Running Head: INTERNSHIP REFLECTION

Andrews University

School of Education

A Reflection Paper for Internship

Pursuant to the Requirement for LEAD 680: Internship

by

Dawn Peterson

October 2018

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3

THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS ......................................................................................... 4

Creativity, Innovation, and Design Thinking ................................................................................. 4

Creativity and the Christian ................................................................................................ 4

Innovation ........................................................................................................................... 6
Design Thinking.................................................................................................................. 8
Virtual Collaboration ........................................................................................................ 13
APPLYING THEORY TO PRACTICE ....................................................................................... 16

Planned Experiences ..................................................................................................................... 16

Start Garden Ecosystems .................................................................................................. 16

Haworth............................................................................................................................. 22
Creativity and Innovation Workshop ................................................................................ 28
KEY LEARNINGS ....................................................................................................................... 35

Roadmap for Innovation Project ................................................................................................... 35

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 37

References Cited.......................................................................................................................... 39

APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................... 42

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Running Head: INTERNSHIP REFLECTION

Introduction

This paper will describe the experiences and theory that underlies the description for this

course as found in the AU online bulletin. This course is designed to give the student “planned

field experience in leadership at cooperating institutions…” as well as a literature review of the

theoretical basis for creativity and innovation. This paper will also lay a foundation for my final

project to be completed next semester.

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THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Creativity, Innovation, and Design Thinking

This summer I embarked on what I would call a unique journey. The Internship class is

designed to give planned experiences which I enjoyed participating in, but also it is expected that

the participant will create a broad depth of reading and understanding during this experience as

well. After several email conversations with Dr. Siebold and Dr. Brand, we finally came up with

an approved reading list that was quite substantial. It was this reading list that helped me to

come to a better understanding of the role of creativity, innovation, and the Christian.

There were two basic areas of study that I focused my research on. The first was the

concept of design thinking, creativity and innovation and the second was the role of virtual

collaboration in creativity and innovation. But first I want to look at the role of creativity in the

life of the Christian.

Creativity and the Christian

What is creativity? There are many definitions of creativity. Some think of creativity as

the work of artists while others suggest that creativity is defined as originality. When I typed the

word “creativity” into a google search the following definition headed the list “the use of the

imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work”. Webster defines

creativity as the “ability to create, the quality of being creative” (Merriam-Webster, 2018a). I

like the definition that Wilson gives in her blog “The Second Principal”. She states that

in the act of creating, or in solving problems in creative ways, we often go round and round
in endless circles wanting to pounce on an idea. Sometimes the answer or solution is right
before our eyes but we can’t see it. In order to find the solution, find the missing piece, solve
the problem, we need to just look at something familiar in a new and different way. (Wilson,
2018)

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In all honesty, we are only able to create from something that God has already placed on this

earth. He is the original creator. Brand (2017) explains it like this,

The Hebrew word translated ‘created’ implies a divine act bringing something from nothing,
creation ex nihilo. Thus, only God can create truly ‘from scratch’ – providing His own raw
materials. In this sense, any and all creativity and innovation by humans involves the diligent
use of resources already provided by God. (p. 3)

Our ability to create can only come from God. He endows each person with the creative spark.

Whether it is the ability to create works of art like Monet, music like Beethoven, or a new way to

deliver clean water in third world countries. Each of us has been given the ability to create

(Kelley & Kelley, 2013). It is up to us to determine how our gift is employed.

Raynor (2017) suggests that because man was placed in the garden of Eden to work it prior to

sin, God was telling us that work was good for mankind. White (1954) states,

When in counsel with the Father before the world was, it was designed that the Lord God
should plant a garden for Adam and Eve in Eden and give them the task of caring for the fruit
trees and cultivating and training the vegetation. Useful labor was to be their safeguard, and
it was to be perpetuated through all generations to the close of earth's history. (1954, p.
345.2)

Prior to officially starting his ministry, Christ worked with his hands as a common

laborer, yet He was unwilling to accept anything less than perfection in himself and in his work

(White, 1923). Everything he made was perfect (White, 1946). From His earliest years Christ

made it His purpose to find ways to bless others (White, 1898). Because we are to follow in His

example, we too must find work that allows us to help others. Again White (1943) states, “in the

children and youth an ambition should be awakened to take their exercise in doing something

that will be beneficial to themselves and helpful to others” (p. 147).

Raynor (2017) suggests the work of the Christian entrepreneur is to determine what the

calling of God is on our lives, how we are to find out what and how we are to serve His people.

He makes the point that just like the calling a minister or teacher might feel for their field,

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creatives (those who think of themselves as a creative person) must recognize that they are just

as called into the mission field that is life.

Following the call to create means that we no longer work to make a name for ourselves; we
work for the glory of the One who has called us. In the words of the apostle Paul, “Whatever
you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor.10:31). (Raynor, 2017, p. 74)

If we have been called to create, then we need to find ways to grow our creative ability.

