Demonstrating the Application of Design Thinking Methodology in MBA Fieldwork Consulting

Tara Peters, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Northwood University

DeVos Graduate School of Management

@ACBSPAccredited #ACBSP2016

Overview

•Understand empirical rationale for fieldwork

•Explore Design Thinking Methodology (DTM)

•Review application of DTM to MBA fieldwork consulting projects

Why Fieldwork?

Fieldwork is an empirically-based pedagogy business school faculty can incorporate into their courses to facilitate student development of competencies that will enable our graduates to meet the evolving needs of business.

@ACBSPAccredited #ACBSP2016

Why Fieldwork?

One of the ways in which scholars theorize is by conducting rigorous,high-quality fieldwork. Collecting original data in real organizationsmakes fieldwork different not only from desk research in general butalso from working with computer simulations, laboratory experiments,and secondary databases. Fieldwork is challenging and rewardingbecause it occurs outside controlled settings; employs a moreidiographic, open-ended research mode (McCall, 2006); and has noprespecified algorithms for producing it (Gephart, 2004)—it is “ajourney that may involve almost as many steps backward asforward” (Edmondson & McManus, 2007: 1173)

(As cited in Michailova, S, Piekkari, R, Plakoyiannaki, E. Ritvala, T., Mihailova, I., & Salmi, A., 2014).

@ACBSPAccredited #ACBSP2016

Why Fieldwork?

In Rethinking the MBA, authors argue business schools “will need to continue to experiment with, and commit more broadly to new pedagogies. Many of these new techniques involve hands-on exercises and experiential learning.”

(Datar, S.M, Gavin, D.A. & Cullen, P.G. 2010, p. 9).

IDEO: The Deep Dive

IDEO Video

@ACBSPAccredited #ACBSP2016

@ACBSPAccredited #ACBSP2016

@ACBSPAccredited #ACBSP2016

Design Thinking

@ACBSPAccredited #ACBSP2016

“Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.”

—Tim Brown, CEO & president

3 Guiding Principles

•Inspiration

•Ideation

•Implementation

Design Thinking Process

@ACBSPAccredited #ACBSP2016

Fieldwork Project Overview

Organization: Blue Haze Elementary Parent Teacher Association (PTA)

How/Why Chosen: The PTA needed a non-cost professional group to help

evaluate and resolve its issue/problem, and we needed a design challenge fieldwork project for a grade.

Issue/Problem: Blue Haze Elementary tardy students percentages increased

significantly after district busing was eliminated and parents were forced to drop-off and pick-up students. The administration asked the PTA to recommend a strategy to reduce or eliminate excessive tardiness.

Empathy

How does the problem impact the end-user?

Reduced federal and state funding support.

Class interruptions.

Administrative burden.

Define

Who is the end-user and why were they chosen?

Blue Hayes Elementary Administration

o Students

o Parents

o Teachers

o Support staff

o Administrators

Ideate

What were some of the options considered?

Private busing, car pooling, tougher consequences for excessive tardiness.

Surveys to parents, teachers, support staff and administrators.

Ideate

Actions performed. Sent out surveys.

Survey findings revealed a strong correlation between tardiness and increased traffic congestion at the school.

Observed current traffic flow conditions over multiple periods.

Rejected private busing, car pooling, and tougher consequences for excessive tardiness after determining that traffic flow observations support survey findings.

Shared survey findings, observation results, and solution/recommendation (prototype) with the PTA.

Pre-Prototype

Prototype

Test

• Performed a limited prototype test using the South Work Centers only (Kindergarten—KG and First Grade—FG ).

• PTA reported no tardy KG or FGs during the one week test period compared to 20 KGs and 16 FGs the week prior.

• Expanded the prototype to the entire school and tardy results were the following:

Test Results

Current Month

Kindergarten: 2

First Grade: 4

Second Grade: 3

Third Grade: 0

Fourth Grade: 2

Prior Month

Kindergarten 67

First Grade 48

Second Grade 84

Third Grade: 61

Fourth Grade: 39

Benchmarking

Northwood University – MBA Fieldwork Consulting

Harvard Business School – FIELD Method

Rutgers Business School – Team Consulting

University of California Riverside – Fieldwork in Management

Tuck School of Business – Global Consulting Project

Q&A

Contact Information

Tara Peters, Ph.D.

Phone:

469.272.5663

Email:

peterst1@northwood.edu

Address:

1114 Northwood University

Cedar Hill, TX 75104