Human-Centeredness And Innovation At Design Thinking Ireland With Holly O’Driscoll

With Holly O’Driscoll – Founder and CEO of Ampersand Innovation.

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

I’m focused on bringing more human-centeredness to the world via my company, Ampersand Innovation. The name comes from the importance of AND in everything we do—people & ideas, profitable & sustainable, human-centered & strategic.  I love supporting clients to unleash the potential of people and ideas via strategy, people, product, service, experience, and leadership innovation workshops.

My clients are a mix of marketing/brand strategy, innovation, and HR leaders, looking for a fresh, human-centered and often heart felt, approach to solving business challenges.  Sometimes this includes creative immersion experiences—things like visiting another company to learn and be inspired, a new dining experience, a visit with an author or screenwriter.

This helps to unlock the heart-felt piece. I find when people are inspired, they feel the meaning and potential impact of their work and it changes everything.  Their creativity soars and it is a beautiful thing to support people to do solve challenges in wonderfully creative, human-centered ways!

What is Design Thinking?

I describe Design Thinking as a shamelessly human-centred approach to solving challenges, based on the principles that trained designers learn in school, principles made famous by the Stanford University d.School: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test.  In many ways, Design Thinking is really more “Design Doing”.

What is the future for Design Thinking?

Great question—I believe the future of Design Thinking is about re-imagining the entire concept of leadership.  I didn’t learn about human-centeredness or Design Thinking in school, and much of what I did learn was based on a Taylorist view of designing for averages, and rigid organizational hierarchies—none of which I believe is what people need to be giving their best every day.

At a macro-level, the future of Design Thinking is about leadership, and when I think about where I’d like to see more human-centeredness, it’s in the public sector; places like education, government, and healthcare.  What if we were more learner-centred? More citizen-centred? More patient-centred? Can you imagine what better life experiences we would have? I imagine these possibilities all the time, and they are the places that will be touched by Design Thinking in the future.  And they all have leaders that need to have a human-centred mindset too!

What will you be talking about at Design Thinking Ireland? (brief taster)

I’ll be talking about Innovation Readiness in Teams on the first day of the conference.  I’ll discuss why initial conditions within a team really matter, the importance of an ecosystem that supports innovators, and the drivers of innovation readiness in teams—what are they, how to measure them, and what to do to improve upon them.

For the full day workshop, the focus is on Everyday Design Thinking—how to bring the principles of Design Thinking to life in everyday business, aimed at the individual, team, and enterprise levels.  In this hands-on session, I’ll cover background on the principles, ways to express them across several modalities and leave the group with practical things to go do upon returning to their day jobs.

What inspired you to attend it?

I spoke at an IRDG event in 2018 and was so inspired by the innovation efforts happening in Ireland, that when I had the opportunity to return to speak and lead a workshop, I, of course, said yes!

Which influencers and websites do you follow to keep up to date with the latest developments?

Great question—I read like crazy, books, articles, and I listen to podcasts and TED talks.  I’m a big fan of the work of Adam Grant, author, professor, and organizational psychologist from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania.  His work on the generosity and original thinkers has deeply impacted me and my philosophy on how to bring more human-centeredness to the world.

Another is Scott Mautz, a contributor to INC Magazine, and author of Find the Fire and Make it Matter (and we are former P&Gers).  Scott’s ability to thoughtfully connect profound management insights to events happening in our culture everyday wows me all the time. He brings to life human-centred leadership and management practices in ways that really inspire me. And I’m a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk, also known as Gary Vee.

His approach to empathy and people being the very most important things to focus on in business is right on—and he has such a terrific platform from which to help teach the world why these matter more than anything else.  These 3 people are huge influencers of mine and I could read their work all day long!

How can people find out more about what you are working on?

 At the moment, LinkedIn is likely the best way to keep up with where I am and what I’m doing. It’s a great way to connect with people all over the world, and as someone who loves connecting others, is the easiest platform approach to doing so.

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

 I’m often asked, “What’s your favourite Design Thinking tool?”  And my answer is—it’s not a tool at all, it’s an open and curious mind.  When we challenge our assumptions, imagine if the opposite may also be true, truly empathize with others and suspend judgment (these are all reasons why I say leadership is the next DT frontier); new possibilities emerge.  Often the solution is hiding in plain sight…..we just haven’t opened our minds wide enough to see it!

Bio

Holly O’Driscoll is an industry expert in the field of Design Thinking and human-centred innovation with over 20 years of experience. She has enabled the transformation of organizations through teaching the method and mindset of Design Thinking. She is the founder and CEO of Ampersand Innovation, LLC; a Design Thinking and human centred innovation strategy consultancy.

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