Innovation and Information

In your present and future work, you will increasingly face what have been called “wicked problems.” They are volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Dealing with them requires new ways of thinking about issues and new ways of innovative leadership. This class focuses on having you learn about and practice some of the processes and tools — drawn from the fields of critical thinking, design thinking, systems thinking and creative problem solving — that will help you grapple with the “wicked problems” presented to you in school and beyond. Specifically, we’ll work with ways of collecting information to characterize a problem, framing and re-framing that problem, coming up with a range of solutions and then gathering feedback to assess those solutions. We’ll work in a “learn-by-doing” mode in five zones: observations, insights, ideas, solutions and stories and apply those processes and tools to designing and redesigning in real settings.

NOTE: Class attendance is required during the first week of instruction. Students who do not attend during the first week will be dropped from the class.