DesignThinkers Academy, Nigeria

“Culture transformation in an organisation is a marathon, not a sprint, requiring a marathoner's mindset of endurance, stamina, and perseverance.” -Olukunle A. Iyanda, PhD

How easy is changing and transforming people's collective beliefs and behaviour? Many may conclude with the proverbial statement that it might be easier for a donkey to pass through the eye of the needle, which may be true when transforming an organisation's culture. Winning organisations have evolved to develop a winning culture.

My thought concerning this quote is that culture transformation is a tough call, no matter the cosmetic approach adopted to make it look easy. As leaders, you can successfully transform culture with the correct dose and mix of passion and perseverance.

My quote above vividly captures the essence of organisational change as a long-term, continuous process rather than a quick fix. It is a marathon where success hinges on persistent effort, resilience, and a steady pace rather than immediate results. Anytime my firm is engaged in a culture transformation project, I do not shy away from painting these realities to our clients; as expected, many CEOs are always in a hurry for results. The metaphor of a marathon emphasises the need for preparation, patience, and the ability to withstand challenges over an extended period of time. It suggests that transforming an organisation's culture involves gradual shifts in attitudes, behaviours, and values, which cannot be rushed.

My perspective highlights the importance of sustained commitment, strategic planning, and the willingness to adapt. This approach acknowledges that meaningful change is a complex process that requires initial enthusiasm, ongoing dedication, and a forward-looking mindset.

2023 WISH: A MIDAS TOUCH?

It is in our nature to load every new year with many wishes, aspirations and resolutions. So as you begin the year, what do you have on your wish list?

In Greek mythology, King Midas was a great King who lived in luxury and loved to delight his only daughter with good things of line that the world could afford. One day King Midas showed kindness to Satyr, the lover of Dionysus (the god of wine and performance). Dionysus was highly delighted and offered to bless King Midas with just one gift. So, he asked Midas to name one thing he would like to have. King Midas reflected and concluded that he wanted to acquire more gold and that anything he touched should 'turn to gold'.

Dionysus granted his wish; he gave King Midas the power to turn anything he touched into gold. So Midas began, he touched the palace wall, stones and roads, and it became gold. He was delighted, he touched his cutlery, buckets, and furniture, and everything turned to gold. What a splendid experience.

Once satisfied with his accomplishment for the day, it was time to refresh and eat. Not knowing, he left out a small detail in his prayer. His butler presented some apples and grapes for refreshment; he took the grapes and decided to bite the delicious fruit; sadly, the grapes turned to gold, and he almost broke his teeth. He asked for bread; the bread turned to gold as well. He was frustrated and yelled heavily; hearing his father shouting, his daughter came out. King Midas decided to pour his frustration into his daughter; he reached out to his daughter's embrace; behold, his only precious daughter turned into a golden statute.

Yes, King Midas got his desire but left out a "small detail". Sometimes even when we got all our desires, they do not solve all our longings. As you enter the year, don't ask for "Midas touch". Let God guide you in your goal-setting so your dream does not become a nightmare.

May you strive beyond Boundaries in 2023, and may your dream take flight beyond expectations.

You have probably heard about it, but what do you know about design thinking? We present to you an opportunity to attend a free introductory class to Design Thinking.

Infusing yourself and your organization with Design thinking tools have proven to help organizations to achieve innovative and measurable outcomes in solving complex problems.

You should not be left out, why would you suffer yourself with that knowledge gap, join our free online class on Design thinking, kindly copy and paste below link in browser

Course registration:

https://www.designthinkersacademy.com/nigeria/course-catalogue/february-2021/

Registration Closes Friday 6pm WAT

To view other courses:

https://www.designthinkersacademy.com/nigeria/

Warm wishes to all our Muslim friends and clients celebrating on this joyous occasion of Eid-el Maulud. May this celebrations bring you and your family joy. Greetings from everyone at Design Thinkers Agency and Design Thinkers Academy Nigeria.

