Change Your Space, Change Your Culture: How Engaging Workspaces Lead to Transformation and Growth

Chapter 8Social and Engaging Design

Design thinking has come to be defined as combining empathy for the context of a problem, creativity in the generation of insights and solutions, and rationality in analyzing and fitting various solutions to the problem context.

—Wikipedia, “Design Thinking”¹

On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy presented an audacious goal to a joint session of Congress. The United States would put men on the moon and bring them safely home before the end of the decade. After delivering his clear and compelling vision, Kennedy handed the ball to the engineers of NASA.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stood on the moon. That's why Kennedy's speech has become the gold standard for presenting a grand vision and marshaling the people, energy, and resources to accomplish it.

That was then.

In 2011, Lew Horne of CBRE, had a vision for the future of his office. But he knew that achieving the goal would come through collaboration rather than the “Kennedy model” of leadership. He could not just make a speech and hand the ball to others. Lew had to remain engaged with those who would work the plan. He did not need to know much about design, technology, or the workplace of the future, but he had to be willing to work, experiment, and learn.

The problems faced today do not respond to the old-style “expert solutions.” No one benefits from the designs that parachute in from high altitude. Today, the human factor is more important than ever. We live in an era of design thinking ...