Week 04 Journal Social Innovation

Week 04 lesson is all about developing a creative way of solving problems which is design thinking, a process, an action, a protocol for solving problems and discovering new opportunities. Design thinking consists of four key elements, define the problem, create and consider many options, refine selected directions and pick the winner, execute. It helps the designer to ask a more fundamental question if it is poverty alleviation, like “Why does mass poverty exist?” which leads the team to things like improving education, efficient way of resource distribution.

What sparks my interest is David Kelley’s lecture on creative confidence; he said if we all stick with the process, if we stick with it, we will end up doing amazing things. And we will surprise ourselves at just how innovative we and our teams really are. We need to rise above the fear of judgment that we all have, that prevent us to be creative, and we should overcome the fear of being judged; By gaining confidence we reach "self-efficacy," the sense of changing the world and attain what we all set out to do.

Why design thinking is an important skill in social innovation today is that by using design thinking, it can help tackle more complex problems like finding ways to solve poverty related issues which are prevalent in Ghana and affordable healthcare issues.” It approaches problem solving from the point of view of the end user and calls for developing a deep understanding of unmeet needs, thus avoiding the pitfall of imposing the wrong solution on a community” Source: http://voices.mckinseyonsociety.com/why-social-innovators-need-design-thinking/