Innovation Implementation

Frameworks and methods for effectively navigating change in organizations.

One of the biggest frustrations designers face in the real world is seeing their designs sit on a shelf, or worse, become so bastardized that they are unrecognizable by the time they are implemented. Planning Implementation helps students develop skills – and gives them tools – to more effectively address these issues. The underlying philosophy of the course states that any strategy, innovation or initiative is only valuable if executed successfully.

Learning Objectives

Using cases, current events and students’ experiences, the class will explore several key failure modes that organizations fall into which undermine otherwise worthy initiatives. In addition, students will identify (maybe even create some) principles, actions and measures, which can be used to mitigate risks and improve implementation success. Ultimately, this sensitivity to internal implementation issues should inform more robust designs, more likely to see the light of day.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the importance of the context in which their designs will be implemented
• Learn how organizations (large, small, for-profit, not-for-profit, governmental, etc.) work, what gets in the way of design implementation, and how to navigate change
• Learn frameworks and models for managing change, and will be able to apply the frameworks to systems-level design initiatives
• Develop confidence and ability to respond to real-world environments of leadership and change