Innovation Type: Internal Operations, Culture Building | A use case for design thinking when tackling complicated challenges

Keywords

Design Thinking
APAC
Crisis Management

Date of Publication

01/09/2022

Problem

In 2021, a military coup and the ongoing global pandemic created a difficult operating environment for civil society organizations in Myanmar. The WWF Myanmar saw the need to develop innovative solutions to reach their conservation goals and turned to the A-Team for Innovation for support

The difficult political environment challenged the very core of WWF Myanmar’s conservation work: Much of it relies on working with communities across the country. However, accessing them was becoming increasingly challenging. Teams were not able to travel to the field anymore, while internet and phone lines were suddenly restricted. Humanitarian needs increased, so the office asked itself how livelihoods could also be adequately supported through their conservation work. To address these obstacles, the team felt that they needed to use an innovation process to come up with new ways of working and dealing with this incredibly difficult, changing context.

Solution

After consulting the A-Team, a design thinking process was agreed upon. WWF Myanmar further realized that it also wanted to build its capacity in design thinking more generally. A Design Thinking Facilitation Team from South Africa, Bulgaria, and India came together to support WWF Myanmar throughout a full design thinking process that was carried out in August and September 2021. The idea for the workshops was to learn and build knowledge in design thinking, but also come up with two practical solutions linked to WWF Myanmar’s 6-month emergency strategy plan. Overall, 18 participants came together in 4 dedicated workshops.

Results & Outcome

Tackling new challenges with design thinking empowered staff and instilled hope in a tough time. The process gave participants the space and time to come together and reflect on the current situation, while also thinking about solutions in a way they would not have been able to accommodate during their day-to-day work. Collaboration was at the heart of the process: The workshops brought together people from different teams at WWF Myanmar, ranging from operations, and junior staff, to directors. This had not been done before. Throughout, the team learned the methods and tools to address future challenges, but also came up with solutions to their current problems. In the end, the team developed two prototypes. They were presented to the WWF Myanmar Innovation Sounding Board and funded for further testing.

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