If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solutions—Albert Einstein

In 2020 COVID-19 punched a $94B hole in the Australian budget, and it is likely to worsen as healthcare and frontline services became one of the biggest areas of expenditure in 2020.

The pandemic came after a particularly disruptive period with the Australian government completing the transition from a ‘social welfare’ to a ‘social insurance’ funding model¹. The roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and aged care funding changes² have rocked the foundations of the sector.

These recent changes resulted in an increase in the number of occupational therapists working in residential aged care (+266%) and private practice (+138%) (see Figure 1 below). Occupational therapy is projected to grow a further 22% to May 2023 and it is listed in the top 20 occupations projected to be resilient post-COVID-19 (see Table 1 below).

What Skills do We Need in Times of Change?

Research by Harvard Business School and LinkedIn highlighted that employers want ‘Hard Skills’ including analytical reasoning, UX design, business analysis, and affiliate marketing.

As a lecturer, my concern about the limited opportunities my students had for developing these hard skills led me to enrol in an EMBA in 2020. As part of the course, my participation in a Design Thinking workshop helped me to identify how the approach helps build ideas in times of change and supported me to discover novel ways to influence how business management skills could be integrated into the occupational therapy curriculum.

Figure 1. Changing profile of where occupational therapists work in Australia 2013 - 2019 (Data source: OTBA)

What is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking is a way for non-designers to design. It is a problem-exploration and problem-solving approach using human-centred design and brings together multiple stakeholders to explore the “deep-rooted desires” of the group asking “What’s the human need behind the problem?” The value of Design Thinking is that it uses lean and agile techniques to help companies respond creatively and innovatively to problems they face. Lean and agile techniques are low cost, they employ rapid brainstorming to explore options from multiple angles. Potential solutions are tested through prototyping prior to selecting a solution.

The ‘Evolved Double Diamond’ Design Thinking process is depicted in Figure 2 below. I will use this to describe the process we used in a recent EMBA workshop, and to structure my reflection and take-home messages.

Figure 2. The Evolved Double Diamond Framework for Innovatio (Source: Design Council)

Using Design Thinking in Our Workshop

Discover

The purpose of this phase was to better understand the problem by speaking with those impacted. In the EMBA workshop this entailed sending a current problem, a Task Headline, to the course coordinator for refining and redefining. My Task Headline was: “How can I make ‘business knowledge’ more appealing to OT students and colleagues?”

The next step in ‘Discover’ was to describe the background of the problem (outlined fully in the opening section of this post). In a nutshell my Background was: “In our complex and evolving healthcare system, many graduates now work in private practice, so foundation business skills would be advantageous.”

Define

This phase uses the insights developed previously to redefine the challenge. The approach taken was to springboard ideas, starting with: “I wish…”. Two of the Springboards I generated were, I wish I could: “…create a mini-MBA for my students” and “…convince my colleagues of the need for business skills”. At this point I started to think expansively and stopped worrying about barriers.

Develop

During the develop phase we used concepts which are explored in an Empathy Map (learn more here), to seek new ideas from each other. I found my EMBA colleagues, who are from other industries, generated novel ideas as we co-designed potential solutions.

The ideas we Developed included:

• Seed business concepts across the degree
• Create a business specialisation in the OT program
• Run “value-add” workshops for existing students
• Connect with the accrediting body

Deliver

The final phase, Deliver, involves prototyping and trialling different solutions, rejecting those that don’t work while improving others. “It takes humility to acknowledge that we may not know if our new or improved solution will fix an issue, or if people will use it or buy it or like it.” I plan to use future research courses in my EMBA to follow this phase through comprehensively.

Excursions

Our workshop was punctuated by fun and creative excursions that were implemented to redirect our thinking and promote creativity. One excursion involved dressing up and drawing each other whilst not looking at the paper or removing the pen from the page. While laughter and spectacular ‘cave art’ ensued (see Figure 3), the goal of taking our mind off ‘the problem’ was achieved. Each excursion helped refresh energy and ideas.

Figure 3. Photos from our ‘role play’ and ‘cave art’ excursions (photos used with permission)

Take Home Messages

1. Design Thinking provides a structured and supportive innovation process to build ideas in times of change
2. Design Thinking with people from varied industries facilitates the generation of novel ideas as they are not bound by expectations or biases
3. Excursions re-kindle creativity and innovation

As a professional group, occupational therapists are creative problem solvers, but the problem solving process is often hidden. By learning about and intentionally applying Design Thinking approaches in practice we can strengthen our problem-solving practices and make them more visible. You can find out more about Design Thinking here.

About the Author
Dr Anita Hamilton is an occupational therapy educator at the University of the Sunshine Coast, a Lego Serious Play Facilitator and EMBA student. She can be found on LinkedIn, Twitter, or contacted by email: ahamilt1@usc.edu.au

Acknowledgement
Thanks to Dr Retha Scheepers, Senior Lecturer, Entrepreneurship and Innovation at School of Business and Creative Industries at USC for opening my eyes to the potential of Design Thinking and to my EMBA colleagues for being fun to learn with.

References

1.       Fenger M, Hudson J, Needham C. Social Policy Review 28: Analysis and Debate in Social Policy. Policy Press; 2016. 288 p.

2.       Lawn S, Westwood T, Jordans S, Zabeen S, O’Connor J. Support workers can develop the skills to work with complexity in community aged care: An Australian study of training provided across aged care community services. Gerontology & Geriatrics Education [Internet]. 2017 Oct 2 [cited 2021 Jan 25];38(4):453–70. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/02701960.2015.1116070