Make design matter

Hmm. Not so sure about this one. Recommended by someone on the Design Thinkers course in Amsterdam, Make Design Matter doesn't do much for me. Whilst the overall thesis is noble, and there may be one or two points that make you think for more than a millisecond, for the most part the book comprises 'pithy aphorisms' in large text juxtaposed against 'inspirational' images.

If concepts like 'Create Synergies', 'Cross-fertilise', and 'Make It Different' set your mind ablaze with new ideas, then its worth a read. Otherwise I'd stay well clear. All a wee bit trite for my liking.

This gets a ranking of zero post-it notes I'm afraid.

The ones I have read...

Here are a few of the books I have been working through recently. Unfortunately the pile that I haven't read is still larger than the pile I have...

The next step is to write brief summaries of each of these - when time allows! In the interim though, I'd highly recommend reading the short list below. All books are scored by the number of post-its I use to mark the pages. The higher the count, the more interesting & insightful the book.

Ten Types of Innovation, by Larry Keeley. This is a brilliantly insightful analysis of how to drive successful innovation in a disciplined, methodical manner. Incredibly well written. (13 post-its - I am surprised this number is not higher...)

Communicating The New, by Kim Erwin. Reading this made me realise why many of the approaches we're using in our workshops are working so well. A brilliant read, full of great examples and advice on how to communicate more effectively, and in particular how to design experiences to help communicate information and insights. (25 post-its)

The Functional Art, by Alberto Cairo. In an age when we are saturated with information, and surrounded by information graphics designed by people whose aesthetic concerns often over-ride their grasp of science, this book provides a wonderfully clear guide on how to produce effective, powerful meaningful information graphics. (27 post-its)

Design Thinkers Academy - Amsterdam

I recently attended a fantastic service design & design thinking training course with the Design Thinkers Academy in Amsterdam.

The course was absolutely brilliant: very carefully thought out and planned, carefully selected content, and incredibly well facilitated by Adam St Lawrence, Marc Stickdorn (author of 'This is Service Design Thinking'), and Markus Hormeb.

The course was attended by relatively diverse group from across Europe and the US, and almost all the particiapnts had significant hands-on work experience in design thinking and service design. This meant the quality of the discussion around different tools and methodologies was just fantastic - a real source of value.

Lego Serious Play in Boston

In October 2013 I had the great pleasure of attending a Lego Serious Play Facilitation course in Boston, run by Robert Rasmussen. Robert is one of the founders of the Lego Serious Play play approach and a fantastic facilitator. I always find it interesting when you are able to learn not only from the content, but also just from observing.

We had a very strong group, with experienced practitioners from both the creative industries, business and academia which made for some robust discussions around facilitation styles and methodology.

The great advantage of using a physical thinking tool such as lego to explore and model ideas and concepts is that when you're building models using your hands - or 'thinking through your hands - you are using both sides of your brain (left brain for right hand, and right brain for left hand).

This whole brain thinking has a strong and direct impact on the type of ideas that you generate when working with Lego, and I think everyone in our group found that this materially changed the nature of the ideas and solutions we generated in a very positive way.