This document discusses design thinking and adaptive leadership practices for innovating and managing organizational change. It explains that innovators focus on understanding people, gain new perspectives by immersing deeply in experiences, and address challenges through prototyping ideas and iterative experimentation. The document proposes applying these practices to help address major challenges facing Jewish day schools through cultivating a culture of innovation.

1. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
Day School Collaboration Network
Design
Thinking
&Adaptive
Leadership

2. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
What’s an innovation
that’s made a
difference in your life
or community?

3. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
?

4. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
Why?

5. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
How do you think
about innovators?

6. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
Most really successful innovators focus on
people and experiences.

7. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
Innovators see the present in new ways…
WHAT IS

8. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
…helping them see the future in new ways.
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE

9. Innovators focus on real details others miss…
© 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
CONCRETE
DETAILS

10. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
…and gain perspective others never reach.
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
HIGH-LEVEL
PERSPECTIVE
CONCRETE
DETAILS

11. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
Innovating
successfully is hard.
There are technical challenges
Requiring more know-how or resources
and adaptive challenges
Requiring deep change from organizations and people

12. Design Thinking and
Adaptive Leadership are
practices for doing and
managing the organizational
challenges of human-centered
© 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
innovation.

13. Weimmerse deeply “at the extremes” to pull out new
observations about what people experience and why…
© 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
HIGH-LEVEL
PERSPECTIVE
immerse
for observations
CONCRETE
DETAILS

14. Weget up on the balcony to frame technical and adaptive
© 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
challenges/opportunities for greatest impact…
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
HIGH-LEVEL
PERSPECTIVE
frame
opportunities 
immerse
for observations
CONCRETE
DETAILS

15. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
Weimagine ideas to realize those opportunities…
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
HIGH-LEVEL
PERSPECTIVE
frame
opportunities  imagine
ideas
immerse
for observations
CONCRETE
DETAILS

16. We prototype rapid, low-risk experiments that make iteratively
© 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
larger aspects of ideas and experiences real…
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
HIGH-LEVEL
PERSPECTIVE
frame
opportunities  imagine
ideas
immerse
for observations
prototype
experiments
CONCRETE
DETAILS

17. …and re-immerse these experiments to gain new observations,
© 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
opportunities, and ideas for improvement.
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
HIGH-LEVEL
PERSPECTIVE
frame
opportunities  imagine
ideas
immerse
for observations
prototype
experiments
CONCRETE
DETAILS

18. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
We use these modes agilely and mindfully – often
experimenting early to learn.
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
HIGH-LEVEL
PERSPECTIVE
frame
opportunities  imagine
ideas
immerse
for observations
prototype
experiments
CONCRETE
DETAILS

19. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
And we constantly access the entire collective
creativity of our community, building stronger
innovations, innovators and relationships.
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
HIGH-LEVEL
PERSPECTIVE
frame
opportunities  imagine
ideas
immerse
for observations
prototype
experiments
CONCRETE
DETAILS

20. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
How much are these a part of your
work today?
When we do anything….
 We try to deeply understand the people involved.
 We seek to continuously frame a powerful
perspective on the situation or “system” and how to
impact it.
 We broadly imagine solutions.
 We rapidly prototype and iterate. A lot.
 We draw deeply from the insights, intelligence,
imagination and practices of our community.

21. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
What came first: the chicken or the egg?
&
image credit: Frits Ahelfeldt-Laurvig – Flickr.com
The more you use the process, the more the process
becomes you.
Who knows?!
You →
Design Thinking →

22. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
To begin, we need at least a little of the following
mindsets (they develop as we go).
How we speak shapes how we think, so each mindset
has “mantras” that we use regularly.

23. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
Jewish Day school
communities face
major challenges.

24. What if we approached our big challenges with Design
Thinking and Adaptive Leadership ?
© 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
HIGH-LEVEL
PERSPECTIVE
frame
opportunities  imagine
ideas
immerse
for observations
prototype
experiments
CONCRETE
DETAILS

25. What if we created cultures of innovation—schools filled
with design thinkers who practice this in every action
and interaction?
© 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
HIGH-LEVEL
PERSPECTIVE
frame
opportunities  imagine
ideas
immerse
for observations
prototype
experiments
CONCRETE
DETAILS

26. © 2014 Ela Ben-Ur
What if these design thinkers could help spread this
culture throughout Jewish day schools?
WHAT IS
WHAT
COULD
BE
HIGH-LEVEL
PERSPECTIVE
frame
opportunities  imagine
ideas
immerse
for observations
prototype
experiments
CONCRETE
DETAILS

27. Come find out this
year with The Jewish
Education Project,
Upstart Bay Area, and
the Day School
Collaboration
Network!
© 2014 Ela Ben-Ur