Innovative Design Courses for Executives

Designed to help your business see more possibilities.

At the Institute of Design, we believe great companies happen by design. With bold new methods and groundbreaking research emerging each year, we can offer your organization the unique perspectives necessary to see the opportunities and obstacles ahead, no matter your goals.

Through asynchronous, online team-oriented courses at the ID Academy, your organization will unlock opportunities, meet change head-on, and face the future with a plan for success. Because today, using design in your organization is not only a prerequisite for success—it’s the path to it.

Expert Faculty

Weslynne Ashton

Professor of Environmental Management & Sustainability and Food Systems Action Lab Co-Director

Jeremy Alexis

Vice Provost for Academic Strategy and Associate Professor of Innovation

Tony Bynum

Director of ID Executive Academy and Associate Professor

Tomoko Ichikawa

Professor of Visual Communication

Mark Jones

Experience Design Principal, Enterprise Transformation, Humana

Ruth Schmidt

Associate Professor of Behavioral Design

Stephanie Wade

Founder and CEO, Ascendant

Courses

Learn the latest in design from international design leaders.

Now organizations can tap the next-level thinking and pioneering practices of ID faculty. At ID Academy, teams engage deeply with content offered by experienced faculty who are both thought leaders and practitioners. Working at the intersection of business and design, ID faculty are constantly applying theory to real organizational contexts and shaping what’s next.

Executive Academy Courses
↗

Lectures and Talks

Interactive 1.5–2 hour content modules with synchronous and asynchronous components. Learners gain an understanding of a specific topic and how it can be applied to their work.

Advanced Courses

Learners gain a deep and rigorous understanding of strategic design practices through 10–12 hours of content delivered across five sessions.

1:1 and Group Coaching

We have found that consistent project coaching is one of the best ways to ensure teams are practicing what they have learned and are continuing to embed new skills in their day-to-day projects.

Featured Courses

See All

Design for Climate Leadership

Design-Led Strategy and Planning

Behavioral Design for Organizational Leadership

Outcomes

Reinvigorate your organization.

As we enter an era in which organizations more clearly and prominently value design, ID Academy works with organizations to strengthen how design can function most productively within them—how it can consistently create value and have the greatest positive impact.

We can help your organization use design to

Realize executive vision
Unlock new value streams and market opportunities
Grow business sustainably and equitably
Shape internal cultural shifts

“

We need to shift our culture—from thinking about how I make my product successful, to how I make us as a whole successful and serve the broader good of the organization.

—ID Corporate Partner

Real World Results

ID student Prapti Jha in foreground with others viewing a presentation

ID Researchers Demonstrate How Design Can Offer the Most Value to Organizations

Weslynne Ashton Develops Method to Determine a Business’s Environmental Sustainability and Economic Viability

Partners

Cultivate lasting partnerships.

The Institute of Design has provided design training for a number of longtime partners in the past, including Ford, Leadership Greater Chicago, Steelcase, UChicago Medicine, and Year Up.

ID Academy works with companies to both upskill and advance the role and influence of design within their organizations. We create custom learning journeys for our partners through a combination of lectures, flexible courses, and coaching.