Kelley and Kelly (2013) liken what they call creative confidence (the belief in your ability to

create change in the word around you) to a muscle that needs to be “strengthened and nurtured

through effort and experience” (Kelley & Kelley, 2013, p. 16). We must find ways to stretch

ourselves, try new things, and create something different.

Innovation

“Creative capacity is the heart of innovation” (Kelley & Kelley, 2013, p. 16). In today’s

market innovation is the life blood of companies that want to flourish. With constantly changing

technologies, businesses and organizations must find a way to adapt. So what is ‘innovation’?

the dictionary defines it as “the introduction of something new, a new idea, method, or device”

(Merriam-Webster, 2018b). Another definition of innovation is this, “Innovation is the multi-

stage process whereby organizations transform ideas into new/improved products, service or

processes, in order to advance, compete and differentiate themselves successfully in their

marketplace” (Baregheh, Rowley, & Sambrook, 2009, p. 1334).

Managing creativity that leads to innovation takes a different type of management

traditional routine management systems (Sutton, 2011). This may explain why Catmull (2014)

makes the following comment,

Figuring out how to build a sustainable creative culture — one that didn’t just pay lip service
to the importance of things like honesty, excellence, communication, originality, and self -
assessment but really committed to them, no matter how uncomfortable that became —
wasn’t a singular assignment. It was a day - in - day - out full - time job. (p. 65).

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Leaders and managers alike must make allowances for creativity in their organizations and seek

methods to nurture the creativity within their doors (Caniels & Rietzschel, 2015).

How can a leader/manager nurture creativity? There are different ideas on ways this can

be accomplished. Sutton (2011) lists 10 that he calls “weird ideas” (p. 347) that he believes

support workplace creativity.

• “The best management is sometimes no management” (p. 349).

• “Innovation means selling, not just inventing new ideas” (p. 349). The innovator must be

able to sell his ideas if he wants to convince others of their need for the new idea or product.

• “Innovation requires both flexibility and rigidity” (p. 350).

• Incite and uncover discomfort (p. 351)

• Treat everything like a temporary condition (p. 352)

• Make the process as simple as possible (p. 353)

• Innovation means living with some nasty drawbacks (p. 354)

• Learn to fail faster, not less often (p. 354)

• Open is good, closed is bad (p. 355)

• Have an attitude of innovation (p. 356)

In his book, Catmull (2014), describes the difference between the creative rich

environment of Pixar with their individualized workspaces (pink dollhouse and tiki hut themes)

with the sterile un-personalized workspaces of those at then creative poor Disney animation.

The outward adornment was only the visible manifestation of the condition of the workers

‘practiced creativity’ a term that describes the “extent to which employees perceive themselves

to be able to actually exploit their creative potential at work” (Caniels & Rietzschel, 2015, p.

186). Disney animators were in a position where it was necessary that they be creative and

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innovative, but instead, they were finding themselves in a long dry spell of new innovative

stories. Had they lost their ability to create or was the problem more fundamental at the

organizational level?

In their literature review, Schultz, Geithner, Woelfel and Krzywinski (2015) found that

play is an integral part of innovation.

When play happens within a medium for learning it creates a context in which information,
ideas and passions grow (Thomas & Brown, 2011). Play is a source of creativity (
Mainemelis & Ronson, 2006) and therefore a trigger for innovation....Play addresses the
cognitive, emotional and social dimension of learning (Bogers & Sproedt, 2012). Therefore,
the role of play in organization is becoming increasingly important (Mainemelis & Altman,
2010; Sorensen & Spoelstra, 2012). (Schulz, Geithner, Woelfel, & Krzyinski, 2015)

This type of play is not the typical board game or even sport game. While playing sports may

actually increase the creative potential due to endorphins released to the brain, this is not the type

of play suggested. This type of play is referred to as “serious play” (Schulz et al., 2015) that is

more the use of toolkits that allow the person to “think with the hands through creating a model

(Roos & Victor, 1999)” (p. 326). It is goal oriented and intentional in nature (Schulz et al.,

2015). This type of play allows the individual to “integrate the two facets of creative action:

composition and improvisation” (as cited by Schulz et al., 2015, p. 327). Later in this paper I

will expand on the idea of how play is important in design thinking.

Design Thinking

Design thinking is defined by Tim Brown as,

…a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to

integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for
business success. (Brown, 2018)

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Sometimes referred to as human-centered design or empathy design, this method of innovation

starts first with the end user in mind by seeking to find their true needs. Henry Ford is quoted as

saying, “If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said ‘a faster horse’” (Brown

& Wyatt, 2007, p. 33). Design thinking seeks to use empathy to understand the unspoken needs

of the user (Battarbee, Suri, & Howard, 2014). Empathy design also seeks to answer the design

challenges of today’s global organizations that are struggling to meet the differing needs of their

stakeholders. How does this work? By unlocking the hearts and minds of the organization

toward their stakeholders, they are also unlocking their creative capacity for innovation

(Battarbee et al., 2014). The stakeholders and end users become partners in the innovation

process making the final product more useful and ensuring more loyalty toward the brand

(Tschimmel, 2012).

