The real risk isn't in experimentation,

it's in maintaining the status quo.

This book chapter includes a case study of DSIL's work in the field. Working on polio eradication in Pakistan in 2019 feels like a lifetime ago. However the lessons learned when we embrace complexity, let go of the many canvasses, assets, templates, blueprints and visualisations holds true. Designers can be so married to user-focused tools and methods they forget they are designing within a public health system, among layers and layers of Social Determinants of Health. What does a world free from polio look like? And how might we get there? The answer is in the dialogue, not the design sprint.

Our work in building transformative experiences has intersected in many ways over the years from the DSIL Course to many more projects from there. This time DSIL Global & SecondMuse kicked up a collaboration on a project where we could practice our commitment to include as many voices as possible. Interwoven in this provocative guide is our story of working together across sectors and geographies and the lessons we’ve learned along the way in humanizing all spaces, virtual included.

The Status Quo is harming everyone in this room. From the ways that we work to the ways we are being with one another." This inspiring keynote invited our CEO Katy into the bravery she asks of the world. It will touch on the messiness that most systems, communities, and individuals in the world choose to ignore most of the time: trauma, celebration, silence, grief, non-linearity, and the other things you can feel in the very spaces you work in that are brushed by when leaders choose. If WE are ignoring our humanness on a collective level – what are we building in the world of design?

DSIL Team member Kyla spoke her latest thoughts on Innovation Leadership! Listen in to the quick 17-minute chat with host Steve MacLaughlin about how the working environment has changed for leaders, what liberating structures mean and why it’s important, and how to take more risks to achieve innovation. You also dip into ideas surrounding engagement in established vs new organizations and how the fear of failure holds us all back.

This is our beginning. DSIL Co-founder, Courtney Lawrence writes about the rise of complex challenges we have never faced before and how we have new tools to not only transform those challenges but be happier along the way. This was the reason for the DSIL Company to be built and still is a part of why we do what we do.

DSIL Team member Ben Preston comes alive when conversations around regeneration are in the room. Regen, as it relates to design, innovation, and storytelling all, is vital to what's alive in the world of innovation. He asks us to remember that our systems, cultures, projects, our teams are living beings that will continue to grow each day. When we approach life and work with that in mind our ability to build life-giving projects and results is a sure thing.