IGNITE INNOVATION.
Transforming an Organization to be Design-capable
Client
The Meadowbrook K-8 School of Weston
2015-16, Weston, MA
Tags
Capability Mapping; Product Roadmap; Needs Alignment; Organizational Design; Prototyping Mindset; Coaching Capabilities
The Challenge
The Meadowbrook School of Weston recruited me as a makerspace and design thinking curriculum expert to aid in their transformation as a forward-thinking STEAM school. They were installing a brand new makerspace, but required teacher buy-in and curriculum integration for teachers to feel secure in leveraging the new tools being offered. They went to MIT’s Edgerton Center, which came to me, to serve as the pioneering consultant at the client site.
The Process
I coached the team of science teachers to pilot new ways of integrating design thinking projects into their existing curriculum and finding opportunities for students to authentically create in the makerspace. I mapped their curriculum objectives as capabilities and desired outcomes to new projects to show how capabilities would transfer from one project to another. I created tools to help teachers make sense of integrating design thinking mindsets into their work.
Results
I made myself open and available to the community and that resulted in new projects with new teachers approaching me as ambassadors of the practice. I presented our successes at Board meetings and took the team to an annual congress on best design thinking practices. Teachers that worked with me emerged as confident and capable in their abilities to incorporate design thinking projects into their curriculum and with a prototyping mindset that craved feedback from their students in new ways than ever before. I implemented a new governance model that brought the makerspace specialist into the classroom to reduce redundancies and inefficiencies in project design.