In higher ed, we often treat change as a planning problem. That getting people in the same space and mapping out each step will yield the desired outcome.

I’m an advocate for clear plans, but our relationship with certainty is drastically changing as our context becomes more dynamic and we all struggle with a lack of clarity and confidence on what to expect and how to proceed.

What I hear most often from leaders and staff alike is that they’re struggling without a flexible toolkit on how to surface challenges and move ideas forward. When they’re introduced to human-centered design, I hear them talk about the impact it has and the way it helps navigate ambiguity.

In surveys and hallway conversations, practitioners are hungry for a change approach that is agile and human: a way to slow down, ask better questions, center lived experience, and adjust, test, and iterate their way forward as they learn new things. They’re looking for practical hope.

After my Keynote for the Division of Student Affairs Summer Advisor and Supervisor Symposium at Texas A&M I looked through the feedback and one response pattern stood out.

Reflecting on their takeaways from the Keynote, one participant wrote “everything is by design” and that desired outcomes require intentional planning. Another wrote that their perspective shifted because “experiences are not accidental but designed.”

The most common next step people said they were likely to take was not launching a new program, forming a committee, or writing a plan.

It was asking better questions before jumping to solutions and finding and confronting FOUL (Frustration, Overwhelm, Uncertainty, and Loneliness) they find on campus.

One wrote, “I love that there is a framework to bring people in to the process.” The action item “bring others into a shared conversation or design process” was selected by nearly half of survey responses.

When asked how they would describe the session “practical” was the most common word, followed by “inspiring, hopeful, and empowering.”

Underneath all of these insights it strikes me that learning design reminds us all the power that we have to shape experiences for others and gives us the tools and structure to bring them into the world. It’s practical hope.

It gives us action to take to navigate the uncertainty that we’re confronted with every day and the confidence that we don’t have to know the answer, we just need to ask questions, care, and stay committed to getting it right in the service of the people we’re designing for. This seemed to resonate deeply in the Aggie culture.

Importantly, people also see the value of becoming a more agile learning organization and the opportunities for driving change through the phases and outcomes of design.

It’s practical hope because it turns concern into questions, questions into insight, and insight into small tests. We feel empowered to make an impact.

It offers agency that we can carry into all parts of our lives to take action against the challenges we face.

This same insight is what guides the impact of “What’s Possible” in the process itself.

Hope aligns us, and creating ideas based on real needs centers us on the promise that our ideas can have real impact.

It builds confidence that we’re working on something that matters and will make a difference in someone’s life. It gives us purpose.

But to be impactful, the ideas that we develop need to be focused on meeting real needs. Ideas for ideas sake can be fun. We all love our ideas, but that doesn’t mean they’re helpful in solving the problem someone is experiencing.

If the solutions we’re exploring don’t ground us in the reality of real problems or barriers that someone is experiencing, we risk the “debt” of investing time, resources, and energy into something that could be invested elsewhere.

And the real work of solving actual problems creates hope that drives investment in our role in helping to shape the future that invites us into creating solutions with other people.

Along the way, that hope literally makes us healthier; the outcomes of having something to hope for are tangible and palpable.

This post was the second in a three-part series outlining the elements, outcomes, and tools of of each phase of the design process.

Read part one:

In my next post in this series I’ll share tools for coming up with new ideas based on real needs and an approach to testing that avoid “pilots” (small versions of a potentially bad idea) in favor of experimentation as part of “Let’s Test It.”

When I saw the launch of the Future Universities Alliance led by Noah Pickus at Duke University, I was immediately excited by the approach. He not only launched the compelling initiative as a response to the disruptive forces impacting higher education today, but he shared a peek behind the curtain into how they planned to harness it. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know how I feel about sharing work in progress.

As I connected with the team to learn more, I was excited to be involved, and this past week Noah and Scott announced the participating schools (see more in their post below and follow their Substack for updates on the initiative).

I’ll be serving as a facilitator and coach guiding leaders in the cohort through their innovation process and helping teams crowdsource guidance through challenges while surfacing learnings, themes, and insights on driving change.

How could you not get excited about an accelerator program for shared innovation practices across global higher education?

The cohort kicks off next month and I’ll head to Duke in the Fall to get to know the teams participating: a great mixture of friends, colleagues, and new faces!

If this resonates, share it with someone building student-centered change. Share with colleagues or leaders you trust dedicated to driving change in education.

In learning,

Thank you for being part of this community of over 1,600 curious, creative, changemakers who believe we can improve the student experience through design.

Brian LeDuc is the founder of Learning, Designed, where he serves as a design strategist partnering with learning organizations to improve the learner experience and drive change co-designed with students, educators, communities, and employers.

Want to collaborate? I’d love to help your organization drive change using design through projects, keynotes, design sprints, workshops, and coaching. Learn more.