Figure 1. Design thinking mind map (Brown, 2009)

Today design thinking is not only a mindset, it has become an “effective toolkit for any

innovation process, connecting the creative design approach to traditional business thinking,

based on planning and rational problem solving” (Tschimmel, 2012, p. 2). Design thinking has

been described in several models. One is the Hasso-Pattner Institute, the Double Diamond

Model of the British Council, the Service Design Thinking Model and lastly two which have

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been designed by IDEO design agency. They are the 3 I’s (inspiration, ideation and

implementation) and the other as HCD (human centered design) (Brown & Wyatt, 2007). The

HCD approach is explained as,

…help[ing] you hear the needs of constituents in new ways, create innovative solutions to
meet those needs, and deliver solutions with financial sustainability in mind.(Tschimmel,
2012, p. 7)

Although the models listed above use different terminology, you will see that the

principles are still the same. There are five principles or stages in design thinking, but the

beginning starts with what is referred to as the “brief” (Brown, 2009, p. 22). This is the problem

statement. Yayici (2016) suggests using the phrase “how might we….” (p. 19) to build the

problem statement while being careful not to make the problem too broad or to narrow.

Chamekiotis, Dekoninck and Panteli (2013) believe that not all projects require the same level of

creativity but that it is the brief that determines the degree of creativity that will be needed. It

may include the objectives or constraints for the design team such as the “price point, available

technology, [and] market segment…” (p. 22). Below are the basic principles with brief

descriptions of each.

• Empathy– Interview by asking open ended questions, watching body language, observe if

possible. Experientially research to determine the true needs. (Brown, 2009; Tonhauser,

2016; Yayici, 2016)

• Reframe– Narrow down the scope of the problem.

• Ideate– Create ideas for solutions from the information received. This may be thought of

as creative brainstorming. Defer judgements, create as many ideas as possible even if

they seem off the wall. Build on other’s ideas. Be visual. (Brown, 2009; IDEO, 2018;

Tonhauser, 2016; Yayici, 2016)

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• Prototype– Build tangible prototypes or story boards to show the idea created. This can

be done using many different mediums. The goal is to determine strengths or

weaknesses. Here is where serious play takes place as designers seek to “build” their

ideas. (Brown, 2009; Schulz et al., 2015; Tonhauser, 2016; Yayici, 2016)

• Test– Test to see how the idea performs and whether refinement is necessary. (Brown,

2009; Tonhauser, 2016; Yayici, 2016)

The figure below shows the interconnectivity of these processes and has broken them down

further than the basic 5. At every step along the way, a new piece of information may make

the design team circle back to a previous stage in the process. This is an iterative process.

Figure 2. Stages taken from [Link]

Brown (2009) explains that the nonlinear or cyclical aspect of this type of thinking is not

from an unorganized process, rather from an exploratory way of thinking through the problem.

We are given the ability to rethink and refine the ideas as many times as necessary to achieve the

best outcome.

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I feel that I would be remiss if I did not take a minute to also address the idea of thinking

in a non-linear manner. Govindarajan (2016) suggests using a three-box solution. We will look

at these ideas from the perspective of education because that is the area of focus for this

internship. Box 1 is important to the current daily management of the school, using “linear ideas

(those that conform to the past) tend to be adopted easily” (Govindarajan, 2016, p. 16). These

are the practices that have served well in the past and made the school system successful.

In Box 2, schools start to “build the future by creating space and supporting structure for

new non-linear ideas” (Govindarajan, 2016, p. 10). This box is important because it allows the

school to take stock of what is working and more importantly, discard practices, ideas and

attitudes are no longer relevant.

The box 2 work of avoiding the traps of the past is difficult and painful. It may require
wrenching management decisions to divest long-standing lines of business or to abandon
entrenched practices and attitudes that are unwelcoming or even hostile to ideas that don’t
conform to the dominant model of past success (Govindarajan, 2016, p. 11).

Schools have a long history of avoiding change on the grander scale. One example of this is the

fact that schools are still functioning as they were designed during the industrial era, like an

assembly line with all the students expected to meet the same expectations regardless of

individuality (Senge et al., 2012, p. 44).

Box 3 is about planning with the future in mind. This means that schools need to be

willing to learn in new ways, to innovate and step away from the tried and true. Experiment and

learn from the failures to create better educational experiences. “Organizations that do not

continuously learn new things will die” (Govindarajan, 2016, p. 13). This is very difficult for

schools or any organization for that matter, because “nonlinear ideas (nonconforming and

therefore both uncertain and threatening) tend to be rejected easily” (p. 16). Many times, these

ideas are what might be called “outside the box” and while schools may believe that the future

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will look different, the reality many times shows that the ideas are dubbed to be too forward

thinking and thus thrown out.

