Design Thinking for School Leaders

<p>Design is the rendering of intent. What if education leaders approached their work with the perspective of a designer? This new perspective of seeing the world differently is desperately needed in schools and begins with school leadership.</p> Alyssa Gallagher and Kami Thordarson widely recognized experts on Design Thinking educational leadership and innovative strategies call this new perspective design-inspired leadership--one of the most powerful ways to ignite positive change and address education challenges using the same design and innovation principles that have been so successful in private industry.</p> <i>Design Thinking for School Leaders</i> explores the changing landscape of leadership and offers practical ways to reframe the role of school leader using Design Thinking one step at a time. Leaders can shift from accidental designers to design-inspired leaders acting with greater intention and achieving greater impact. You'll learn how viewing the world through a more empathetic lens--a critical first step on the path to becoming a design-inspired leader--can raise your awareness of the uniqueness of your teachers and students and prompt you to question the ways in which they experience your school. </p> Gallagher and Thordarson detail five specific roles to help you identify opportunities for positively impacting students teachers districts parents and the community: </p> <ul><li>Opportunity Seeker. Shifts from problem solving to problem finding. <li>Experience Architect. Designs and curates learning experiences. <li>Rule Breaker. Challenges the way things are always done. <li>Producer. Gets things done and creates rapid learning cycles for teams. <li>Storyteller. Captures the hearts and minds of a community.</ul> <p>Full of examples of Design Thinking in action in schools across the country <i>Design Thinking for School Leaders</i> can help you guide your school to the forefront of the new design + education movement one that will move traditional education into the modern world and drive the future of learning.</p>