In 2009, Airbnb was on the verge of bankruptcy. Like most startups at that time, the company was in obscurity; nobody knew about them and nobody cared. Their gross revenue at the time was barely up to $200 dollars a week- they were in muddy waters. That’s when Joe Gebbia, one of the founders heard about Design Thinking and enrolled to study it at the Rhode Island School of design. With what he learned about design thinking; the company put some strategies in place that has transformed it from a $200-a-week to a multi-million-dollar empire. Here are some of the things they did

Today we are celebrating Joseph Ladapo , a Nigerian-American Doctor who was recently appointed as the Surgeon General of Florida by the Governor of the state, Ron DeSantis .
Dr. Ladapo was born in Nigeria but immigrated to the United States with his family at the young age of 5. He graduated from Wake Forest University and got his MD from Harvard Medical School. He later went on to obtain a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. We celebrate Dr. Ladapo for his brilliance and for helping give Nigeria a positive image in the diaspora.

Throwback to our Design Thinking training with Stanbic IBTC bank in 2019. In these pictures, our team are seen preparing materials that will make the design thinking training smoother. We are always committed to seamless training sessions where our trainees are given everything they need to succeed with the design thinking strategy.

CUSTOMER JOURNEY
The customer journey is a graphical representation of how the customer perceives and experiences the service interface over time.

Yahoo was one of the biggest internet companies during the early days of the internet explosion. With the company’s meteoric rise came the need for it to solidify itself as a strong digital brand. Unfortunately, Yahoo failed to live up to the billing. Making a series of mistakes that will dethrone it as the biggest internet company. Here are a few reasons why Yahoo failed.

Do you know the importance of good customer experience? Do you understand how it affects your business growth? In today’s post, we look at 4 ways that customer service and experience affects business growth.

Listening to customers' complaints and trying to resolve them is great, but that is not all that delivering a great customer experience entails. It entails the entire experience that a customer has with your business. Good customer experience has become even more important in today’s world. For one, customers consider a company’s customer service before and after they patronise your business. According to a study, 90% of customers consider a company’s customer service when deciding whether or not to do business with a brand. So, how do you use positive customer experience design to improve business growth? Here are 5 ways you can.

Happy Customer Service Week to all of our clients at Design Thinkers Agency Nigeria and Design Thinkers Academy Nigeria. You are our reason for staying in business and we don't take you for granted.

Favour Oluma: The Environmental Amazon.

Favour Oluma is a 21-year-old student of the Federal University of Technology Minna (FUTMINNA), She is a creative designer, a furniture maker and an innovator per excellence. Favour is someone who is using innovation to help bring recycling to the fore in an exquisite manner. She spends most of her time making beautiful furniture out of old car tyres and she's making a name for herself while she's at it! With her amazing craftsmanship, Favour has been able to win hearts all over Nigeria and beyond. Favour's story teaches us that innovation does not necessarily need to happen in a corporate environment, look around you and see how you can innovate for growth. Have a splendid weekend.

We are not where we want yet, but we have come a long way. Happy Independence Day to Nigeria; "the last lighted torch of the century". We strongly believe that with innovation and empathy for the citizenry, Nigeria will soon be on the summit in the committee of great nations.

How Apple Uses Design Thinking To Build Innovative Products
In 2012, Apple became the most valuable publicly traded company in history. Although many people understand that Apple achieved this feat by constantly churning out great, innovative products, you may not know that the company employed design thinking as a strategy for growth. Here are some ways Apple has used and continues to use Design Thinking to drive innovation.

Meet Betelhem Dessie: Ethiopia’s Tech Pedagogue

Betelhem Dessie is a tech educator, entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of iCog- Anyone Can Code (ACC). She has been lauded by many as one of the youngest technology innovators in her home country of Ethiopia.

She is the founder and CEO of the iCog Anyone Can Code programme, an EdTech project offering instructing in robotics, AI and IoT (Internet of Things) to young Ethiopians. Betelhem has patented several software programmes—with more in collaboration—and travelled the country to conduct coding and innovation workshops

Betelhem became interested in technology by the age of nine after working in her father’s electronic shop to earn some extra cash for birthday. During that time, she reportedly earned close $90 by editing videos and copying music for customers. This sparked her interest in the field, and by the following year, she taught herself how to code in HTML. Thereafter, Betelhem started teaching her classmates basic computer skills.By the age of 12, Betelhem had been offered a position with the Ethiopian Information Network Security Agency.

She is currently a project manager at iCog Labs—the first artificial intelligence (AI) lab in Ethiopia. With the lab’s Solve IT programme, she travels around the country to help young adults create tech-based solutions to their communities’ problems.