Govindarajan (2016) suggests,

…nonlinear innovations, the domain of Box 3, create new business models by dramatically
(1) redefining your set of customers, (2) reinventing the value you offer them, and/or (3)
redesigning the end-to-end value-chain architecture by which you deliver that value (p. 18).

Because we need to take a new look at who our customers are and what we can do to support

them, we will need to look ‘outside the box’ for ideas that will support new innovation. This is

especially important during the ideate stage of design thinking.

Virtual Collaboration

What is a virtual collaborative team (VT)? Townsend, Demarie and Hendrickson (1998) define

VTs as “groups of geographically and /or organizationally dispersed co-workers that are

assembled using a combination of telecommunications and information technologies to

accomplish an organizational task” (as cited by Chamakiotis et al., 2013, p. 267). The key

component of VTs is their geographic dispersion and thus the use of computer-mediated

communication (Gibson, 2011; Hoegl & Proserpio, 2004).

According to the research, there are many factors at play in determining the effectiveness

of VTs. Some believe that VTs are “characterized by different levels of technological support,

physical distance and temporal separation”(Chamakiotis et al., 2013, p. 268). Nemiro (2007)

found five areas that organizations need to be strong in for VT’s to flourish. They are;

design (e.g., processes/structures), climate (e.g. interpersonal connection), resources (e.g.

pertinent technology), norms and protocols ( communication behavior norms) and continual
assessment and learning (e.g. evaluation). (Chamakiotis et al., 2013, p. 268)

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Both the climate of the workplace and communication behavior norms are areas that surfaced in

several of the articles on the topic. In the following paragraphs, we will look at both ares in more

depth.

If you talk to most anyone, they will tell you where the office ‘water cooler’ spot is in

their organization. Interpersonal connections with their co-workers play an important role in

group dynamics and productivity. Amabile and Kramer (2011) refer to this as the “inner work

life” (p. 159) which has a direct effect on a person’s work performance. In fact, “in settings

where people must work collaboratively to solve vexing problem, high performance depends on

four elements: creativity, productivity, commitment, and collegiality” (p. 166). From this we can

see that creativity that drives innovation is tied to the person’s emotions about their work and co-

workers. Interestingly, higher levels of creativity were tied to positive emotion and negative

feelings were tied to lowered creativity and “people were over 50% more likely to have creative

ideas on the days they reported the most positive moods than they were on other days” (p. 166).

Not only do these interpersonal encounters have the capacity to create higher creativity,

they also allow for a certain amount of trust to be developed. Gibson (2011) refers to this as a

“mutual or collective trust…that is characterized by an acceptance of vulnerability based on

expectations of intentions or behaviors of other within the team” (p. 307). She reminds us that

the factors that contribute to these feelings are often absent in VTs. “People tend to trust those

whom they perceive as similar to themselves” (p. 307) and this comes through regular

communication. Which leads us to the next important component to successful VTs.

Communication is the key factor to many successful ventures. The ability to articulate

thoughts and ideas, to accurately understand what others are saying by their verbal and non-

verbal communication is an important skill for almost any worker within any organization. I

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mentioned above the importance of interpersonal relationships between co-workers. One of the

side benefits of such encounters are the visual cues we give and receive from others that help to

tell us more about them.

Because most “communication is nonverbal (Burgoon et al., 1989; Knapp, 1980; Seiter,

1988; Weiser, 1988; Mehrabian, 1971; Bird-whistell, 1970)” (Zaltman & Coulter, 1995, p. 37),

those who participate in VTs are at a distinct disadvantage. According to Knapp (1980) “when

there is an apparent contradiction, nonverbal cues tend to be believed over verbal ones” (as cited

by Zaltman & Coulter, 1995, p. 37). This can account for the relationships that are built as co-

workers are walking the halls, sitting around the boardroom table etc. Those who are dependent

on technology based communication are many times not able to develop those relationships

because they are lacking the necessary visual nonverbal cues that we rely on in our

communication (Gressgard, 2010). Chamakiotis et al. (2013) goes so far as to say that nonverbal

communication skills are necessary for creativity and level of engagement in VTs. This may be

the reason that VTs can be vulnerable to mistrust, communication breakdowns etc. (Ale

Ebrahim, Ahmed, & Taha, 2009).

Ultimately, VTs will need to develop strategies to build team spirit, communication and

trust. The more real-time conversations that take place (i.e. Zoom or Skype) the less of a chance

of communication breakdown. Most of the literature suggests that there should be some in-

person face-to-face meetings (Gibson, 2011; Kirkman & Hartog, 2011; Majchrzak, Rice, King,

Mahotra, & Ba, 2000). This could be beneficial at the beginning of the project so that the team

members have a social experience with the team members in order to find commonalities and

shared experiences that help to build trust.

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APPLYING THEORY TO PRACTICE

Planned Experiences

Start Garden Ecosystems

Monday July 16, 2018

I arrived at Start Garden at 10:50 for an 11:00 appointment with Laurie Supinski. She

immediately came to greet me, and I found her to be very friendly. Laurie took me into their

café where she proceeded to tell me about Start Garden and what it does.

