Blackberry, once the ‘must have’ device is no longer so and may no longer even exist. Looking back on how the mighty device maker stumbled the failure is attributed to what was done and not done, but I would argue it is more about what was unseen and not thought. Ignorance of the past, present […]
Developmental Design and The Innovator’s Mindset Read More »
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.
Design Thinking, Design Making Read More »
Developmental evaluation is an approach to evaluating programs that takes account of complexity and changing conditions, supports innovation, and serves as a vehicle for adaptation for leaders seeking feedback on how to adapt to these evolving forces. It is not simply about improving programs, but developing them. From a technical point of view, this means
The Developmental Evaluation and Design Imperative Read More »
Yesterday Toronto was hit with a massive rainstorm that dumped more than 120mm of rain on parts of the city within the span of five hours knocking out power to more than 300,000 people, stranding thousands more, and even prompting a rescue of hundreds trapped on a commuter train out of the city by the
A Flood of Complexity Read More »
In April 2013 the world was horrified to learn that more than one thousand people were killed in a Bangladeshi factory used to make largely low-priced clothes for Western fashion houses. As the stories of sadness, loss and survival emerged from that rubble so too did cries of indignation and disgust from human rights groups,
Fashionably Thinking About Systems and Consumption Read More »
For the last few years Censemaking has been a forum for exploring ideas around complexity, systems, design and social innovation. It has been a space for ideas and considering some of social and evaluative ramifications of complexity as it plays out in human systems. This long-form blog has allowed for in-depth reflection on the issues
A toolkit for toolsets, skillsets and a mindset Read More »
How might we design health systems to promote health and wellbeing and not just treat illness and disease and manage infirmary and chronic conditions? What if health systems were about health? If we were to apply design thinking to health systems, what might be do? In a previous post, I suggested that knowledge translation is
Design (re)Thinking Health Systems Read More »
If a health scare manifested itself in the world and there were no journalists to cover the story, what would the impact on the public be? That is a question that lingered with me throughout the start of the 2013 Ontario Public Health Convention (TOPHC) which began with a morning dedicated to improving public health communication. Opening up
The Importance of Journalism to Public Health: 10 Years After SARS How Are We Doing? Read More »
A brilliant and comprehensive new book has been launched that brings together the best scholars working in the area of systems thinking and complexity and applying it to health. The book description can be found here along with a link to the abstract for a chapter I co-authored with Andrea Yip looking at the overlap
Handbook of Systems and Complexity in Health Read More »
What is quality when we speak of learning? In this third post in series on education and evaluation metrics the issue of quality is within graduate and professional education is explored with more questions than answers about the very nature of learning itself. But what does learning really mean and do we set the system up
The Quality Metric in Education Read More »
