Architecture + Decision Design + Learning Spaces + Strategy with Adam Griff — DT101 E142
Release Date: 12/10/2024
Leadership & Strategy + Fighter Pilots + Design Education with Jason "TOGA" Trew — DT101 E145
Design Thinking 101
When I first connected with Jason Trew (callsign: TOGA), I knew this conversation would challenge some assumptions about where design thinking belongs. Jason is an Air Force fighter pilot and strategy leader turned professor. What emerged from our conversation wasn't just another story about design thinking adoption, but a deeper exploration of what he sees happening when we distinguish between capital-D Design Thinking and lowercase-d design thinking, and why that distinction matters for everyone trying to create meaningful change. Jason's journey from F-15 pilot to design educator reveals...
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Operational Excellence in Design + Leadership + Design Ops with Jon Fukuda — DT101 E144
Design Thinking 101
Jon said that when he first discovered the design operations community at the 2019 Design Ops Summit in Brooklyn, it felt like coming home. Here was this entire tribe of people who cared about the same things he’d been passionate about for years—creating systems that help designers do their best work. In this episode, I'm talking with Jon Fukuda, co-founder of Limina.co, about how design operations has evolved from an unnamed set of practices into a vital discipline that drives organizational excellence. As organizations continue to face economic pressures, the conversation around design...
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Building Sustainable Design Research Systems with Sam Zucker — DT101 E143
Design Thinking 101
The tension between doing good research and delivering on tight timelines is something I've experienced throughout my career in design and innovation. This conversation with Sam Zucker unpacks powerful approaches to making research more sustainable and equitable while building systems that support continuous learning and engagement. What particularly struck me was Sam's practical framework for embedding research into organizational workflows. Her approach transforms research from a periodic, resource-intensive effort into an ongoing capability that shapes decision-making and product...
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Architecture + Decision Design + Learning Spaces + Strategy with Adam Griff — DT101 E142
Design Thinking 101
In this episode, I explore how architectural thinking enhances strategic decision-making with Adam Griff. Our conversation reveals how his architectural background shapes his approach to helping higher education institutions navigate complex decisions and create flexible space solutions. We dig into the challenges of designing spaces that can adapt to unknown futures and discuss how universities can better integrate with their communities. I particularly love how Adam frames flexibility in building design as creating platforms for future adaptations rather than just multi-purpose spaces....
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Joy, Transformation, and Design as Creative Liberation with Sahibzada Mayed — DT101 E141
Design Thinking 101
Sahibzada Mayed is a creative alchemist who uses design and storytelling to cultivate joy and imagination as tools of liberation. Mayed serves as the Co-Lead for Strategy and Research at Pause and Effect, a liberation-focused imagination and design collective based on Coast Salish territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Beyond that, Mayed leads a small-scale startup, Naranji, that focuses on gender justice and decolonization in fashion. Today, we talk about decolonizing design and creative liberation. Listen to learn about: >> The impact of colonialism and power...
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Healthcare Design: Evidence-based, Business Fluent, and Change Prepared with Matt Van Der Tuyn — DT101 E140
Design Thinking 101
Matthew Van Der Tuyn is a designer and healthcare innovation strategist. Matt is the Senior Director of Design and Strategy at the Center for Health Care Transformation and Innovation at Penn Medicine. The mission at the Center is to serve as a catalyst and accelerator for initiatives that dramatically improve health outcomes, patient and provider experiences, and decrease the cost of care. Matt has had the unique opportunity to help build the Center’s design, discipline, and elevate design thinking as a key tool in Penn Medicine's organizational toolbox. Matt's design process balances...
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Behavioral Science in Human-centered Design with Christina Hanschke — DT101 E139
Design Thinking 101
Christina Hanschke's career journey has spanned many diverse roles. She's been a music therapist, nanny, and UX researcher, and she’s currently a Design Lead at Final Mile, where she applies a multidisciplinary approach to address pressing societal changes, drawing from behavioral science, human-centered design, and systems thinking. As an adjunct faculty at DePaul University, Christina extends her passion for leveraging behavioral science in human-centered design to the next generation of innovators fostering a diverse culture of curiosity and continual learning. Christina and I talk about...
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Organizational Design + Strategy + Change with Stephanie Gioia — DT101 E138
Design Thinking 101
Stephanie Gioia is a founder at Future Work Design with a focus on strategic planning and organizational innovation. She also serves as the director of the Either/Org project and teaches human-centered design for organizational innovation at the University of Oregon's Executive MBA program. She’s taught at Stanford’s d.school, University of Michigan, and Pacific Northwest College of Art. She is the founder of deckaholic.com, the world's largest library of card decks for problem solving and creativity. We talk about organizational design and strategy, and helping organizations navigate...
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Designing Your Career + UX for Small Business with Sarah Doody — DT101 E137
Design Thinking 101
Sarah Doody is a user research experience designer and researcher. She's also the founder of Career Strategy Lab, a UX career coaching program. In 2011, she co-created the curriculum and taught for General Assembly's first 11-week UX intensive program in New York City. She has extensive experience doing experience design, product strategy, and user research for companies including Fatherly, Sling, Citi Bike, We Work, Domino Magazine, Tictail, the Muse, Dow Jones and more. She speaks at conferences and teaches workshops worldwide. Today, we talk about designing your career and user experience...