Laurie explained that their role is to connect entrepreneurs to organizations that are

excited about their particular area. They believe strongly in building the local community and

about three years ago they became a NPO with the goal to support local entrepreneurs.

One recent program they ran was the 100 Ideas.

Not everybody is an entrepreneur, but everybody should get to take a shot at becoming one.
Every would-be entrepreneur accesses a little capital to try out a new idea. A few thousand
dollars to try a new concept is harder to come by than a $100,000 loan once the business has
been running a couple years.
Start Garden created 100 Ideas with a consortium of banks as a no-strings-attached way to
fund people to take a shot at new endeavors each year. It's a community-wide investment in
the businesses and organizations of tomorrow.
100 Ideas exists to open the gate for the whole community to try out new ideas each year,
knowing that some can be life-changing.
It’s only 100 seconds.
Don't hold back. Take a chance on yourself.
Until April 10, anyone can submit a 100-second pitch from anywhere, in any language.
100 days to $100,000.
After April 10, we announce 100 ideas that have been submitted to the website to receive
$1,000 each. Those 100 ideas have about two months to do the work of figuring out how they
can be viable businesses or projects. We created this scorecard to help out.
And there’s more. $20,000 more.
All 100 ideas must present to a group of judges at our July 10 Demo Day. A minimum of 10
will be selected for another $20,000 to keep incubating their projects.
But it’s not about the money.

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It’s about giving would-be entrepreneurs a chance to join a community of like-minded

mentors, advisors and friends that can build and grow with them for years to come.
Take your shot. The worst that can happen is that nothing happens. ("100 ideas," 2018)

From this program 625 sent in 100 second videos. From that they selected the top 100

ideas and awarded them $1000 each. They were told to develop their ideas, work with others in

the community and to bring back their ideas to demo day on July 10 th.

They came back to share their ideas and 10 were awarded $20,000 to continue to work

with their projects. The ideas were very diverse. They even had a few teenagers submit an idea.

One was for a lawn care company he started. He already had customers and was awarded $1000

because they wanted to support him. Another teen is creating an app that will allow a

neighborhood to share equipment.

The top 10 winners include a cold coffee brewing company, a gluten free noodle

company called The Only Bean.

Figure 3 Taken from: [Link]

A few of the other winners were a special sponge for cleaning your dog, an app for used

beauty products that you might want to get rid of by selling them, a folding cot that is really light

weight. One lady is helping refugees to do piece work for small businesses needing small

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batching of clothing or other, items. Her business is called Public Thread and this is from her

website:

CUSTOMIZED CUT & SEW IN MICHIGAN

Figure 4 Taken from [Link]

We repurpose textiles and create jobs through small batch cut & sew production.

We design and make small batches of sewn products out of repurposed & upcycled
textiles in partnership with designers, businesses and organizations.

We are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan and are building on the legacy of
manufacturing and making quality products in Michigan. We believe in a sustainable
business model — supporting people by bringing living wage jobs to West Michigan,
supporting the planet, and driving economic development of the sewn product industry in
West Michigan.

We partner with entrepreneurs/designers and offer services for those businesses and
organizations that are ready to invest in their product development and the manufacturing
of their products. This means clients that are seeking to make at least 50 units and ideally
are aiming to repeatedly manufacture their product going forward. ("Public Thread,"
2018)

Each winner will get a mentor and a plan for how best to proceed.

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Laurie also explained that they are a space for businesses that cannot afford full office

space. They offer several services, such as what they call a touchdown space where they can

come and just meet with someone as needed as well as renting a desk space to full office spaces.

They are also working on helping to create a “maker space” where someone can come

and use equipment that they might not be able to rent elsewhere, and they can come to this space

and create products such as 3d models or such.

I was unable to observe any meetings in progress or pitches being made but found the

concept of Start Garden to be extremely interesting.

Here are a few of the pictures I took while at Start Garden.

This is a photo of Laurie and I.

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Meeting and workspaces at Start Garden

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Later in the day I visited the Apple store where they were presenting Apple Camp: Coding with

Sphero Robot. It was great!

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Haworth

Tuesday July 17, 2018

Today I met with Casey, an intern at Haworth. She

was stepping in for Marta who was on vacation.

I was very impressed with the building’s openness and

amount of light.

The other first impression I had, were the many varied seating
and office arrangements that were visible. Below are some of the pictures I took.

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Casey took me on a tour of their facility. We first saw a timeline history of the company and
their values .

They believe that it is important

to create the best and most
healthy type of work environment
as possible so they practice
human based design theory. You
see this in working practice in
their space room we will visit
later.

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But first we visit the Innovation Lab

which is their museum of previous
products and prototypes.

There were some strange looking prototypes in the museum. Here are a few…

They were working on mobile work solutions as well as

work pods.

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Then we went into their Space Room which was pretty much the most interesting area to me.
This is the room that they use to develop and design rough prototypes. I was limited in my
ability to take pictures here because these are current works in progress, but there were some
items that I could capture.

