Digging Deeper into Design Thinking - Advanced LUMA workshop

Digging Deeper into Design Thinking 

While most of the school is on spring break I am attending a 2-day workshop at the LUMA Institute. I am a huge fan of the LUMA system for use in my classes and tackling design

Bill Lucas describing how the
LUMA Institute system was developed.

challenges around the school and across the broader educational landscape. I was excited to have the opportunity to participate in this "advanced" session - instructed by Director of Curriculum, Bill Lucas.

This 2-day advanced workshop instructs participants on how to "coach, facilitate, and integrate the LUMA System into their daily workflow and overall development efforts." While I have been doing this for awhile, its nice to get feedback and hone these skills. During the session, candidates are re-introduced to the 36 LUMA methods in a deeper way. Candidates are also expected to practice planning for and then facilitating a session, followed by instructor feedback. When you successfully complete the course  - your receive certification as a Practitioner of the LUMA System of Innovating for People! 

Today we started off the workshop focusing on the history of Maya Design, LUMA being spun-out and how the methods were developed. Bill pointed out that LUMA doesn't promote a certain process - the system is process agnostic. We then discussed various topics including bringing those folks "into" the conversation who many be "naysayers" and think DT is just a trend. Bill suggests saying "you are already doing it - let's do it slightly different, in a more intentional way." I like the idea of making DT the "new normal" in our classrooms and schools. 

Learning how to put the methods together to tackle a challenge is an art itself! Bill says: "We spend a good bit of time on ways and advising around "problem spaces" - what are some of the typical categories of problems and what methods might lend themselves to those problems?" Once you develop proven method combinations it can be scaled, re-used and create shared language in your organization. 

A close-up view of some method-combos

A "heat map" of my experience/usage of the 36 methods

Deep purple being the highest usage/knowledge of the method. 

One really interesting idea is to use Rose, Bud, Thorn (learn the basics of the method below in this 2 Min PD video) in a new way - this is one of my favorite methods along with Stakeholder mapping and affinity clustering. Bill described a client who recently added the rose (pink) bud (green) and thorn (blue) post-its right onto the stakeholder map. This is an interesting idea I intend to try! We wrapped the day with detailed talk of Heuristic review (rules of thumb) and planned what we want to focus on for day 2. 

I am looking forward to day 2 of the workshop, focusing on (for me) how to scale and create more shared meaning of DT and the LUMA system at my school.