Design Thinking: Solving the Problems That Don't Have Playbooks

Your straightforward problems are already solved. Learn a structured, hands-on approach to the complex ones. Most leaders are excellent problem-solvers. That's how you got here. But the problems crossing your desk now are different: complex, interconnected, and unprecedented. There's no best practice to copy, and the standard fixes sometimes make things worse. These are what researchers call wicked problems — challenges where the hard part isn't finding the answer, it's defining the question. Approach them with the same tools you'd use on straightforward problems and you get a familiar result: a brilliant solution to the wrong problem. There is a structured way to work on them. It's called design thinking, and it's how the world's most innovative organizations turn ambiguity into action. In this fast-paced, interactive breakfast session, you won't listen to a lecture about it — you'll do it. In 40 minutes at your table, you'll experience the full arc of the method, compressed: • Problem Framing: Experience how the frame you choose determines the solutions you’ll find • Generating Innovative Possibilities: See why avoiding the executive instinct to converge on solutions too early thwarts new ideas from emerging • Prototype and test. Learn why rough, fast, and testable beats polished, slow, and final — and why unfinished work is actually risk reduction. You'll leave with tools and techniques you can apply to a real problem the same day. This session is a preview of Design Thinking: A Human-Centered Approach to Complex Problems, a one-day design thinking intensive at Dominican University October 29, 2026.