These boards are to remind them of the purpose of the items they are design.

The picture to the left is an example of

prototyping from rough drawing to rendered
images. There were also prototypes of chairs that
started as paper versions and progressed to more rigid
versions and eventually to a working prototype.

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As mentioned earlier, you can see that they want to design for the
whole person. Meeting as many of their needs as possible while
creating a pleasant work environment.

Not only do they collaborate with each other in the building, but
they also seek to find other companies they might collaborate with.
They are currently testing a product from Denmark called
Smartblok. It’s a box that has seating for four inside. It looks like
close quarters to me, I saw 3 workers having a meeting inside the
blok. They actively seek the employee thoughts on the many
different products through surveys.

I was interested to find out how they encourage employee innovation and Casey told me

that by situating the office spaces in a way that flattens out the company hierarchy allows for a

more comfortable sharing of ideas. Casey mentioned that her work area is right next to Jeff’s,

who is director of global development.

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The last place we visited was the area that is designing chairs for comfort and a healthy

posture. The had a spine skeleton there along with drawings about proper posture for comfort. It

was quite impressive the work they go through to make sure they deliver long term comfort.

Over all, I enjoyed my visit to Haworth. The building alone was impressive and spoke of

their values toward company and specifically employee comfort and health.

I was disappointed that I was not allowed to listen in on any collaboration. I was

carefully walked past any conversations or meetings in progress. It would have been nice to see

some of the process in action. I’m not sure if this was because I was being toured by an intern,

or if this was policy. Because I was asked to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, I had hoped for

more access.

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Creativity and Innovation Workshop

Wednesday July 25, 2018

I was nervous as well as excited for this workshop. I was a participant in the first

iteration of this workshop two years earlier, so I felt that I understood the concepts and what to

expect. The difference this time was my part in presenting a small portion.

I was asked to develop a flyer for the workshop that could be posted on the leadership

website or passed out. I spent some time putting together the flyer as requested and emailed it to

them. I was told that it was very nice, but it was never posted or passed out. It was disappointing

to spend time working on something that was never used. But I did get a very nice-looking flyer

out of it!

Figure 5

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The workshop got off to a roaring start with a miscommunication about the location of

the keys for the Innovation House. Finally, thanks to creativity by a couple of students that

included breaking and entering without the breaking part, we were able to begin the workshop.

Dr. Brand started with the following questions; How are creativity and innovation

similar/different? How would you define or describe creativity and innovation? He asked this

question at the beginning as a benchmark of their knowledge or understanding of the topic.

Later at the end of the workshop he would ask the students to reflect on their understanding now

as compared to their answers given on the first day. There was a mixed review on students who

felt that their perspective changed and those who felt they had the same definitions as before but

with more complexity.

Dr. Siebold introduced the next experience as a micro-experience of design thinking. He

explained that design thinking as a set of principles one can use to find solutions to problems in a

unique manner. The students were asked to divide into pairs so that they could work on the

design thinking project. They were to take turns interviewing each other as they worked through

the worksheet handed out. I really didn’t want to partner up because I was there to observe and

wanted the ability to roam and listen in to the conversations. But there was an uneven number of

participants, so I partnered with Chuck Dart. I found it was easier than two years ago to move

through the principles because this time I had a better understanding of the process.

I think for me the biggest difference was my understanding of prototyping. Two years

ago I was baffled by the down and dirty prototypes that we made, but this time I finally

understood that it was not the prototype itself, but the visual representation that they gave. It’s

also the process of working with my hands that allow me to think differently. It wasn’t about

how great it looked or how realistic it was, it was about the process. Having seen a chair

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prototype at Haworth made out of paper, helped me to see and understand the process better.

Although, I will admit, it was a pretty amazing paper chair!

At the end of the process, Dr. Siebold led us as we shared what we “created” for our

partner. Everyone shared their final product and how they saw it would be helpful to the end

user. Then it was explained that this experience was not to actually solve the problem, although

that might have taken place. The purpose was to model the process (five principles) of design

thinking. Then they were given the time (15 minutes) to reflect on their experience. What they

thought about it, how they felt, what they learned about the process and themselves. How they

think this could be a useful tool in the future. Tomorrow the class would take their notes from

this experience and debrief or unpack the experience.

Thursday July 26, 2018

After a worship, Dr. Siebold asked the class to join another set of partners and using their

reflection notes, discuss the activities of the previous day to come up with a definition and

description of each of the five principles of design thinking. I was able to step away at this point

and listen to each of the groups’ discussions.

One group discovered that they cannot go from the many ideas they came up with in the

ideate stage straight to the prototype stage. They needed to narrow down their ideas. They

discovered that they needed to return to the previous stages. That was when they discovered the

circular or iterative nature of the process of design thinking.

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Next we listened to a TedX film by Carol Dweck(2016) on the “Power of Yet” where she

shared her belief in the growth vs fixed mindsets. The students were encouraged to take a few

minutes to reflect on the power of “yet and” mindsets. We then broke for lunch with the

homework of taking 3 pictures of trees to send to Dr. Siebold. No explanations as to why or for

what were given.

