Managing perceived risk for design newbies

We ran a design session the other day with a senior faculty member to explore options for making his course more active and engaging for students, while improving their higher order learning.  The process and outcomes reminded me that perceived risk (un-managed) can be a massive barrier to innovation and change.

The environment for the session, the design activities and most of the ideas generated were well beyond the faculty member’s comfort zone.  We suspected this would be the case going in, but somehow thought it would be okay.  It wasn’t.

He sat uncomfortably (arms crossed) for two hours in the open, glass and leather studio space.  During brainstorming, he tried his best to avoid having to stand up to put his sticky notes on the wall and share his thoughts out loud with the group.  When we sorted the ideas from the brainstorm, suggestions of doing anything that might resemble “play” in his class (such as building a model of a financial system with lego) fell off the table first.

Design processes, tools and techniques are familiar to many who come from creative industries and the like.  But they can be terrifically intimidating to those from more analytical or traditional backgrounds.  Before we invite “newbies” to deep dive into the design pool, we need to spend time with them to map our their comfort zones.  Knowing what is at stake for them – what their risk tolerance is – will enrich both the design process and potential outcomes.