Roger Martin

Setting the Table: The Making of Strategy

design, innovation, systems thinking / By

This final post on Strategic Design in the series outlines the integration of theory and practice, emphasizing its adaptability to complex environments. It describes critical steps including context setting, engagement, and envisioning futures. Strategic design fosters effective decision-making and learning, positioning organizations to thrive amid uncertainty through collaborative and informed approaches.

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Strategy for Leadership By Design: A Brief Introduction

design, innovation / By

Strategy isn’t just about planning—it’s about preparing to meet the future, to shape it, and not just react to what comes our way. In conditions of complexity, the organizations that invest in thinking clearly are the ones that perform better, adapt faster, and lead with confidence. Why engage in strategy making? Just as a sailor

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Integrative Thinking And Empathy in Systems

design, education & learning, systems thinking / By

Award-winning Canadian author and University of Toronto professor David Gilmour came under social/media fire for comments made about his stance of only including male, middle-aged writers in his list of readings for his undergraduate English courses because that is the experience he resonates with most. Drawing on what you know is both wise and foolish when looking at it from the perspective of systems change and by looking within and beyond our own boundaries we can see how.

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Design Thinking, Design Making

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Designing and thinking
Critics of design thinking suggest that it forgets making while advocates suggest that it extends itself beyond the traditional constraints of design’s focus on the brief. What separates the two is still the implications associated with making something and the question: can we be good designer thinkers without being design makers? This post looks at the relationship between design thinking and making.

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Defining the New Designer

design, evaluation, innovation, systems thinking / By

It’s been suggested that anyone who shapes the world intentionally is a designer, however those who train and practice as professional designers question whether such definition obscures the skill, craft, and ethics that come from formal disciplinary affiliation. Further complicating things is the notion that design thinking can be taught and that the practice of

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Quid nunc cogitat? In search of a definition of design thinking

design, systems thinking / By

Design thinking is a concept that has gained much purchase in the creative industries and beyond, but what does it mean and does it matter?  Determining an answer to this question might mean the difference between advancing it further or ending the concept’s use altogether. The Latin form of the question of “what is design

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