Do you use A-B testing when you are creating a product or solution for your customers? If not, then you may be missing the opportunity of understanding what your customers want. A-B testing helps you test different elements of the solution you are designing for your customers. By testing every variable, you will be able to zero in on what your customers like, thereby empowering you to build a more customer-centric solution. Want to learn how to design customer-centred solutions? Hit the link in our bio, and select “Contact Us” to schedule a personal or group training based on your unique needs.

Unless you are living under a rock, you must have used one of services. The company has a diverse range of products including their chrome browser, gmail email service, Google Maps, Google Ads and a host of others. How has Google managed to build so many groundbreaking products? The answer is design thinking. Here’s how they’ve applied design thinking in their company.

Fatoumata Ba is an African entrepreneur and investor from Senegal. She is on a mission to helpdemocraticise venture capital investments in Africa.
Ba wants to help more African startups raise more capital as the continent’s startup funding is
still very small when compared to other emerging markets. She is the founder of Janngo; aplatform that helps invest in and grow Pan-African digital businesses.
Additionally, in 2018 Ba launched Jexport; a platform that aims to help boost cross-border tradefor small and medium entreprises on the African continent. We salute this great African innovator!

“Gambler’s Fallacy”

Gambler's fallacy is an erroneous belief that an event is less likely or more likely to happen based on the outcome of a previous event or series of events
Many people indulge in gambler fallacy during their strategy development sessions without recognising it. The good thing is that with a design thinking training, you will not only be aware of gambler’s fallacy, you will actively work againt its occurrence. Hit the link in our bio to register for any of our upcoming open training programs.

Our amiable leader dissecting the principles of design thinking to a section of participants at a recently concluded training. Doc, as we fondly call him, staunchly believes in the principles of design thinking and how it can help boost productivity for individuals and organisations. Want to learn more about how design thinking can help your business grow? Click the link in our bio!

WICKED PROBLEM
A wicked problem is a problem that is difficult to define, It may be incomplete or contradictory knowledge, and changing requirements that sometimes defies logic. Wicked problem Characteristics
Wicked problems have no definitive formulation.
There is always more than one explanation to the problem
They may be hard or impossible, to measure because they bleed into one another
Solution to wicked problem is a matter of good or bad solution and not True or False solution.
A wicked problem is a symptom of another problem
Every wicked problem is unique.

Do you have problems in your organisation that seems to have defie logic? The good news is, design thinking is great in helping organisation to unravel wicked problems

Welcome to September! As we usher in a new month, understand that the power to achieve fantastic results with your business is in your hands. You need to identify relevant goals and work to achieve them. Remember, this month is the best opportunity for you to plan for the last quarter. You are the master of your own destiny, the ball is now in your court.

Iyinioluwa Samuel Aboyeji is a Nigerian innovator, serial entrepreneur and all-round startup specialist. He has co-founded two of Nigeria’s most innovative companies and continues to play a significant role in the African tech ecosystem. In 2014, Iyinioluwa teamed up with his American partners to co-found Andela, one of Africa’s most innovative companies. Andela is a talent accelerator that has helped trained, recruited and place hundreds of Nigerians in the tech ecosystem. After helping grow the company to a valuation of $100 million, Iyinioluwa left to co-found another innovative company called Flutterwave. Flutterwave is a payments solutions company that helps empower Nigerians and other Africans to make payments online. Today, with One billion Dollars valuation, the company has become a Unicorn.
Environmental and social-challenges notwithstanding, always remember it is possible, you can achieve your dreams with laser focused discipline and grit.
We salute this African innovator and his great contributor to Africa’s growth.

Our team of facilitators teaching participants about the design thinking philosophy during a training event. Our core focus during these trainings is to make sure that our participants are actively engaged in learning and understanding design thinking. That way, they can elevate their careers and help their organisations grow. Want to participate in our next training? Click on the link in our bio to register for our next open training!

Do you “brainstorm” with your Team? Are you doing it correctly?
Brainstorming with your team is important but much more important is to ensure you are doing it correctly and getting out the best from your session.

In design thinking, brainstorming refers to a group or individual creativity approach where design solutions are generated by members of the team in a collaborative session. It is a method for generating ideas. intended to inspire the free- flowing sharing of thoughts of an individual or a group of people, typically emphasis is laid on quantity of ideas, withholding of criticism in order to promote uninhibited thinking.

There are different techniques for brainstorming, done correctly it brings tremedous advantage to the organisation. Are you getting the right value from your brainstorming session?

Do you need expert guide in bringing out the best from your brainstorming session?