IDEO and a story of design

If the whole world thinks all designers do is something decorative, they’re not going to come to you and say, hey, we actually have a serious issue of sexual harassment on our university campus. Can design play a part in helping us solve that? And not through just putting up more compliance posters, but actually asking—How do people relate to each other? What is the culture? What should be changed? Design can help answer that.

From a short video sharing the history of IDEO and the evolution of their design practice.

One of my current obsessions is figuring out how to further understanding and, in many cases, change the perception of design within an organization. So the above quote makes me wonder—How do you get to that point where people even know to ask you the question, “Can design play a part in helping us solve our problem?”

To a certain extent, the first response has to be, “Where do we start?”