We have received a Collaborative Development Fund Grant from Advance HE to explore people-centred design as an enabling capability for the university educators. Our aim is to articulate the processes and values of Design Thinking (DT) in the language of the UK PSF and provide ‘ways in’ for educators to embrace DT in a practical and pragmatic manner. This is a period in HE history when staff morale and wellbeing is at a low. We are committed to non-extractive ways of work which create value for participants. Our project is designed to be enjoyable and professionally nourishing for participants. They will have the opportunity to take part in creative and thought-provoking activities and develop their knowledge and networks.
We are convinced that Design thinking (DT) has huge potential to address the priorities identified in the Advance HE leadership survey: collaboration capabilities, staff wellbeing, inclusion, communication, enabling change, integrity, belonging. That said, DT isn’t a magic bullet. We have also experienced – and conceptualised – the barriers to applying DT within universities. In our own practice we are working creatively to navigate these challenges and support each other. Our project will develop, codify, and share approaches to supporting ‘ways in’ to DT. While the overall principles of DT are proven and well established, many off the shelf resources are business-based and unrelated to HE. The UKPSF offers a useful framework to create DT methods which ‘fit’ to the activities, knowledge and values of HE staff.
