Design Thinking exercise on "Reducing Corona Virus Impact on Humans"

The other day I was conducting another exciting Design Thinking exercise in the PGDM class. Even though the class strength was small, we could get a great participation from the students and come up with interesting suggestions on Reducing Corona virus Impact on Humans in a class exercise conducted in the PGDM semester 3 class in Alliance University, Bangalore, India. 

Click here for my earlier blog writing on Effective Brainstorming exercise as proposed by Dr. Roger Sperry of Caltech ..

Click here for an earlier Design Thinking exercise at Alliance University on Improving Retail sales during Covid Times. 

Click here for another Design Thinking exercise at Alliance University Bangalore on handling the crippling drinking water crisis in Bangalore..

The different stages of Design Thinking are Empathising, Defining the Objective, Ideation, Prototyping and Testing. 

The Empathising stage involved asking the participants to introduce themselves by narrating an unfortunate and unforgettable experience in their lives. After the self- introduction, the participants were asked to clearly Define the Objective of the Design Thinking exercise. This was to ensure that all the participants were on the same note and were thinking in the same direction for a solution. 

The next step involved Ideation. This step involves conducting the brainstorming exercise as narrated by Dr. Roger Sperry of California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The human brain is divided into two hemispheres, left and right. The left hemisphere is more rational while the right hemisphere is more creative. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the human body while the right side of brain controls the left part of the body.  (click here for my earlier post on the Brain storming exercise). 

Click here for a Brainstorming exercise on reducing the Traffic Congestion at Silk Board junction in Bangalore.

Topic of Design Thinking exercise : Reducing Corona Virus Impact on Humans

The suggestions that came from the students side is being highlighted here.

1. Regularly doing yoga / exercising

2. Practicing personal hygiene

3. Eating balanced and proper protein and vitamin rich food. 

4. Enable online payment where cash transaction is involed

5. Ensure mask on face

6. Maintain social distancing

7. Purchase in bulk from store 

8. Regular health checkup

9.  Avoid gathering of more than 5-7 people

10. Keeping health accessories like Oximeter at home

11. Avoid close contact (repeats with suggestion 6, an overlook)

12. Avoid shopping in malls which have high customer density

13. Avoid going to restaurants and hotels

14. Avoid touching body parts like mouth, nose etc.

15. Going to for long walks wearing masks more frequently

16. Getting enough exposure to sunlight for Vitamin D

17. Avoid shaking hands and physical contact with others

18. Wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at all times

19. Scheduling the day for proper mental health by assigning times for reading, exercising, sleeping, meditation etc.

20. Wash vegetables/fruits with warm water before consumption

21. Washing clothes after coming from outside / keeping slippers outside

After proper rational discussion among the Brainstorming team members, five suggestion have been arrived at (given in red colour) which would be recommended to the Bangalore Corporation authorities, to enable them take a proper assessment of  the results from the Ideation session of the Design Thinking Exercise.

Repeating the 5 suggestions for correct understanding

1. Regularly doing yoga / exercising

2. Eating balanced and proper protein vitamin rich food

3. Ensure mask on face

4. Avoid gathering of more than 5-7 people

5.  Scheduling the day for proper mental health by assigning times for reading, exercising, sleeping, meditation etc.

After repeated heated discussion among the members of the brain storming session, the top 3 ones (highlighted in green) have been arri

ved at which would be recommended to the Bangalore Corporation authorities for following up.

The team members will also be made available whenever the Corporation so demands to explain the concept better to the decision making Corporation officials.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the 79 years old Director US Centre for Infectious Diseases had the other day come up with 3 simple tips (click here for an analysis of Dr. Fauci's speech) on how to keep Covid away from humans. His recommendations are mostly matching the results of this Design Thinking Exercise too. 

 We do hope that these recommendation will be taken seriously not only by the public health authorities in Bangalore, but also by authorities in Delhi and in different parts of the world.

Click here for the original pdf of Design Thinking article in HBR 2008 which kickstarted the present Design Thinking craze, Tim Brown, Ideo. ..

Another one of HBR's original article on Design Thinking by Prof. Jeanne Liedtka, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, HBR Sept 2018, Why Design Thinking (click here)

George..