UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG CASE STUDY
Situation
The Master of Business Administration (MBA) offered by The University of Wollongong is designed for experienced professionals with ambition and drive who wish to develop their responsible and sustainable leadership skills.
Design Thinking and Business Transformation is one of the business units offered as part of the MBA program. Subject designer, Dr Belinda Gibbons invited Holly Gibbons, founder of Coherent Being, to guest lecture at the commencement of the subject on the role and importance of mindfulness as it relates to the Design Thinking Process. Holly has now guest lectured in this capacity several times as a result of the successful feedback from the sessions.
Elements
Design Thinking is a human centred approach to innovation used in business to generate new ideas and solve problems. The importance of mindfulness is crucial to design thinking. The need to listen, observe and see things fresh, is crucial in understanding the end users experience and their desires both conscious and subconscious.
Students are experienced professionals from a range of backgrounds including Engineering, Financial, Technology and wider corporate services. Students attracted to this program come from all over the world.
Objectives
Help students understand what practical mindfulness is as it relates to key aspects of Design Thinking
Provide students with a practical experience of mindfulness
Results
Dr Belinda Gibbons, Subject Coordinator:
“We live in a world where we need to rethink everything we do and the way we do it. But thinking differently is extremely difficult – learning to think differently is even harder. My students cannot start to learn design thinking concepts, tools and techniques without understanding how the mind works.
I ask Holly to come into the very first class each session because she is an expert in Mindfulness and they respect her qualifications, experience and the way she relates this topic to their corporate world.
By the end of the class, they are so excited by the conversation and they continually mention Holly and her words beyond the first class. The change this subject makes to students lives and their work practices would not be possible with Holly’s introduction”.
Holly’s quote ‘creating a space between us and our thoughts, enables us to entertain the possibility of new thoughts, to entertain the possibility of another’s thoughts and perceptions’ is a class favourite.”
Changed practices for students have included:
adoption of a pre-bedtime gratitude practice and set mindfulness time
the use of a small diary to write in before bed and
set calendar entries in the phone for quiet driving time and reflection periods, awareness of thoughts and judgements.
Feedback - University of Wollongong
“Holly is an expert in Mindfulness and the students respect her qualifications, experience and the way she relates this topic to their corporate world.”
Dr Belinda Gibbons, MBA Program Design Thinking Subject Coordinator