Architecture + Decision Design + Learning Spaces + Strategy with Adam Griff — DT101 E142
Design Thinking 10110 Dec 2024

Architecture + Decision Design + Learning Spaces + Strategy with Adam Griff — DT101 E142

In this episode, I explore how architectural thinking enhances strategic decision-making with Adam Griff.

Our conversation reveals how his architectural background shapes his approach to helping higher education institutions navigate complex decisions and create flexible space solutions.

We dig into the challenges of designing spaces that can adapt to unknown futures and discuss how universities can better integrate with their communities.

I particularly love how Adam frames flexibility in building design as creating platforms for future adaptations rather than just multi-purpose spaces.

We also explore the tension between academic and organizational decision-making and how to create and decide while delivering innovation in higher education.

Questions This Episode Helps You Answer

  • How does thinking like an architect help organizations make better strategic decisions?

  • What makes flexibility essential in both physical spaces and organizational processes, and how can we intentionally design for it from the beginning?

  • What elements create environments where good decisions emerge, and how can we support better decision-making outcomes?

  • How do we determine whether physical space is the best solution for achieving our organizational goals, and what questions should we ask before investing in space?

  • How can we think about buildings as adaptable platforms that support evolving human needs rather than fixed structures with predetermined uses?

  • How might universities and colleges create meaningful connections between campus development and community growth that benefit both?

  • What strategies help organizations balance the need for scholarly rigor with efficient administrative decision-making, and how can these different approaches work together effectively?

Episode Highlights

[00:00] Introduction and background on Adam Griff

[01:38] How architectural thinking shapes strategic problem-solving

[04:17] Managing diverse stakeholders in higher education contexts

[05:35] Understanding people’s needs versus asking for solutions

[07:31] Orchestrating organizational decision-making

[09:13] The importance of decision-making culture in institutions

[11:20] Building trust and managing participation in decisions

[14:15] Creating shared understanding of evidence and good decisions

[17:04] Balancing organizational conditions with decision quality

[19:38] Making decisions with incomplete information

[21:36] Academic versus administrative approaches to decisions

[24:40] Rethinking flexibility in organizational strategy

[25:25] Space as a medium for service delivery

[26:51] Designing buildings as platforms for adaptation

[29:14] Lifecycle costs and sustainable building design

[30:48] Integration of campus and community development

[33:31] Responding to demographic changes in higher education

[35:33] Finding what is "uniquely possible" for institutions

[39:12] Moving from master planning to scenario-based "playbooks"

[41:09] Closing thoughts and connecting with Adam

Questions to Help You Go Deeper

Learning

How does architectural thinking about constraints and systems change your approach to organizational challenges?

What surprised you about our discussion of decision-making quality? Why?

Leading

How might you redesign decision-making environments in your organization?

What would change if you approached strategic planning as creating a playbook rather than a rigid strategic plan?

Applying

What's one small experiment you could run next week to improve your team's decision-making space?

Choose a current project or challenge. How might it benefit from thinking about systems and constraints like an architect?

Practicing

How will you incorporate the "Is space the right medium?" question into your solution development process?

What is one idea from the episode that you will apply in the next two two weeks?

Guest Resources

Adam on LinkedIn

Adam on Academia

Gamification: How to Play

Gensler

Gensler Research & Insights

Stewart Brand's "How Buildings Learn"

The High Line, NYC

Higher education demographic/enrollment cliff

Scenario planning methodologies

COM-B behavior change model

Stranded assets

Resources I Recommend

DT101 Episodes

Radical Participatory Design + Relationships in Complex Systems Inclusive Design with Victor Udoewa — DT101 E127

Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change with Julie Dirksen — DT101 E131

Healthcare Design: Evidence-based, Business Fluent, and Change Prepared with Matt Van Der Tuyn — DT101 E140

Books

Brown, Peter C., Henry L. Roediger, and Mark A. McDaniel. Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Cambridge, Mass: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014. -- Orchestrating good decisions requires understanding how people learn. Before people can decide about something new they must learn the information they need to know to make a good decision and what constitutes a good decision in this context. Read chapter 8.

Ariely, Dan. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. Revised and Expanded edition, First Harper Perennial edition published. Harper Business & Economics. New York: Harper Perennial, 2010. -- Ariely walks you through ways we make decisions that conflict with classic economic rationality, like: The Effect of Expectations: Our preconceptions and expectations significantly influence our experiences and decisions. For instance, people report greater pain relief from more expensive placebos, demonstrating how price can affect perceived value. The Cost of Ownership: Once we own something, we tend to overvalue it (the "endowment effect").

Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work. New York: Random House Books, 2014. -- Don’t trust your gut. It hates you. You’ll learn how to slow down and avoid becoming a cautionary tale like the ones in this book.

Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. First paperback edition. Psychology/Economics. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. -- "Thinking, Fast and Slow" reveals how our minds use both quick instincts and careful analysis to make choices, helping innovators design solutions that work with human psychology rather than against it.

Thaler, Richard H., and Cass R. Sunstein. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Money, Health, and the Environment. Final edition. New York: Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2021. -- Nudge "Nudge" reveals how small changes in how choices are presented can dramatically impact decision-making and behavior at scale, while preserving freedom of choice.

