Wikipedia: “Design thinking is a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result.”

Uh, how is this new? But even Tom Peters is jumping on the band wagon of design thinking being some hot new thing. Wassup?

On this one, I’m with Brian Ling. “Design thinking” is just thinking. It’s meant to imply the kind of multi-disciplinary thinking that great designers employ to solve the problems of both form and function with beautiful simplicity. But it’s still just thinking.

In Harvard’s Working Knowledge last June, Jim Heskett asked why managers don’t think deeply any more. If calling it “design thinking” gets people to really think again, I’m OK with it. Just as long as it doesn’t turn into another short-lived fad.

…who would vote for whom, and why? Gallup’s World Poll, which tracks the views of 95% of the world’s population on a variety of economic and social behaviors, has posted its findings on who the rest of the world would prefer as the next U.S. President. Interestingly, Barak Obama and undecided led John McCain in virtually every country.

Perhaps even more interestingly, as highlighted by Garr Reynolds in one of my favorite blogs, Presentation Zen, how strongly many countries feel appears to be pretty closely correlated to how much they believe the election will affect them.

Some have argued on Reynolds’ blog that the U.S. should lead, that we shouldn’t care what other countries think, or that those in other countries won’t have our best interests at heart. I think this view reflects a lack of understanding of what leadership is about. And in an era when world opinion of the U.S., and its actual influence, are at historic lows, having a leader the rest of the world views favorably (or even just neutrally) can’t hurt.