A Design Thinking Attitude

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) philosopher 

My favourite definition of Design Thinking it's got to do with finding the insight among chaos.My favorite insight  about Design Thinking is Martin Heidegger's THROWNNESS concept.

Design Thinking requires a set of professional skills grounded in operating in unstable contexts. Design Thinking mindset it's got to do with being able to coop with wildly different people from yourself and dealing with situations that are radically new... It's got to do with feeling comfortable with unexpected, unstructured and unpredictable; Design Thinking is about finding meaning and understanding out of human attitudes and mindsets that an unstable situation brings up.

Design-Thinking-Thrownnes is got to do with developing a survival intelligence applied to a constant evolving enviroment, totally focus on "think in order to act" versus think to "think some more"

Design Thinking it's got to do with THROWNNESS (German: Geworfenheit): It is a concept introduced by German philosopher Martin Heidegger to describe the interactions of the subject with its surroundings in the everyday life, that causes it to act upon instincts, immediate reactions to other people's language and actions, "flow with the situation," and immediate interpretations.
Once one accepts that not to act is also an action, Heidegger notes that one is 'thrown' into situations without being able to reflect on them first, for to reflect on them (not act) is also something that can be interpreted as an action. One therefore must rely on instinctual interpretations, and go with the flow.

Design Thinking is got to do with assuming that you are THROWN into a situation where you haven't been invited in most of the cases: It's about being ALWAYS AN OUTSIDER and feeling comfortable with it.

Design Thinking is about staying calm and focus under pressure: It's about listening to your instincts among the chaos and saying YES and NO clearly to you and the rest of the world.

Design Thinking is about finding synchronicity and serendipity. It's part of that Thrownness Mindset that needs to be on constant "alert mood", because it knows that sooner or later that knowledge is going to be needed: It is another kind of survival instinct.

Design Thinkers is about empathy: They know that they need to gain their audience trust in every single situation, therefore they need to figure out how to connect with people and creating meaningful connections.

Design Thinking is got to do with honesty. Experienced Design Thinkers know very well how to do their jobs...and one of them is understanding people and their social and emotional relationships in order to manipulate...but totally focus on an honest goal (Maybe this could be a nice definition of empathy: Being able to truly understanding other people's insights and weakness, and being respectful and honest about the use of that knowledge)


Design Thinking attitude is got to do with all written above. It's also the impossible search of understanding the DNA of millions of people...and  secretly say to oneself "I told you!"

This is a great video by Fred Collopy (Case Western Reserve University) and their project "Managing as Designing"