regularly scheduled maintenance

Maintenance may not be generally considered sexy…but perhaps it should be. That which is not maintained disintegrates. This applies to everything…a house, a car, a business, a relationship. This is why we must make choices about what we will invest energy in, and the most efficient methods and the optimum frequency for doing so.

Stephen R Covey and Dr. Harley both talk about the importance of making positive deposits into emotional “bank accounts” and limiting withdrawals from them.

Have a system

I’ve been working on a series of cards that are designed to keep on track with personal development. I plan to publish several that make up a system to track actions in relationships in time for Valentine’s Day. They will include actions you can take to speak in each of the 5 love languages.

Leadership

Reader’s Digest provides a tool to grade the presidential candidates, with nine traits of success.