When we returned from lunch the students found special folders set out for the students

that had a picture of a horse upside down (or at least it was supposed to be upside down, but

somehow many of them were not) attached to a file folder. I then gave them instructions to draw

only what they saw and move the folder down ½ inch at a time. We gave them 15 minutes to

draw this. Then they were asked to divide into groups and discuss how this activity make them

feel and if they had any experience in childhood that came to mind regarding art.

When they returned, I asked them to give a one-word description of how this activity

made them feel. These are the words they used; intuitive, task-oriented, perfectionism, trusting,

dumb, confident, relaxed, rushed/stressed, imaginative, competent, protective, enthusiastic and

motivated. It was interesting to note that most of the students felt positive toward the experience.

While only a couple felt negative. I wonder what their responses would be before they realized

what they were drawing and saw the results? My experience during was vastly different than my

reaction after seeing the end result.

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I went on to show them my picture and tell them my story. I explained the longer term

impact on my way of thinking and how Dweck’s (2006) book about mindsets gave me a new

perspective on my ability to learn new things. I shared that my worship life had even been

impacted with my concept of my ability to draw because now I draw in my Bible to help me

meditate and retain what I have read and learned. I encouraged the students to remove the words

‘I can’t’ from their vocabulary because God has given us the ability to do anything He has

ordained for us to do in His service.

I was very nervous about this presentation. It has been a while since I spoke to adults.

But I shared from the heart and left the rest in God’s hands to impress as He desired.

After this activity, we moved into an activity that I call ‘yes and…’. After splitting the class into

two groups, we learned divergent thinking by building on others’ ideas. We rapidly built a story

about a vacation we all took. After playing this for several rounds, we changed the phrase to

‘yes but…’. We found it was actually harder to disagree than to agree and keep going. It

actually took more thought process to disagree with others. Amazing since we seem to disagree

more readily than agree. This is an important activity when teaching the skills necessary for the

ideate principle or stage. When we can build upon the ideas of others, we can increase the

creativity and ideas produced. Also, when we agree with others, it allows their creativity to

increase while our disagreeing tends to shut down others creativity because they no longer feel

comfortable sharing their ideas for fear of judgement.

Dr. Siebold used the next activity to impress the importance of reframing. In this

activity, he had students send him the pictures of trees they collected over lunch. He then chose

several to use as examples. He explained the photography rule of thirds for the best visual

framing of a picture. Using cropping to show how eliminating parts of the whole can actually

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improve the picture. By redefining the problem (cropping) it can make the problem much easier

to work with. Another concept he shared that all good pictures seem to contain three parts. The

primary focus where your eye naturally wants to go, the secondary focus, and the background

that tells the rest of the story.

This is an excellent example of what the designer does as they look at the problem and

seeks to make a clearer picture of the problem. Sometimes what looks like the obvious answer

may not be the best. The supporting answers may be the better choice to solve the problem. The

designer must look at the whole picture and attempt to understand the context.

In the debrief session one student commented that sometimes we are too close to the situation to

see all the beauty or the options. I thought this statement was insightful. Many times we get so

caught up in the problem, that we don’t see the way out.

Friday July 27, 2018

This morning we started with a wonderful worship given by Dr. Siebold before he had to

run to a meeting. The worship was about the wisdom that God gave the artisans in order for

them to make the sanctuary. They needed to be imbued with God’s wisdom and creativity in

order to create the pieces of the sanctuary. These items would be works of art that would be a

gift to God and His presence would be surrounding each item. Beautiful thoughts.

We spent the last day of the workshop in what I would call a debrief of the entire design thinking

process. Dr. Brand shared his ideas how project-based learning should be the basis of our

educational system. In addition to this, the suggestion was made that competency-based learning

rather than testing and the old format of industrialized education program would be preferred.

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I really enjoyed participating and observing this workshop. I also enjoyed watching the

students as they began to grasp the possibilities that come with design thinking. As they began

to see new ways to solve problems in many different areas in creative ways.

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KEY LEARNINGS

Roadmap for Innovation Project

As I read Govindarajan’s (2016) book describing his 3-box solution, he made a comment

that really hit home for me.

It is harder for an organization to admit to itself that it’s time to stop doing something than to
know when it’s time to invent something new. Though these two thoughts inevitably go
hand in hand, ceasing an established activity can be like losing an old friend. There are
powerful emotional attachments that must be overcome. And frequently there are wrenching
human consequences involved in letting go. But a capacity for renewal is the foundation of
organizational sustainability. (p. 148)

Our Adventist educational system is concerned with the lack of students enrolling in our schools.

I believe that it is time to time to take a second look at who our stakeholders are in our churches

and schools. It may be time to invent something new, something that meets the needs of more of

our children, even looking outside of our comfort zones.

