Design Thinking Workshop and Certification from Zurich University

Bangalore Chamber of Industry & Commerce (BCIC) and Zurich University of Applied Sciences are proud to announce the "New Work and Design Thinking" workshop on 22nd & 23rd August, 2019.

«New Work» is an umbrella title which covers latest developments in the way management and leadership is contemporary understood and practically done. «New Work» depicts an evolution (some say a revolution) towards flat or no hierarchy, alternative forms of decision making as well as serious forms of collaboration.

The ultimate aim of all those concepts is to make the organization as much as possible agile, adaptive and flexible. A vital organization meeting the characteristics mentioned is seen as one of the major prerequisites for innovation.

More and more organizations in the west understand «New Work» approaches as the only solution for increasingly changing environments (customers, markets, technology) and as a main route to prosper in the future.

Design Thinking is one of the methodologies most elaborated meanwhile in theory and practice. It aims to address radically costumer needs and requirements, understanding them better than before and work on solutions on the basis of knowledge and understanding. Iterative feedback (rapid prototyping) is used to dramatically shorten time to market.

This two days workshop will introduce into basic concepts of «New Work» as well as in the methodology of Design Thinking focusing on self innovation, social innovation and solution innovation:

Day 1 (morning): Self Innovation  Purpose quest (what is my call?), understanding personal attitudes and communication styles, learning about individual relationship management and self leadership. This first half day acquaints with some fundamental individual prerequisites for new work and design thinking.

Day 1 (afternoon): Social Innovation  Distinguishing between role and position, understanding organizational culture, learning about «sociocray» as a tool for decision making, learning about fundamental aspects of social and organizational change. The second half day will introduce you into pivotal social aspects which need to be regarded to get new work functional.

Day 2 (entire day): Solution Innovation  Learning the entire design thinking process as a tool to create user centered solutions. The second day will introduce you in the steps of design thinking from the design challenge (problem) to the prototype (solution) and its possible implementation.

Participants will work intensively on their personal inventory and competencies. They will gain insights in the way they understand their contribution to the organization’s purpose and outcome, will get options for personal development and leveraging their behavioral capital.

Participants will learn about the basic methodology of design thinking in every crucial step on the way to innovative solutions.

Participants get the chance to build and intensify a network of pioneering practitioners who are willing to personally and collectively invest in new paths of building successful and human oriented organizations.

Dr. Michael Zirkler is a professor for organization psychology at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (School of Applied Psychology). He has more than 25 years of experience as a researcher and educator in higher education as well as a practitioner in the area of organization development and change, leadership development, conflict resolution.

He’s been coming to India frequently for the last years and is closely collaborating with scholars.

He is also closely collaborating with the Berlin (Germany) based innovation agceny «dark horse innovation» where he is serving as part of the academy team offering intensive training on «new work design» (https://www.thedarkhorse.de/newwork-design/).