My colleagues and I realized recently that although designers are (obviously) a primary source of the design thinking at the heart of business design, the proposition that only designers possess the thinking skills required is a little arrogant and even a little separatist. In fact, the most interesting writing on the subject thus far has come from the academic community.

Edward de Bono has argued that our present situation — relying on judgment thinking — began as a matter of ignorance…

Most people, in business and elsewhere, have done very well on judgment thinking. Such people are rarely aware of the need for ‘design thinking’. They find it difficult to conceive that there is a whole other aspect of thinking that is different from judgment thinking. It is not that such people are complacent. It is simply that they do not know that there is another aspect to thinking.

As design thinking enters the business world, I’ll be interested to see the proportion of designers to managers involved.