While we all like to know that the research supports the decisions we make, I can present

all the data I want, but if there is no empathy to help and support those who believe that God has

called them to educate their own children, then we will not see change. Kotter and Cohen (2011)

state that

changing behavior is less a matter of giving people analysis to influence their thoughts than
helping them to see a truth to influence their feelings. Both thinking and feelings are
essential, and both are found in successful organizations, but the heart of change is in the
emotions. (Kotter & Cohen, 2011, p. 682)

Design thinking starts with the heart. We must first seek to understand those that we want to

help. In my case, the Adventist families who choose to homeschool.

How will I accomplish this? The beginning step will be conducting my homeschooling

innovation project. Unlike an organizational related work team, this one is voluntary and I

believe that will make it more difficult for participant buy-in for the time necessary to complete

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this project. The best I can hope for maybe a couple of hours of their time. It would be

wonderful if at the end, they were so motivated that they could see the value of future meetings.

But that is an ending I cannot count on. That will have to be in the Lord’s hands.

I plan to use the principles of design thinking as the participants and I work toward creating fresh

ideas of how we might collaborate with our Adventist homeschooling families by asking the

question, “What does a bridge of collaboration look like”?

This will not be an easy task because, as I have shared earlier in this paper, we will need

to create the circumstances for the participants to begin to understand and empathize with

homeschooling parents. It will be even more difficult to create the atmosphere of trust with the

participants coming from all parts of the nation. Because we are a geographically dispersed

team, we will be meeting via Zoom to get the richest possible source of communication possible

without being in the same room. This will hopefully allow for a more comfortable

communication where we can “see” the nonverbal part of communication.

Creating an environment that is conducive to creativity will also be challenging because

serious play will be more difficult due to the virtual aspect of the meeting. It is my desire to

create ‘goodie boxes’ for each participant that they can open when we meet. These will include

post-it notes, candy, fun toys, a mug with cocoa or lemonade etc. It is my hope that they will

help to break the ice and show my appreciation for their valuable time.

I plan to bring in homeschool parents that will share their homeschooling experiences with the

participants so that we can understand their joys and struggles. This will allow us to have a

better understanding of what our brief should contain.

We will spend time reframing and then ideating. I must admit, I’m looking forward to

hearing the ideas of what a collaboration could look like. The last two stages of prototyping and

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testing will be challenging because of the time limits that we will have. Each of the steps of the

design thinking theory will be much shorter than would be preferred. I plan to do my best to

foster an atmosphere of creativity and acceptance while at the same time moving us through each

principle.

Conclusion

As I reflect on my key learnings from this semester, I realize that I have gained a new

appreciation for the creativity that God has given to each one of us. Because we are made in the

image of God, every one of us has the capacity to be creative. I have learned that I have more

creativity than I originally thought. I knew that I was creative in the areas of scrapbooking and

decorating, but I have always told people that I have no ability to draw. In fact, I even

laughingly told others that my stick people are pathetic! I was very entrenched in the fixed

mindset that Dweck (2006) refers to, but my experience in the creativity workshop that I

attended at the beginning of my graduate experience opened my eyes to the possibility of growth.

Which as stated earlier, opened up my mind to the ability to draw as part of my worship as well

as the possibility to grow in other areas that I may initially feel inadequate.

In learning about design thinking, I realized that if I wanted to make an impact in

building bridges between Adventist education and Adventist homeschoolers, I would need to

look for solutions outside the box. It was after the creativity workshop class, that I decided to

change my emphasis to the Creativity and Innovation MA. My hope was that this emphasis

would teach me to use more creativity in future problem solving.

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Others gift of creativity may not be the same as mine, but that is also part of God’s plan.

According to Paul (1 Cor 12:12-31) it takes all of us to meet the needs of the church. But having

the gift of creativity is not enough, we must also have the heart or desire to help others.

Without the desire to help others we are of no use to the Lord. Thankfully, God through the

Holy Spirit, gives us the capacity to desire helping others. I believe it is only by opening

ourselves up to the leading of the Holy Spirit that we can fulfill his purposes. For some, it comes

in the form of feeding the hungry and building homes for those who have none. For others it

comes in the service of education.

That is where I believe the Lord has called me to use the creativity that God has given to

me. To help Adventist education create bridges with our homeschooling families that can be a

support to all who are educating God’s children. It is my goal to help Adventist education meet

their goals as stated in the 2016 NAD Education Taskforce recommendations.

The NAD implements strategies to connect every Adventist child to some form of
Adventist education and to provide all families with the opportunity to access and
use content and services that will help each child grow in the values and mission
of the Adventist church. (North American Division, 2016, p. 34)

It is my belief that one way to accomplish this goal is to create a method for collaboration with

our homeschooling families.

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APPENDIX A

1. Design thinking mind map ................................................................................................. 9

2. Nonlinear stages steps of design thinking ........................................................................ 11

3. The only bean................................................................................................................... 17

4. Cut and sew in Michigan ................................................................................................. 18

5. Creativity workshop ......................................................................................................... 29

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