Continuous improvement

VFrom the outset, the focus was consistently on the needs of the beneficiaries. Nevertheless, openness to results was also assumed. Design thinkers assume that problems and difficulties can be solved better if the affected users are integrated into various phases of the process. Through their assistance, changes receive a positive corrective.

For the PHZH self-assessment project, it was therefore agreed to include around 50 employees in a participation-oriented evaluation workshop. They had to select three development projects in which concrete improvements could be expected within nine months:

• A concrete revision of the management principles
• A possible reorientation of the "MAS Innovation" to be introduced
• Align project management & personnel development with employee needs

What is Design Thinking?

Every project starts with a problem, which ends after more or less time with one or more solutions. What is new about Design Thinking is that one does not work for a long time on a definitive end product, but that one approaches a problem in multiple loops (iteration) in such a way that every new insight is directly incorporated into the solution and that by means of prototyping and testing with the stakeholders it is directly tested whether a solution works or not.

The PHZH also decided in favour of Design Thinking because the study leaders realised that problems could be solved better,

• when people from different disciplines work together to develop a question and look at it from different perspectives,

All the participants needed was the motivation to see their prototypes simply as an idea.

• when the needs and motivations of people are taken into account through targeted methods,
• and when, by building prototypes, ideas take on a tangible form that can then be tested repeatedly and iteratively.

Iterative understanding and observation

Different phases accompany an optimal design thinking process. Observation and understanding involves different ways of approaching a market situation or a customer, discussing goals, and exploring what is happening in the market and with the customer (this also discusses constraints). However, in order to give colour to the "grey theory", users are either observed using a solution or directly asked what they do with possible solutions. For example, in the MAS Innovation project, different stakeholders were interviewed to find out why the previous MAS failed.

Working out a point of view

When developing a point of view, it is important to draw on, interpret and weight the collected findings. By means of storytelling and visualization, it was possible to find in-depth insights of failure from the collected information, which enabled all participants to define a common point of view and to condense the diverse information.

Find new ideas

When finding ideas, we can use various processes and procedures such as brainstorming or nugget frame and other methods to help team members to find the right ideas.

Mistakes are the most important part of organisational learning and an important basis for further improvement perspectives and development steps.

motivate them to live out their creativity.

The aim of this phase is to develop and visualize as many and different ideas as possible.

Here, a question is also evident, which is, "What do we need to do to make our topic fail straight up?" This question approach should help teams tolerate any aspects when brainstorming. In a second round of brainstorming, the question could be flipped to generate positive ideas.

In this way, team members discuss topics or areas that they would have previously considered negative or somehow wrong.

Develop prototypes

Design thinking works with a variety of elements to quickly find new ideas and concepts, not to categorize them, but to first make them visible and then more tangible. Initial prototypes can take the form of plasticine, small role plays or filmed processes. Any materials are helpful to motivate stakeholders to generate better feedback on a solution(s).

Challenges and "Learnings

For academics and university staff, the playful approach, the iterative way of working is often unusual.

The team of the PHZH innovation project invested a lot of energy in developing a formidable prototype that was actually only supposed to convey an idea.

ly new. Normally, during a presentation or a lecture, they have to reflect on every word, formulate perfectly - mistakes seem to be unforgivable.

In Design Thinking, however, we work in exactly the opposite way: Mistakes should be made, because we assume that in this way we can learn immediately and quickly and change and improve our project, so the overriding credo.

Conclusion on MAS Innovation

Finally, a team from the Zurich University of Teacher Education has materalised a real alternative (idea) with the prototype "Innovation Bus". It has developed an original trial balloon of what continuing education could look like in the future. The innovative proposal understands continuing education as a process in which the school travels to the learners or stakeholders.

These would then not - as in the classical sense - travel to the University of Teacher Education in Zurich, but would take up the topic of "innovation" in workshops of a different kind.

However, in order for such concepts to be implemented, the client must also be willing to take the step towards unconventional solutions. Companies would have to show a clear commitment, a new understanding of change and improvement.

However, something like this is only based on an error culture that is actually lived and not just proclaimed.