An interdisciplinary team from CCA (California College of Arts) and the University of Santa Clara have been working on a project for the 2009 Solar Decathlon. The video tells a very nice story of a group of smart students dealing with the challenges of a complex piece of design thinking. A link to t...

I couldn't resist posting this link pointed out to me by my colleague Gabe Trionfi. These are a delightful example of the power of visualization to explore new possibilities. None of these famous car brands would necessarily think of themselves as likely sellers of micro-cars but these images show t...

This is the fourth of a series of pieces originally posted at Fast Company. In the U.K. in the 1940s, Sir William Beveridge designed what became known as the welfare state. In an ambitious program, the post-war Labor government attempted to put in place a series of services designed to ensure that ...

This is the fifth, and last, of a series of pieces originally posted at Fast Company. Those who have stuck with me all week, know that I believe that participation is key to the next big wave of innovation in business and society. Whether it is in the fundamentals of how we think about wealth or th...

This is the second of a series of pieces originally posted at Fast Company. It follows from an earlier post called A post consumption economy. When I consider bidding for something on e-Bay, the first thing I do is check the reliability rating of the seller. When I want to meet a hard-to-reach exe...

This is the third of a series of pieces originally posted at Fast Company. A significant difference between those of us fortunate to be living above the poverty line and those unfortunate enough to be at the "bottom of the pyramid" is that the 'wealthy' can afford to consume. Being a "useful" membe...

A team at IDEO is running an experiment in collaborative design. They are working with the Acumen Fund on a project to bring access to clean water to people living in Africa and India. They are blogging about the experience and you can see the posts here....

NPR has posted a great visualization of the US power grid. It shows the transmission grid, the mix of power sources in each state, locations of power stations and the densities of solar and wind power across the country. It makes the complexity of the power system and the challenge of replacing carb...

I'll be spending this week guest blogging for Fast Company. I am using it as an opportunity to dig into the participation economy ideas that I first posted about a few weeks ago. Indeed the first post is a redux of that original to introduce the topic to Fast Company readers. The next four posts wil...

It is finally time to announce the title and publication date for my book about design thinking. It is called "Change By Design - how design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation". It will be published by Harper Collins under their Harper Business impression and is due for relea...