Cantina’s Chief Innovation Officer, George White, was a keynote speaker at the Design Thinking Conference (held virtually) on September 11th. In his talk, George explored design thinking in relation to innovation practice: how they are both unique, where they overlap, and how to make them work better together to build organizations that are flexible, creative, and innovative.

Below are three takeaways from his presentation:

• Design and innovation are a perennial part of the human experience. Design is a universal exercise, and innovation is a specific practice - the process of identifying specific problems and pulling together new ideas or tools to solve those problems within a specific context.
• Innovation is about making progress. People need solutions to problems, and innovation gets them to desired outcomes; innovation is about applying the ‘new’ to solve current problems.
• An invention is built upon an existing system, it provides new ways to innovate. Invention increases the range of potential solutions while innovation uses this expanded solution space to solve specific problems.

We regularly help business leaders with critical innovation and design initiatives. If you’d like to learn more or talk with George directly about his talk or Cantina’s innovation and design expertise you can schedule a 30-minute online meeting with him. He looks forward to hearing from you.