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Design Ethics with George Aye — DT101 E136
Design Thinking 101
This is the inaugural DT101 Live!, with guest George Aye. George co-founded Greater Good Studio with the belief that design can help advance equity. Previously, he spent seven years at global innovation firm IDEO before being hired as the first human-centered designer at the Chicago Transit Authority. He speaks frequently across the US and internationally. George holds the position of Adjunct Full Professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Today, we are talking live about ethics in design in the design industry. Listen to learn about: >> What is ethical design?...
info_outlineIn this episode, I explore how architectural thinking enhances strategic decision-making with Adam Griff.
Our conversation reveals how his architectural background shapes his approach to helping higher education institutions navigate complex decisions and create flexible space solutions.
We dig into the challenges of designing spaces that can adapt to unknown futures and discuss how universities can better integrate with their communities.
I particularly love how Adam frames flexibility in building design as creating platforms for future adaptations rather than just multi-purpose spaces.
We also explore the tension between academic and organizational decision-making and how to create and decide while delivering innovation in higher education.
Questions This Episode Helps You Answer
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How does thinking like an architect help organizations make better strategic decisions?
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What makes flexibility essential in both physical spaces and organizational processes, and how can we intentionally design for it from the beginning?
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What elements create environments where good decisions emerge, and how can we support better decision-making outcomes?
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How do we determine whether physical space is the best solution for achieving our organizational goals, and what questions should we ask before investing in space?
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How can we think about buildings as adaptable platforms that support evolving human needs rather than fixed structures with predetermined uses?
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How might universities and colleges create meaningful connections between campus development and community growth that benefit both?
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What strategies help organizations balance the need for scholarly rigor with efficient administrative decision-making, and how can these different approaches work together effectively?
Episode Highlights
[00:00] Introduction and background on Adam Griff
[01:38] How architectural thinking shapes strategic problem-solving
[04:17] Managing diverse stakeholders in higher education contexts
[05:35] Understanding people’s needs versus asking for solutions
[07:31] Orchestrating organizational decision-making
[09:13] The importance of decision-making culture in institutions
[11:20] Building trust and managing participation in decisions
[14:15] Creating shared understanding of evidence and good decisions
[17:04] Balancing organizational conditions with decision quality
[19:38] Making decisions with incomplete information
[21:36] Academic versus administrative approaches to decisions
[24:40] Rethinking flexibility in organizational strategy
[25:25] Space as a medium for service delivery
[26:51] Designing buildings as platforms for adaptation
[29:14] Lifecycle costs and sustainable building design
[30:48] Integration of campus and community development
[33:31] Responding to demographic changes in higher education
[35:33] Finding what is "uniquely possible" for institutions
[39:12] Moving from master planning to scenario-based "playbooks"
[41:09] Closing thoughts and connecting with Adam
Questions to Help You Go Deeper
Learning
How does architectural thinking about constraints and systems change your approach to organizational challenges?
What surprised you about our discussion of decision-making quality? Why?
Leading
How might you redesign decision-making environments in your organization?
What would change if you approached strategic planning as creating a playbook rather than a rigid strategic plan?
Applying
What's one small experiment you could run next week to improve your team's decision-making space?
Choose a current project or challenge. How might it benefit from thinking about systems and constraints like an architect?
Practicing
How will you incorporate the "Is space the right medium?" question into your solution development process?
What is one idea from the episode that you will apply in the next two two weeks?
Guest Resources
Adam on LinkedIn
Adam on Academia
Stewart Brand's "How Buildings Learn"
Higher education demographic/enrollment cliff
Scenario planning methodologies
Resources I Recommend
DT101 Episodes
Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change with Julie Dirksen — DT101 E131
Books
Brown, Peter C., Henry L. Roediger, and Mark A. McDaniel. Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Cambridge, Mass: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014. -- Orchestrating good decisions requires understanding how people learn. Before people can decide about something new they must learn the information they need to know to make a good decision and what constitutes a good decision in this context. Read chapter 8.
Ariely, Dan. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. Revised and Expanded edition, First Harper Perennial edition published. Harper Business & Economics. New York: Harper Perennial, 2010. -- Ariely walks you through ways we make decisions that conflict with classic economic rationality, like: The Effect of Expectations: Our preconceptions and expectations significantly influence our experiences and decisions. For instance, people report greater pain relief from more expensive placebos, demonstrating how price can affect perceived value. The Cost of Ownership: Once we own something, we tend to overvalue it (the "endowment effect").
Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work. New York: Random House Books, 2014. -- Don’t trust your gut. It hates you. You’ll learn how to slow down and avoid becoming a cautionary tale like the ones in this book.
Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. First paperback edition. Psychology/Economics. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. -- "Thinking, Fast and Slow" reveals how our minds use both quick instincts and careful analysis to make choices, helping innovators design solutions that work with human psychology rather than against it.
Thaler, Richard H., and Cass R. Sunstein. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Money, Health, and the Environment. Final edition. New York: Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2021. -- Nudge "Nudge" reveals how small changes in how choices are presented can dramatically impact decision-making and behavior at scale, while preserving freedom of choice.
I'd love to hear what insights you're taking away from this exploration of architecture, strategy, and organizational design. Share your thoughts and stay updated at https://fluidhive.com/design-thinking-101-podcast/
Stay lucky ~ Dawan