Embedding Design Thinking in a culture of innovation at community colleges A Comparative Case Study.

Design thinking is a strategy for innovation popularized in the business press and more recently investigated in academic research and literature. Some research points to design thinking as an enabler of an organizational culture of innovation. Much research demonstrates a link between a culture of innovation and successful business outcomes in every sector and establishes values for a culture of innovation. Community colleges, by virtue of their identity as an innovation to the educational system, assume responsibility for educating the diverse American public. They are now tasked with maintaining accessibility and financial stability, while providing educational opportunities t hat meet the needs of this public. While daunting, these goals ca n be accomplished when community colleges employ innovative strategies in their organizational processes, teaching, and student engagement. This comparative case study explores how design thinking is embedded in a culture of innovation at two community colleges. The study contributes to previous research in several key areas. First, it confirms a link between transformational leadership and a culture of innovation, as well as establishing that link specifically for design thinking. Second, it identifies values for design thinking at community colleges that are not related to values for innovation in general, i.e., focus on data and inquiry, student success, and inclusion. Third, it demonstrates that transformational leadership and innovative institutional identity must be sufficiently strong t o mitigate the negative effects of bureaucracy on innovation and design thinking, fourth, it identifies the importance of symbols and metaphor as descriptive communication that furthers the implementation of design thinking. Fifth, the study finds that when the culture is innovative, and leaderships is transformational, there are fewer problems with implementation of design thinking . Finally, the study proposes a model demonstrating how design thinking practice encourages further innovation and organizational success.