How can design thinking help ‘reboot’ our post-Covid-19 world to create ‘new normal’ that benefits everyone?
- Businesses, governments and civil society look at human-centred, collaborative approach to tackling world’s volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity
- Experts offer insights into developing prosperous, equitable and sustainable future at Hong Kong Design Centre’s two-day online Unleash! E-Forum
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The recurring spread of the coronavirus disease, Covid-19 – which has focused our attention on the increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, or VUCA, in the world today – has given us an opportunity for an unprecedented global “reboot”.
At least 90 per cent of executives are convinced that the Covid-19 crisis will “fundamentally change the way they do business over the next five years”, according to a report published in June by management consulting company, McKinsey.
Yet the same survey shows that only 21 per cent of them believe they have the expertise, resources and commitment to pursue new growth successfully.
As we rethink our daily routines, with society, governments and businesses forced to rapidly change the way we live, learn and work, we can create a “new normal” that will be not only better than the old one, but also benefit all members of society. And design thinking can help us achieve it.
Public and private sector discussions in recent years have increasingly focused on how design thinking – a human-centred and collaborative approach to creative problem-solving – will be key to addressing the challenges of the VUCA world.
Design thinking was also the theme of last month’s online Unleash! E-Forum, organised by Hong Kong Design Centre (HKDC), which saw more than 20 speakers offer insights into how design thinking can help create a future that is prosperous, fair and sustainable.
“There’s a saying that we should not let a crisis go to waste, which means that whatever we have learned from the crisis, we must make our society better,” Ada Wong, director of Ednovators – a Hong Kong charitable group of educators helping to co-create and foster a more student-centric learning environment, told the event held on July 30 and 31.
The e-forum heard that in the future design thinking will be more important than ever before.
Try to walk in someone else’s shoes
Empathy was the one word frequently mentioned by speakers during the two days.
“Empathy is about understanding your users or customers, and being in their shoes … feeling for them,” Elaine Ann, founder of Interaction Design Association Hong Kong Chapter said. “That means you adapt with what the market needs.”
One example of this is Tencent Health’s process to create an online health care platform offering timely assistance and advice to its users across mainland China during the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak.
“What we did was we really thought about [things] from a user’s point of view.” Alexander Ng, vice-president of Tencent Healthcare, said.
“In China, getting appointments with doctors, getting prescriptions … is very, very difficult. And it takes you a whole day. There’s a lot of information asymmetry within China. So we try to equalise that.”
Time to think differently
Marcus Lui, executive director of Design Thinking in Action – Asia, told the e-forum that the pandemic and economic downturn have forced businesses to explore design thinking because customer behaviour has changed, and what used to work may not do so anymore.
“I often say design – whether it’s design thinking or design – is only noticed when things don’t work,” he said. “It’s about trying to change the status quo and trying to improve on the status quo.”
Stephen Wong, founder and lead curator of Design Thinking In Action – Asia, said: “At the end of the day, it’s a mindset.
“To institutionalise design thinking, management should understand how design thinking is different from the regular decision-making process and innovation process.”
Although companies have been feeling the pressure of digital transformation for some time, the Covid-19 pandemic has made it a much more urgent concern.
Dwayne Serjeant, executive director – experience design of EY, told the e-forum that people remain at the heart of design thinking.
“Transformation is about: humans at the centre; innovation at scale; and technology at speed,” he said. “If you get those three components right, you have real creation for your customer’s business.”
Everyone can play a part
The e-forum also heard that co-creation for innovation is another integral part of achieving successful change through design thinking.
Patti Hunt, founder and director of MAKE Studios, said co-creation starts with businesses listening with an open mind to the perspectives of multiple stakeholders.
“It is a way to develop a conversation that is generative and lets the group come towards [developing] the possible solution, rather than just follow [one person’s] opinion about it,” she said.
“To align the different perspectives so that the efficient and effective solutions can emerge, the dominant opinion should be minimised. It’s not about egos, it’s about the ecosystem.”
If anything, the pandemic has brought into focus the realisation that we are all in this world together – and we should work together to solve the problems we face.
Let’s start with reimagining health care
“I think people have learned some lessons, and they understood that you cannot go very far by going alone – you need to walk together,” Ada Wong said.
Dr Fan Ning, chairman of the Hong Kong NGOs Health In Action and Forget Thee Not, said: “Health care is a good platform to engage people.
“If we can have a very good model, we can have something that can engage people from different backgrounds, from the grassroots up to maybe experts and medical professionals, and also social workers and the business sector.
“Using health, we can make Hong Kong people look to the future.”