I'd love to hear what insights you're taking away from this exploration of architecture, strategy, and organizational design. Share your thoughts and stay updated at https://fluidhive.com/design-thinking-101-podcast/

Stay lucky ~ Dawan

Avsnitt(145)

Designing for the Greater Good, Strategy + Design Thinking, and Measuring Design Thinking with Jeanne Liedtka — DT101 E1

Designing for the Greater Good, Strategy + Design Thinking, and Measuring Design Thinking with Jeanne Liedtka — DT101 E1

Welcome to the Design Thinking podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. In each episode, you’ll learn to apply design thinking to your goals and challenges. Our guests, who come from a wide variety of industries, will share stories, lessons, ideas, experience, and insights from practicing, leading, and teaching design thinking. In this first episode, our guest is the incredible Jeanne Liedtka. Jeanne has been involved in the corporate strategy field for over 30 years. She’s a Harvard Business School graduate and a professor at the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. In addition, she’s a prolific author whose works include The Catalyst: How You Can Lead Extraordinary Growth, which won the Business Week best innovation books of 2009, and, most recently, Design Thinking for the Greater Good Jeanne wandered into design thinking when she was searching for a way to be more effective in teaching managers about strategic planning. In contrast, she points out, most people think of strategic planning as a deadly, dull task of filling out paperwork that never goes anywhere. In her search for ways to make the process more interesting and to convey its importance, she hit on design. In our conversation today, she relates how she began using architecture as a metaphor for strategic thinking. In this episode, Jeanne offers insight into how to teach design thinking. The learning experience should be project-based, she explains. The project should matter to the people who are working on it. The learning experience should also be delivered in a way that meets where these people are in that project and avoids overwhelming them. She’ll also discuss some of the challenges that are facing design thinking as it continues to evolve. Jeanne explains why it is that the more you move into designing strategy and policy, the harder it is to use some of the powerful tools of design thinking. In This Episode [02:17] — Jeanne kicks things off by sharing some of the journey that brought her to where she is today, and explores how she discovered and developed an interest in design thinking. [06:48] — After spending five or six years exploring design thinking in business, it became obvious to Jeanne that a lot of the most powerful uses were happening in the social sector. [08:08] — What were some of the surprises that Jeanne found while writing her most recent book? [10:25] — Jeanne talks about what she would say or what advice she would give if she encountered someone at a party who was interested in bringing design thinking into what they do. [13:07] — We hear more about Jeanne has seen the initial steps of getting out into the world (and out of the conference room) in terms of common challenges. [16:38] — Jeanne discusses an example of what she has been talking about being done particularly well. [20:05] — What are some of the emerging challenges facing design thinking as a methodology or toolkit? [22:55] — Dawan takes a moment to talk about design thinking at the organizational level, in terms of reliability. Jeanne then talks about how things in design thinking are evolving on the measurement front. [27:38] — From Dawan’s perspective, one of the benefits to having more measurement tools is related to having conversations with funders or people who need a different kind of evidence before trying a new way of solving problems. [27:59] — In order to promulgate the method, we need to get serious about measurement, Jeanne explains. [29:10] — Jeanne expands on the previous topic of emerging developments in the realm of strategy and design thinking by giving a specific example of the Children’s Medical Center Dallas. [34:17] — One of the things that Jeanne is committed to is thinking about how to help people take this toolkit and accelerate the ways we’re using it toward more strategic policy-level questions. [34:53] — What are some of the key things to keep an eye on with regard to how design thinking pushes into strategy and implementation? [37:12] — Dawan is often asked how we prototype the intangible. [39:41] — Jeanne talks about how design criteria factor into her approach to design thinking. [43:51] — Jeanne offers a specific example of what she has been talking about. [46:12] — What Jeanne has been talking about goes back to the idea of “job to be done,” she explains. [47:22] — One of the other things that comes to mind for Dawan involves people’s first introduction to design thinking. Jeanne then talks about the relationship between design thinking and the assumptions that we carry into creating new stuff. [51:08] — Jeanne talks more about making a good design team inside an organization. [57:18] — We hear more about bringing people to a point where they can comfortably facilitate or lead design experiences with others. [61:54] — What does Jeanne think about the “inside outsiders” in larger organizations? [64:11] — Jeanne talks about what she would do if she had a magic wand she could wave and get thousands of people excited about researching a particular topic, and sharing the results with her. [67:41] — Where can people find more about Jeanne, her work, and her books? Links and Resources Jeanne's website Jeanne at the University of Virginia Jeanne on LinkedIn Jeanne on Twitter The Catalyst: How You Can Lead Extraordinary Growth by Jeanne Liedtka Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers by Jeanne Liedtka The Physics of Business Growth: Mindsets, Systems, and Processes by Jeanne Liedtka Solving Business Problems with Design Thinking: Ten Stories of What Works by Jeanne Liedtka The Designing for Growth Field Book: A Step-by-Step Project Guide by Jeanne Liedtka Design Thinking for the Greater Good: Innovation in the Social Sector by Jeanne Liedtka Frank Gehry Children’s Medical Center Dallas Peter Senge

1 Maj 20181h 9min

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