Systems Thinking + Design Thinking: Moving from What Was and What Is to What Could Be

While systems thinking helps us understand problems more fully before jumping to quick solutions, design thinking helps us create unique and often non-obvious solutions.  What if we combined these two approaches? That’s exactly what Peter Coughlan and Colleen Ponto will help us do in this 90-minute webinar.

Peter and Colleen will present a new framework that blends systems thinking and design thinking in order to more effectively address current challenges.  Participants will learn specific tools from both approaches and they will experience firsthand the benefits of this new integration through practice and application on real world problems.

Participants will:

• Better understand the benefits of combining systems thinking and design thinking
• Learn specific systems thinking and design thinking tools
• Practice using a new framework to solve real world problems

Colleen Ponto, Ed.D., is a core faculty member of the Organization Systems Renewal (OSR) Graduate Program, a program in the design and leadership of systemic organizational change. She also teaches at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute which offers an MBA in Sustainable Systems where she serves as adjunct faculty.  Systems thinking is at the heart of Colleen’s teaching and consulting and she specializes in helping clients develop their systems thinking skills in order to design and realize their preferred future.

Peter Coughlan, Ph.D., is a new member of the OSR faculty team and is a partner at IDEO, a global design and innovation consultancy. Peter is a founder of IDEO’s transformation practice, which uses a design thinking approach to help clients with systemic change informed by customer needs. Peter has worked in a range of different industries and organizations of differing stages of maturity, from hospital systems to high-tech startups. Through his client work and teaching, he has recently begun to deepen his exploration of the integration of design thinking and systems thinking.

Conference call: Webinar link to be provided shortly

To register please email Leslie Chamberlain, OSR Support Staff member at v-chambl@seattleu.edu or call the OSR office at 206-296-5898.